16th March 2021
As I said yesterday, most communications from Myanmar are closing down.
There are no mobile networks operational and the internet is down. The obvious question is why? Linking this to the convoy of troops crossing the bridge into Hlaing Thar Yar and the increased number of troops going to Okkalapa and Dagon something deeply unpleasant is about to happen under cover of darkness and communication outages.
Hlaing Thar Yar, Okkalapa and Dagon are all Industrial zones and poorer residential areas. The military strategy seems to be to subdue them through inflicting maximum terror and fear on the residents and workers. The thinking is that they will give in before the younger students and middle-class workers who are protesting around Hledan and downtown Yangon.
Unfortunately for the Regime, there appears to be solidarity between the poor and the people with money. They are united in their hatred of the Military. This will not end happily.
The residents (soon to be refugees?) are pictured below fleeing Hlaing Thar Yar.
The campaign of terror is now taking a different form. Whilst the physical violence continues, the Military are going after the white collar workers and the middle classes.
Myanmar’s military governing body, the State Administrative Council (SAC), has threatened anti-regime protesters with the death penalty in townships under martial law.
The SAC initially declared martial law in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyithar townships in Yangon on Sunday following its violent crackdown, the deadliest day since the Feb. 1 coup. Martial law was imposed on South Dagon, North Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa townships in Yangon and parts of Mandalay on Monday.
The announcement on state broadcaster MRTV late on Sunday said Yangon’s regional commander has been entrusted with administrative, judicial and military powers in the city.
Those who commit one of 23 “offenses” in those townships will be tried in military courts and face penalties ranging from death, indefinite jail terms with labor and the maximum possible punishments under existing legislation, according to the orders signed by the SAC secretary, Lieutenant-General Aung Lin Dwe.
The offenses include high treason, sedition, obstructing military personnel and civil servants performing their duties, instigation, incitement, spreading “false” news, possession of weapons, ties to unlawful associations, homicide, rape, robbery, corruption, drug abuse and vandalism.
Other offenses concern violations of the Immigration Act, Media Law, Printing and Publishing Act, Ward or Village-Tract Administration Law, Electronic Transactions Law and Counterterrorism Law.
Those sentenced to death and harsh penalties can only appeal to the SAC chairman and Yangon regional commander, the announcement said.
Source the Irrawaddy 16th March 2021
I just hope that reports of actions under this law manage to filter out to the international community.
Regular readers of these pieces will have read my comments and forecasts about the actions of the Ethnic Armed Organisations (EAOs) and how if they were provoked and acted together then the Military could be faced with a problem that everyone thought was diminishing.
Over 200 villagers in Injangyang Township in Kachin State were forced from their homes due to clashes between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and Myanmar’s military.
“I heard gunshots when I phoned the township yesterday,” said Ja Seng Hkawng, the deposed parliamentarian for Injangyang. Over 200 people from some 50 households in two villages in Injangyang have fled their homes, she said.
Gunshots were first heard on Monday evening in Injangyang, according to residents. The KIA Brigade 1 and the military’s Northern Command are active in the area.
The Malikha River, a tributary for the Ayeyarwady, separates Injangyang and Myitkyina, the Kachin capital.
“Around 109 villagers have fled to the church. They will return to the Pa La Na displacement camp [in Myitkyina]. But they are still stranded at a [military] checkpoint in Tang Hpare as the authorities have not yet given approval for them to pass through,” said Stephen Sut Awng, a priest at a Catholic church in Tang Hpare village in Myitkyina Township.
KIA information officer Colonel Naw Bu said: “We have not yet received information from the ground. We will not be able to confirm the reports until this evening.”
There have been fewer major clashes between the KIA and Myanmar’s military since the two sides started negotiating a ceasefire in December 2018. Tensions have eased in Kachin, despite sporadic clashes between the two sides in northern Shan State.
The KIA asked the Northern Command not to harm peaceful Kachin protesters against the military regime.
The Northern Command, in response, warned the KIA not to get involved in protests, saying it would attack the armed group if it intervenes. It also threatened to use live ammunition on protesters if they go too far.
Two male protesters were shot dead when security forces used live rounds on anti-regime protesters in Myitkyina on March 8.
The KIA raided a military outpost near the village of Sel Zin in Kachin State’s jade-mining hub, Hpakant Township, overnight on March 11, which boosted military tensions across Hpakant, Tanai and Injangyang.
Anti-regime protesters in Namti and Hopin in Mohnyin Township, Kachin State, have held posters in support of the KIA and called on deposed parliamentarians from the November election to establish a federal army.
Source the Irrawaddy 16th March 2021.
If that happens then the Military are in for a long haul. It was the last thing they wanted and could go some way to explain the increased activity in Yangon and the speed with which it is being implemented.
To regular readers, I apologise in advance if there is a break in these reports, but communications are becoming very difficult. I have tried over the last few weeks to give a balanced picture and a view of what is going on that perhaps you wouldn’t get in the MSM. I feel that Myanmar is in for a rough few days and it will be hard to get an accurate idea of what is going on. I also feel that New Zealand has missed a golden opportunity to get involved on the international stage, build bridges with the Quad and ASEAN, get Brownie points with the UN and show a little vicarious resistance to China.
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