12th June 2021
In the last couple of days, I have mentioned the start of the scorched earth policy and the gradual development of the guerrilla action against the Junta. Well, the guerrilla action is beginning to have an effect. Unlike previous anti-government activity where the administrators, the military and their families were shielded from any adverse effects arising from the dissenters, this time they are frightened.
Daw Nilar Sein, who is the wife of the Home Affairs Minister was heard making worried comments in a leaked group call. Her husband is on the US sanctions list and also heads the Myanmar Police Force. The conversations were on Viber, which is supposedly encrypted and secure. Somehow the conversations were leaked and finished up on Mratt’s channel. If, as I suspect this is connected with Mratt Kyaw Thu, who is well known to us, then the reports are highly credible.
Undeniably, the increasingly frequent bomb and hit-and-run attacks on regime targets in Myanmar’s urban areas are scaring the family members of high-ranking officials at the military regime-controlled Home Affairs Ministry to death.
“They are really scary!” admitted the wife of Home Affairs Minister Lieutenant General Soe Htut, who heads the Myanmar Police Force and is under US sanction following the coup in February.
Daw Nilar Sein made the confession during a Viber Group call with the wives of other senior officials from the ministry. A leaked recording of the call was shared on Mratt’s Channel.
Myanmar has seen a spate of deadly bombings and shooting attacks on police stations, ward administration offices and other government facilities in response to the junta’s killing of more than 800 people during its nationwide crackdowns on protesters. A number of regime-appointed local administrators have been shot dead at close range recently. So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. In the country’s southeastern Kayah State, among other places, junta troops have been killed by civilian resistance groups who have taken up arms against the regime.
In Chin, the poorest state, there have been 165 military deaths since late April. Chin was preciously peaceful and didn’t have its own ethnic armed organisation.
In the leaked conversation, which appears to be recent, Daw Nilar Sein instructs the others on the call to pay serious attention to security, claiming to have learned that 30 resistance fighters had been dispatched to Pyinmana in Naypyitaw to bomb the residences of high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs and the military.
“Thoroughly check the stuff that comes into your houses. Be alert when you sleep at night,” she is heard saying.
The wife of the Home Affairs Minister even reminds the others “not to go out with escorts in police uniform.”
“If they see someone in uniform in your car, they [attackers] will notice and plant a bomb on the car,” she says.
She also warns that the children of senior officials should not dine out at night, saying they are vulnerable to anti-regime informants at restaurants.
“They are quite scary. The danger is not apparent,” she reminds the other callers.
Daw Nilar Sein instructs the others in her group to “report” to Facebook the account of a minister in the parallel National Unity Government (NUG), and that of a Facebook influencer.
The first victim turned out to be Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, who is the NUG’s acting minister overseeing three portfolios: Labor, Immigration and Population; Education; and Health and Sports.
In the call, she accuses the orthopaedic surgeon-turned-minister of orchestrating the killings of security forces and raids on police stations.
“His icy voice really scares me,” Daw Nilar Sein says.
She urges the others to report Dr. Zaw Wai Soe’s account hourly every day until it is banned, because “Everyone seems to take what he said seriously.”
Her other target was Pencilo, a popular Facebook influencer and energetic anti-regime activist who wages daily online psychological warfare against the junta and their family members, frequently warning them that their days are numbered.
“Our police officers were killed because of these two [Dr. Zaw Wai Soe and Pencilo],” says Daw Nilar Sein. “They launch their destructive activities in cahoots.”
“Do report them starting from tonight. If you don’t know how, ask your children!” she orders her listeners.
So far, the Facebook accounts of both Dr. Zaw Wai Soe and Pencilo remain active, with more than 400,000 and 2.8 million followers respectively.
In response to Daw Nilar Sein, Pencilo posted on Saturday morning that blocking her account or that of Dr. Zaw Wai Soe would not stop the revolution against the regime.
“It will only stop when you all take a dirt nap! Get it?”
Source the Irrawaddy 12th June 2021.
If someone in this position of power is worried, then matters must be more serious for them than they are admitting. The dissenters are developing a strategy of undermining the security of the Junta’s families and their supporters and starting to apply psychological pressure. This is new to the Junta’s circle and they don’t like it.
The impact is being felt in the lower ranks as well, and many are suppressing feelings of discontent.
Striking Myanmar military officers have urged the public to welcome and protect military personnel who join the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) as well as their families.
Taking part in an online discussion organized by the civil society organization Thanakha Global Alliance on Friday, striking military officers said at least 800 military personnel ranging in rank from private to major and aged between 20 and 35 have joined the CDM.
Daw Miemie Winn Byrd, a retired US Army lieutenant colonel, Naw May Oo, a tactical adviser to Karen State-based ethnic armed group the Karen National Union, and former Myanmar military captains Nyi Thuta and Lin Htet Aung took part in the discussion.
Nyi Thuta accused the military leadership of sowing discord between the people and rank-and-file members of the military. He asked members of the public not to hate all military personnel, but to focus on fighting the dictatorship.
Of the Myanmar military’s some 400,000 troops, only around 20 percent are committing violence against the people, the former captain claimed.
That’s still 80,000!!
Full-scale fighting between the entire military and the people as a whole would end up in massive bloodshed, he said.
“Under this system, the rank-and-file members of the military and their families are suffering as much as the people. We will be able to achieve victory with minimal losses if military personnel side with the people. So, the channels should be kept open to allow military personnel to join hands with the public,” he said.
His fellow former captain Lin Htet Aung said many military personnel oppose the coup, but dare not speak out because doing so risks not only their lives but also the lives of their families.
“They could be imprisoned for long terms if they publicly oppose the coup. Their lives would be at risk. Some officials who implied they stood by the people have been detained,” he said.
The CDM was made possible by the support of the people, and many more military personnel are expected to leave their barracks if people continue to support those wishing to join the CDM, he said.
Source the Irrawaddy 12th June 2021.
Meanwhile, news has just come in of an explosion by Shwedagon Pagoda in Yangon, the most revered place of worship in the country. The police are now carrying out search operations.
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