Issue 87 February 15th 2024

Conflict

Myanmar Junta Bombs Residents Trapped by Fighting in Bago Town

Myanmar Junta Bombs Residents Trapped by Fighting in Bago Town The Irrawaddy

Escalating Clashes Between PNLA and SAC Heighten Tensions in Hsihseng Township

Fighting between the Pa-O National Liberation Army (PNLA) and the State Administration Council (SAC) has spread in Hsihseng Township, with clashes extending to Loi Putt village near Hsai Khao village, located within the Pa-O Self-administered Zone. The PNLA ambushed SAC troops on Tuesday near Hsai Khao, leading to a gunfight until the regime’s troops fled […]

The post Escalating Clashes Between PNLA and SAC Heighten Tensions in Hsihseng Township appeared first on Shan Herald Agency for News.

Arakan Army takes control of another police station in Myanmar’s west

The junta’s Police Battalion 31 was captured in Mrauk-U on Thursday, effectively giving up control of the city to the AA which had already forced the surrender of three junta battalions in the area, according to a statement from the Three Brotherhood Alliance. The Arakan Army on Friday captured a junta-manned police station in western Rakhine state’s Rathedaung township – the latest victory by the ethnic army over forces affiliated with Myanmar’s junta regime, sources told Radio Free Asia.

Operation 1027 Gives Tangible Hope for Change in Northern Burma

Operation 1027 Gives Tangible Hope for Change in Northern Burma Kachin, Northern Shan, Sagaing, Mandalay Regions, Burma 14 Febuary 2024 The regions of Kachin and northern Shan State saw a major spike in conflict activity compared with previous reporting periods, … Continued

Crime & Narcotics

Tackling Myanmar's crime corridor

Tackling Myanmar's crime corridor Bangkok Post

Ethnic Issues

Enter the Dragon, Exit the Junta: Myanmar’s Brotherhood Alliance makes Chinese New Year Vow

Ethnic armed grouping says it will continue Operation 1027 offensive until goal of ousting the junta is achieved.

Offshoot of ethnic Mon group joins fight against Myanmar’s junta regime

A splinter group from the New Mon State Party said it has concluded that political dialogue with junta officials wasn’t helping the Mon people reach its goal of establishing a federal union that would “ensure national equality and self-determination.” An offshoot of an ethnic Mon organization announced on Wednesday that it will no longer negotiate with Myanmar’s military and will join with anti-junta forces in the fight against the regime.

Foreign Affairs

Three Years After Myanmar’s Coup, China Emerges the Winner

For all the calls for peace from Beijing, Myanmar’s loss of stability is China’s gain.

General News

Myanmar's Conflict Takes Its Toll on Popular Coastal Resort Town

Myanmar's Conflict Takes Its Toll on Popular Coastal Resort Town The Diplomat

‘The Hunger Games’: How Sean Turnell Survived 650 Days in a Myanmar Prison

‘The Hunger Games’: How Sean Turnell Survived 650 Days in a Myanmar Prison Hope 103.2

Restrictions Imposed on Domestic Air Travel in Myanmar

Restrictions Imposed on Domestic Air Travel in Myanmar The Irrawaddy

First known U.S. Karen police officer promoted to sergeant

First known U.S. Karen police officer promoted to sergeant MPR News

Post-Coup Myanmar is a Family Business: Min Aung Hlaing & Co

Min Aung Hlaing is an opportunistic businessman in military uniform and his children are more mercenary than the offspring of previous dictators, people who know them say.

Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux review – George Orwell’s Burmese days vibrantly brought to life

The US writer’s fictionalised portrait of the young Eric Blair’s time with the imperial police in Burma is a keenly felt and vividly researched account of colonial bigotry and power George Orwell’s first novel, Burmese Days, published in 1934, drew substantially on the five years he served in the Indian imperial police force at various stations along the Irrawaddy a decade earlier. You suspect, however, that his alter ego in that novel, John Flory, was a good deal more seasoned than the young writer, still called Eric Blair, had been when he arrived in Mandalay in 1922. Flory was cast as a teak merchant in his mid-30s; Blair was unvarnished and 19 and just out of Eton. Similarly, Orwell’s two peerless eyewitness essays of the period – Shooting an Elephant and A Hanging – were written not in the heat of Rangoon or Mandalay but some years later, on reflection, long after the writer had returned to the family home in Suffolk. Those reports from the messy frontline of empire were shaped by hindsight and more fully rounded sympathies with ideals of independence. This novel strips back those layers of experience to give you a sense of the unformed Orwell – off into the jungle rather than to Oxford, following in the footsteps of his father (“Don’t let us down, Eric”), who had been a middling official in Britain’s opium trade. Theroux’s contention, the theme of his keenly felt and vividly researched book, is: “There’s a short period in everyone’s life when his character is fixed for ever” – and that these years represented that period in the life of Orwell the writer. Continue reading...

Military

Myanmar’s Depleted Military Takes Aim at Professors, Students to Beef Up

Professors and students at universities in Ayeyarwady Region began receiving military training this week, but one analyst says the move will backfire.

Six Key Points About Myanmar’s Newly Enforced Conscription Law

What does the legislation entail, and why is the junta implementing it for the first time since its promulgation 65 years ago?

Myanmar’s Depleted Military is Sending Retired Soldiers Back to The Frontline

In its latest effort to beef up its troop levels, the junta on Tuesday dusted off the Reserve Forces Law, allowing it to recall veterans to active duty. Those who refuse face prison.

SAC Activates Compulsory Military Service in Burma

After suffering numerous defeats in recent months, the military’s State Administration Council (SAC) has lost much of its strength and doesn’t have sufficient troops on the ground to defend its bases. On Saturday, the regime enacted compulsory military service for all adult Burmese nationals in its military reserve. The previous military junta leader Than Shwe […]

The post SAC Activates Compulsory Military Service in Burma appeared first on Shan Herald Agency for News.

Emboldened by draft law, pro-junta militias press civilians into taking up arms

Pro-junta militias in northern Myanmar’s Kachin state are grabbing anyone they can find and forcing them to take up arms against resistance fighters after the military regime announced it would begin enforcing a conscription law over the weekend, residents said. To the south, a junta recruitment drive that kicked off in Bago region’s Htantabin township on Feb. 12 has led to the conscription of nearly all of the youths in the town of Za Yat Gyi, residents told RFA on Tuesday.

Myanmar youths go into hiding to avoid getting forced into battle

Zaw Min Tun told military-controlled media on Tuesday that the national conscription law provides every citizen “the right” to receive military training to defend the country, and urged people not to be concerned because they wouldn’t immediately be sent to fight. Eligible citizens have told RFA Burmese that they would rather join the armed resistance or flee Myanmar than fight for the junta, which seized control of the country in a Feb. 1, 2021, coup d’etat.

Myanmar Junta to Enforce Military Draft

Three years after it took power in a coup, the regime appears to be on the defensive. But it remains unclear if the rebels can overthrow the military.

Myanmar’s junta declares it will enforce military service laws for young people

State media report all men aged 18-35 and women 18-27 must serve for up to two years and up to five years in a state of emergency Myanmar’s junta has declared mandatory military service for all young men and women, state media said, as it struggles to contain armed rebel forces fighting for greater autonomy in various parts of the country. All men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 must serve for up to two years, while specialists like doctors aged up to 45 must serve for three years. The service can be extended to a total of five years in the ongoing state of emergency, state media said on Saturday. Continue reading...