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Myanmar coup: Aung San Suu Kyi detained as military seizes control
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EU prepares sanctions on Myanmar military
The European Union prepared to impose sanctions on 11 people linked to last month's military coup in Myanmar on Monday as the number of killings of pro-democracy demonstrators by security forces reached what Germany's foreign minister called "an unbearable extent".
At least 250 people have been killed so far in the crackdown on the protests, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
Three people were killed in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay in renewed unrest on Monday, including a 15-year-old boy, witnesses and news reports said.
"The number of murders has reached an unbearable extent, which is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting with his EU counterparts.
The sanctions will be the EU's most significant response to the events in Myanmar so far. The names of the 11 people involved in the coup and repression of demonstrators will be made public after the meeting.
According to diplomats and documents seen by Reuters last week, the EU is also planning to target companies "generating revenue for, or providing financial support to, the Myanmar Armed Forces".
"We don't intend to punish the people of Myanmar but those who blatantly violate human rights," Maas said.
The military is heavily involved in business. Its conglomerates include Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) which are spread throughout the economy from mining and manufacturing to food and beverages to hotels, telecoms and banking.
The new sanctions are expected to bar EU investors and banks from doing business with them. They follow a U.S. decision last month to target the military and its business interests.
Britain, the former colonial power, last month froze the assets and placed travel bans on three Myanmar generals over the military coup.
Myanmar has been locked in crisis since the elected government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military on Feb 1.
The junta says a Nov. 8 election won by Suu Kyi's party was fraudulent, an accusation rejected by the electoral commission. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date.
Suu Kyi and other figures in her National League for Democracy being held in detention while an array of accusations, have been levelled at her, including bribery. Her lawyer says the charges are trumped up.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...-protests-after-weekend-bloodshed-2021-03-22/
The European Union prepared to impose sanctions on 11 people linked to last month's military coup in Myanmar on Monday as the number of killings of pro-democracy demonstrators by security forces reached what Germany's foreign minister called "an unbearable extent".
At least 250 people have been killed so far in the crackdown on the protests, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
Three people were killed in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay in renewed unrest on Monday, including a 15-year-old boy, witnesses and news reports said.
"The number of murders has reached an unbearable extent, which is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting with his EU counterparts.
The sanctions will be the EU's most significant response to the events in Myanmar so far. The names of the 11 people involved in the coup and repression of demonstrators will be made public after the meeting.
According to diplomats and documents seen by Reuters last week, the EU is also planning to target companies "generating revenue for, or providing financial support to, the Myanmar Armed Forces".
"We don't intend to punish the people of Myanmar but those who blatantly violate human rights," Maas said.
The military is heavily involved in business. Its conglomerates include Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) which are spread throughout the economy from mining and manufacturing to food and beverages to hotels, telecoms and banking.
The new sanctions are expected to bar EU investors and banks from doing business with them. They follow a U.S. decision last month to target the military and its business interests.
Britain, the former colonial power, last month froze the assets and placed travel bans on three Myanmar generals over the military coup.
Myanmar has been locked in crisis since the elected government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military on Feb 1.
The junta says a Nov. 8 election won by Suu Kyi's party was fraudulent, an accusation rejected by the electoral commission. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date.
Suu Kyi and other figures in her National League for Democracy being held in detention while an array of accusations, have been levelled at her, including bribery. Her lawyer says the charges are trumped up.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-...-protests-after-weekend-bloodshed-2021-03-22/
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Some 34 more people have been killed in Myanmar, taking the civilian death toll in the security forces’ crackdown on anti-coup protests to 320, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which is tracking deaths and arrests, said in its latest update on Thursday.
The AAPP said it had documented additional deaths across Myanmar including Yangon, its biggest city and ethnic minority areas in the country’s borderlands.
In Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, the organisation said a 16 year old died after being shot in the back and some ambulances were also fired on.
The AAPP said the actual number of those killed was likely to be much higher.
“Crimes against humanity are committed daily,” it said. It was not possible to verify the incidents individually.
The military crackdown has drawn outrage and prompted some sanctions from Western countries, including the United States, which on Thursday condemned the generals for their violence after a 7-year-old girl was killed this week, the youngest victim of the crackdown.
“These abhorrent and brutal acts against children, one as young as seven years old who was shot and killed in her home while sitting on her father’s lap, further demonstrate the horrific nature of the Burmese military regime’s assault on its own people and its complete disregard for the lives of the people of Burma,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Condemning the security forces’ actions “in the strongest terms”, Price said: “The regime cannot govern through terror.”
The military denies using excessive force and says that its actions have met international norms in the face of a situation it says is a threat to national security.
On Tuesday, a military spokesman said 164 protesters and nine members of the security forces had been killed.
The AAPP data shows at least 25 percent of those who were killed died from shots to the head. Full data is not available for every death.
Nearly 90 percent of the dead were male and about a third aged 24 or under.
Save the Children says at least 20 children have been killed in the protests, which show little sign of abating despite the increasing use of tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live rounds.
On Friday, a fire broke out at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Myanmar’s elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested by the generals on February 1 as they moved to seize power.
An attacker hurled a Molotov cocktail at its Yangon headquarters, causing a brief fire, in the early hours of the morning, according to a party official.
“When the residents nearby knew about the fire, they called the fire service department to put it out … it was under control by around 5am (22:30 GMT),” Soe Win, an NLD member in charge of the headquarters, told the AFP news agency.
“It seems that someone lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it at the headquarters.”
The incident comes on the eve of Armed Forces Day, when the military will put on a show of strength with its annual parade.
Fears have been swirling that it could become a flashpoint for an escalation in violence.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
The AAPP said it had documented additional deaths across Myanmar including Yangon, its biggest city and ethnic minority areas in the country’s borderlands.
In Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, the organisation said a 16 year old died after being shot in the back and some ambulances were also fired on.
The AAPP said the actual number of those killed was likely to be much higher.
“Crimes against humanity are committed daily,” it said. It was not possible to verify the incidents individually.
The military crackdown has drawn outrage and prompted some sanctions from Western countries, including the United States, which on Thursday condemned the generals for their violence after a 7-year-old girl was killed this week, the youngest victim of the crackdown.
“These abhorrent and brutal acts against children, one as young as seven years old who was shot and killed in her home while sitting on her father’s lap, further demonstrate the horrific nature of the Burmese military regime’s assault on its own people and its complete disregard for the lives of the people of Burma,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement.
Condemning the security forces’ actions “in the strongest terms”, Price said: “The regime cannot govern through terror.”
The military denies using excessive force and says that its actions have met international norms in the face of a situation it says is a threat to national security.
On Tuesday, a military spokesman said 164 protesters and nine members of the security forces had been killed.
The AAPP data shows at least 25 percent of those who were killed died from shots to the head. Full data is not available for every death.
Nearly 90 percent of the dead were male and about a third aged 24 or under.
Save the Children says at least 20 children have been killed in the protests, which show little sign of abating despite the increasing use of tear gas, rubber-coated bullets and live rounds.
On Friday, a fire broke out at the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Myanmar’s elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was arrested by the generals on February 1 as they moved to seize power.
An attacker hurled a Molotov cocktail at its Yangon headquarters, causing a brief fire, in the early hours of the morning, according to a party official.
“When the residents nearby knew about the fire, they called the fire service department to put it out … it was under control by around 5am (22:30 GMT),” Soe Win, an NLD member in charge of the headquarters, told the AFP news agency.
“It seems that someone lit a Molotov cocktail and threw it at the headquarters.”
The incident comes on the eve of Armed Forces Day, when the military will put on a show of strength with its annual parade.
Fears have been swirling that it could become a flashpoint for an escalation in violence.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES
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At least 50 people have been killed across Myanmar after security forces opened fire on protesters, according to local media reports.
The deadly tally is said to include 13 in the country's second-biggest city, Mandalay, nine in the nearby region of Sagaing and seven in the commercial capital Yangon.
The shootings came as a rebel leader told Sky News that Myanmar's armed ethnic groups will not stand by and do nothing if the military continued to kill demonstrators.
People had taken to the streets again to protest against the 1 February coup, in defiance of a warning that they could be shot "in the head and back", as the junta celebrated Armed Forces Day.
Dr Sasa, the disbanded democratic parliament's special envoy to the UN, said: "Today is a day of shame for the armed forces."
After leading a military parade in the capital Naypyitaw, the junta's leader General Min Aung Hlaing repeated that his regime would hold "a free and fair election" and hand over power afterwards, but gave no timetable.
In a live broadcast on state TV, he said: "The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy.
"Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate."
The number of people killed in the unrest since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government now stands at around 380.
https://news.sky.com/story/myanmar-...shot-dead-by-security-forces-reports-12258013
The deadly tally is said to include 13 in the country's second-biggest city, Mandalay, nine in the nearby region of Sagaing and seven in the commercial capital Yangon.
The shootings came as a rebel leader told Sky News that Myanmar's armed ethnic groups will not stand by and do nothing if the military continued to kill demonstrators.
People had taken to the streets again to protest against the 1 February coup, in defiance of a warning that they could be shot "in the head and back", as the junta celebrated Armed Forces Day.
Dr Sasa, the disbanded democratic parliament's special envoy to the UN, said: "Today is a day of shame for the armed forces."
After leading a military parade in the capital Naypyitaw, the junta's leader General Min Aung Hlaing repeated that his regime would hold "a free and fair election" and hand over power afterwards, but gave no timetable.
In a live broadcast on state TV, he said: "The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy.
"Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate."
The number of people killed in the unrest since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government now stands at around 380.
https://news.sky.com/story/myanmar-...shot-dead-by-security-forces-reports-12258013
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The reported killing of at least 114 unarmed civilians - including a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl - by Myanmar's security forces in the single deadliest day since the military coup has drawn strong condemnation from around the world.
The shootings came as people took to the streets again on Saturday to protest against the military takeover, in defiance of a warning that they could be shot "in the head and back", as the junta celebrated Armed Forces Day.
Demonstrators had referred to the public holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, to mark the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in the Second World War.
This year's event was seen as a flashpoint, with protesters threatening to bolster their public opposition to the coup with more and bigger demonstrations.
Saturday brought some of the worst violence since the coup on 1 February, with fighting between the army and the ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country.
Military jets killed at least three people in a raid on a village controlled by an armed group from the Karen minority, a civil society group said.
It came after the Karen National Union faction had earlier said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people.
Villagers shelter in the open due to airstrikes in Deh Bu Noh in Karen state. Pic: Free Burma Rangers via AP
The airstrikes sent villagers fleeing into the jungle.
In response to the latest killings, UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said it was time for the world to take action - if not through the UN Security Council then through an international emergency summit.
"Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them," Mr Andrews said in a statement.
"The people of Myanmar need the world's support. Words are not enough. It is past time for robust, coordinated action."
US ambassador to Myanmar Thomas Vajda wrote on social media: "On Myanmar's Armed Forced Day, security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect.
"This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force."
The EU delegation to Myanmar said the killings would "forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour", while Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the violence marked "a new low".
Dr Sasa, the disbanded democratic parliament's special envoy to the UN, said: "Today is a day of shame for the armed forces. The military must stop killing its own people."
Calling on the international community to "act quickly before it's too late" and bring in coordinated, targeted sanctions, he told Sky News that the military must release democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and come to the negotiating table.
Without action, he said, Myanmar would see the "greatest civil war that we've never seen before".
In a draft statement, top military officers from 12 countries have also condemned the deadly use of force by Myanmar's military and say the country's military has lost credibility with its people.
The shootings came as a rebel leader told Sky News that Myanmar's armed ethnic groups will not stand by and do nothing if the military continued to kill demonstrators.
After leading a military parade in the capital Naypyitaw, the junta's leader General Min Aung Hlaing repeated that his regime would hold "a free and fair election" and hand over power afterwards, but gave no timetable.
In a live broadcast on state TV, he said: "The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy.
"Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate."
The number of people killed in the unrest since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government now stands at around 440.
However, monitors have cautioned this only includes verified cases, with the actual number of casualties "likely much higher".
The Myanmar Now news portal said at least 114 people were killed across the country in the crackdown on Saturday.
Around 90 people were killed in Yangon, and dozens more died - one of them a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl - in Mandalay, Myanmar
https://news.sky.com/story/mass-mur...kdown-after-114-protesters-shot-dead-12258847
The shootings came as people took to the streets again on Saturday to protest against the military takeover, in defiance of a warning that they could be shot "in the head and back", as the junta celebrated Armed Forces Day.
Demonstrators had referred to the public holiday by its original name, Resistance Day, to mark the beginning of a revolt against Japanese occupation in the Second World War.
This year's event was seen as a flashpoint, with protesters threatening to bolster their public opposition to the coup with more and bigger demonstrations.
Saturday brought some of the worst violence since the coup on 1 February, with fighting between the army and the ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country.
Military jets killed at least three people in a raid on a village controlled by an armed group from the Karen minority, a civil society group said.
It came after the Karen National Union faction had earlier said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people.
Villagers shelter in the open due to airstrikes in Deh Bu Noh in Karen state. Pic: Free Burma Rangers via AP
The airstrikes sent villagers fleeing into the jungle.
In response to the latest killings, UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said it was time for the world to take action - if not through the UN Security Council then through an international emergency summit.
"Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them," Mr Andrews said in a statement.
"The people of Myanmar need the world's support. Words are not enough. It is past time for robust, coordinated action."
US ambassador to Myanmar Thomas Vajda wrote on social media: "On Myanmar's Armed Forced Day, security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect.
"This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force."
The EU delegation to Myanmar said the killings would "forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour", while Britain's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the violence marked "a new low".
Dr Sasa, the disbanded democratic parliament's special envoy to the UN, said: "Today is a day of shame for the armed forces. The military must stop killing its own people."
Calling on the international community to "act quickly before it's too late" and bring in coordinated, targeted sanctions, he told Sky News that the military must release democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and come to the negotiating table.
Without action, he said, Myanmar would see the "greatest civil war that we've never seen before".
In a draft statement, top military officers from 12 countries have also condemned the deadly use of force by Myanmar's military and say the country's military has lost credibility with its people.
The shootings came as a rebel leader told Sky News that Myanmar's armed ethnic groups will not stand by and do nothing if the military continued to kill demonstrators.
After leading a military parade in the capital Naypyitaw, the junta's leader General Min Aung Hlaing repeated that his regime would hold "a free and fair election" and hand over power afterwards, but gave no timetable.
In a live broadcast on state TV, he said: "The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy.
"Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate."
The number of people killed in the unrest since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government now stands at around 440.
However, monitors have cautioned this only includes verified cases, with the actual number of casualties "likely much higher".
The Myanmar Now news portal said at least 114 people were killed across the country in the crackdown on Saturday.
Around 90 people were killed in Yangon, and dozens more died - one of them a five-year-old boy and a 13-year-old girl - in Mandalay, Myanmar
https://news.sky.com/story/mass-mur...kdown-after-114-protesters-shot-dead-12258847
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Myanmar ambassador spends night in his car after he was locked out of embassy
The foreign secretary has condemned Myanmar's "bullying military regime" after the country's ambassador to London was locked out of his embassy.
Kyaw Zwar Minn spent the night in his car after being barred from the building in London's Mayfair on Wednesday evening.
In a statement read on his behalf on Thursday morning, a spokesman said the embassy had been seized by a military attaché, and the ambassador had been "locked out".The spokesman added: "There was a coup in Myanmar (and) now a similar situation in central London."
Embassy staff are being threatened with "severe punishment" if they do not work for the military junta that seized power in Myanmar on 1 February, he said.
The UK has been told that Myanmar's regime has formally terminated the ambassador's appointment, the PA news agency reported.
But no formal notification of his replacement is said to have been received.
https://news.sky.com/story/raab-condemns-myanmars-bullying-military-regime-after-london-ambassador-locked-out-of-embassy-12269072?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
The foreign secretary has condemned Myanmar's "bullying military regime" after the country's ambassador to London was locked out of his embassy.
Kyaw Zwar Minn spent the night in his car after being barred from the building in London's Mayfair on Wednesday evening.
In a statement read on his behalf on Thursday morning, a spokesman said the embassy had been seized by a military attaché, and the ambassador had been "locked out".The spokesman added: "There was a coup in Myanmar (and) now a similar situation in central London."
Embassy staff are being threatened with "severe punishment" if they do not work for the military junta that seized power in Myanmar on 1 February, he said.
The UK has been told that Myanmar's regime has formally terminated the ambassador's appointment, the PA news agency reported.
But no formal notification of his replacement is said to have been received.
https://news.sky.com/story/raab-condemns-myanmars-bullying-military-regime-after-london-ambassador-locked-out-of-embassy-12269072?dcmp=snt-sf-twitter
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This is the time we need greater engagement, not less: India on Myanmar situation
India on Friday condemned the use of violence in Myanmar and said it is cognisant of the serious impact of its political instability and the potential of its spill over beyond borders. India called for a "greater engagement" by the world, cautioning that a lack of engagement will only create a "vacuum" which will be counterproductive.
India's deputy permanent representative to the UN, ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu, during a UN security council Arria formula meeting on Myanmar, said India condemns the use of violence in Myanmar and deeply condoles the loss of lives.
"It is essential to observe maximum restraint. It is equally important to uphold humanitarian principles," he said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/this-is-the-time-we-need-greater-engagement-not-less-india-on-myanmar-situation/articleshow/81993773.cms
India on Friday condemned the use of violence in Myanmar and said it is cognisant of the serious impact of its political instability and the potential of its spill over beyond borders. India called for a "greater engagement" by the world, cautioning that a lack of engagement will only create a "vacuum" which will be counterproductive.
India's deputy permanent representative to the UN, ambassador K Nagaraj Naidu, during a UN security council Arria formula meeting on Myanmar, said India condemns the use of violence in Myanmar and deeply condoles the loss of lives.
"It is essential to observe maximum restraint. It is equally important to uphold humanitarian principles," he said.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/this-is-the-time-we-need-greater-engagement-not-less-india-on-myanmar-situation/articleshow/81993773.cms
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Myanmar: Military chief urged to stop violence on first foreign trip
South East Asian leaders have urged the head of the Myanmar army, which took power in a coup in February, to end the violent crackdown in the country.
In his first known foreign trip since the takeover, General Min Aung Hlaing heard calls for the military to stop killing protesters and to release political prisoners.
More than 700 people have been killed and thousands detained since the coup.
The talks in Indonesia were the first big effort to address the crisis.
A statement released after the summit said the leaders and foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) had reached a consensus on five points.
They included asking for an immediate stop to the violence and opening a dialogue between the military and civilian leaders, with that process overseen by a special Asean envoy who would also visit with a delegation. The group also offered humanitarian assistance.
The consensus was welcomed by Myanmar's newly formed National Unity Government (NUG), a group made up of opponents of the coup - including pro-democracy figures, representatives of the armed ethnic groups and former members of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's former government.
After the meeting, which was held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the general was "not opposed" to a visit by as Asean delegation or humanitarian assistance, adding: "He said he heard us, he would take the points in which he considered helpful."
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin also called for unconditional release of political prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention, as well as anti-coup leaders.
"The deplorable situation in Myanmar must stop immediately," he said.
Demonstrators gathered near the venue of the summit, beating pots and pans and holding signs that read "Restore democracy" and "We stand against the military coup". Protests were also held in Myanmar's main cities but there were no immediate reports of violence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56855166
South East Asian leaders have urged the head of the Myanmar army, which took power in a coup in February, to end the violent crackdown in the country.
In his first known foreign trip since the takeover, General Min Aung Hlaing heard calls for the military to stop killing protesters and to release political prisoners.
More than 700 people have been killed and thousands detained since the coup.
The talks in Indonesia were the first big effort to address the crisis.
A statement released after the summit said the leaders and foreign ministers from the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) had reached a consensus on five points.
They included asking for an immediate stop to the violence and opening a dialogue between the military and civilian leaders, with that process overseen by a special Asean envoy who would also visit with a delegation. The group also offered humanitarian assistance.
The consensus was welcomed by Myanmar's newly formed National Unity Government (NUG), a group made up of opponents of the coup - including pro-democracy figures, representatives of the armed ethnic groups and former members of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi's former government.
After the meeting, which was held in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the general was "not opposed" to a visit by as Asean delegation or humanitarian assistance, adding: "He said he heard us, he would take the points in which he considered helpful."
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin also called for unconditional release of political prisoners. Aung San Suu Kyi remains in detention, as well as anti-coup leaders.
"The deplorable situation in Myanmar must stop immediately," he said.
Demonstrators gathered near the venue of the summit, beating pots and pans and holding signs that read "Restore democracy" and "We stand against the military coup". Protests were also held in Myanmar's main cities but there were no immediate reports of violence.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-56855166
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Aung San Suu Kyi appears in court for first time since military coup
Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in court in person for the first time since her government was overthrown by the military in February.
The hearing, in the capital Naypyidaw, was immediately adjourned. The former leader faces several charges including violating a state secrets law.
Before the hearing, Ms Suu Kyi was allowed to meet her lawyers in person for the first time.
She has been held under house arrest for the 16 weeks since she was deposed.
Myanmar's military has accused Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, of fraud in the general election it won last November.
Independent election monitors say the election was largely free and fair, and the charges against Ms Suu Kyi have been widely criticised as politically motivated.
Myanmar's military has brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protesters since the February coup, killing more than 800 people and detaining more than 4,000, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The six charges against Ms Suu Kyi, 75, also include illegally importing handheld radios and breaching coronavirus rules. She was allowed 30 minutes with her lawyers on Monday before the hearing was adjourned.
They said she appeared to be in good health at the meeting in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, but had no access to news media during her house arrest and had limited knowledge of what was happening in the country.
Ms Suu Kyi "wished people good health", her lawyers said. She also made a reference to threats by the military to dissolve her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
"Our party grew out of the people so it will exist as long as people support it", she said, according to one of her lawyers, Khin Maung Zaw.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57227241
Myanmar's former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has appeared in court in person for the first time since her government was overthrown by the military in February.
The hearing, in the capital Naypyidaw, was immediately adjourned. The former leader faces several charges including violating a state secrets law.
Before the hearing, Ms Suu Kyi was allowed to meet her lawyers in person for the first time.
She has been held under house arrest for the 16 weeks since she was deposed.
Myanmar's military has accused Ms Suu Kyi's party, the National League for Democracy, of fraud in the general election it won last November.
Independent election monitors say the election was largely free and fair, and the charges against Ms Suu Kyi have been widely criticised as politically motivated.
Myanmar's military has brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protesters since the February coup, killing more than 800 people and detaining more than 4,000, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The six charges against Ms Suu Kyi, 75, also include illegally importing handheld radios and breaching coronavirus rules. She was allowed 30 minutes with her lawyers on Monday before the hearing was adjourned.
They said she appeared to be in good health at the meeting in the capital Nay Pyi Taw, but had no access to news media during her house arrest and had limited knowledge of what was happening in the country.
Ms Suu Kyi "wished people good health", her lawyers said. She also made a reference to threats by the military to dissolve her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.
"Our party grew out of the people so it will exist as long as people support it", she said, according to one of her lawyers, Khin Maung Zaw.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57227241
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Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been sentenced to four years in prison, the first in a series of verdicts that could jail her for life.
She was found guilty on charges of inciting dissent and breaking Covid rules under a natural disasters law.
Ms Suu Kyi faces 11 charges in total, which have been widely condemned as unjust. She has denied all charges.
She has been in detention since a military coup in February which toppled her elected civilian government.
It is not clear when or if Ms Suu Kyi will be placed in prison. She is being held at an undisclosed location.
Co-defendant Win Myint, the former president and Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party ally, was also jailed on Monday for four years under the same charges.
UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the "sham trial" and said it would only "deepen rejection of the coup".
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners and allow a return to democracy.
"The arbitrary detention of elected politicians only risks further unrest," she said.
And rights group Amnesty called the charges "bogus", saying it was the "latest example of the military's determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar".
Ms Suu Kyi is next due in court on 14 December, when she will face charges of possessing illegal walkie-talkies.
Suu Kyi 'struggling'
The 76-year-old has been slapped with an array of charges, including several counts of corruption and violating the official secrets act.
In one case, Ms Suu Kyi was convicted of violating Covid restrictions for campaigning during last year's election - she had waved to supporters while wearing a mask and face shield.
In the other she was found guilty of inciting unrest for a statement calling for public opposition to the coup, put out by her party after she had already been taken into custody.
Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers, who had been the sole source of information on the legal proceedings, have also been served with gag orders forbidding them from releasing information.
Little has been seen or heard of her apart from her brief court appearances.
A spokesman for the newly formed National Unity Government, a group made up of pro-democracy figures and opponents of the coup, had earlier told the BBC Ms Suu Kyi was struggling.
"She is not OK... military generals are preparing for 104 years of sentences for her in prison. They want her to die in prison," Dr Sasa said.
The military had seized power alleging voter fraud in general elections held last year in which the NLD won by a landslide.
However, independent election observers have said the elections were largely free and fair.
The coup triggered widespread demonstrations and Myanmar's military has cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists.
Ms Suu Kyi is one of more than 10,600 people to have been arrested by the junta since February, and at least 1,303 others killed in the demonstrations, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
An icon who fell from grace
Aung San Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years in detention at the hands of the military between 1989 and 2010, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to bring democracy to Myanmar.
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 2015, but she was prevented from becoming president herself by rules excluding those with foreign national children from holding that office. She was widely regarded as the de facto ruler of the country.
However her reputation abroad was severely damaged by the way she handled the Rohingya crisis, which started in 2017.
In 2019 Ms Suu Kyi appeared at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend her country against accusations of genocide.
BBC
She was found guilty on charges of inciting dissent and breaking Covid rules under a natural disasters law.
Ms Suu Kyi faces 11 charges in total, which have been widely condemned as unjust. She has denied all charges.
She has been in detention since a military coup in February which toppled her elected civilian government.
It is not clear when or if Ms Suu Kyi will be placed in prison. She is being held at an undisclosed location.
Co-defendant Win Myint, the former president and Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party ally, was also jailed on Monday for four years under the same charges.
UN Human Rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the "sham trial" and said it would only "deepen rejection of the coup".
UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners and allow a return to democracy.
"The arbitrary detention of elected politicians only risks further unrest," she said.
And rights group Amnesty called the charges "bogus", saying it was the "latest example of the military's determination to eliminate all opposition and suffocate freedoms in Myanmar".
Ms Suu Kyi is next due in court on 14 December, when she will face charges of possessing illegal walkie-talkies.
Suu Kyi 'struggling'
The 76-year-old has been slapped with an array of charges, including several counts of corruption and violating the official secrets act.
In one case, Ms Suu Kyi was convicted of violating Covid restrictions for campaigning during last year's election - she had waved to supporters while wearing a mask and face shield.
In the other she was found guilty of inciting unrest for a statement calling for public opposition to the coup, put out by her party after she had already been taken into custody.
Ms Suu Kyi's lawyers, who had been the sole source of information on the legal proceedings, have also been served with gag orders forbidding them from releasing information.
Little has been seen or heard of her apart from her brief court appearances.
A spokesman for the newly formed National Unity Government, a group made up of pro-democracy figures and opponents of the coup, had earlier told the BBC Ms Suu Kyi was struggling.
"She is not OK... military generals are preparing for 104 years of sentences for her in prison. They want her to die in prison," Dr Sasa said.
The military had seized power alleging voter fraud in general elections held last year in which the NLD won by a landslide.
However, independent election observers have said the elections were largely free and fair.
The coup triggered widespread demonstrations and Myanmar's military has cracked down on pro-democracy protesters, activists and journalists.
Ms Suu Kyi is one of more than 10,600 people to have been arrested by the junta since February, and at least 1,303 others killed in the demonstrations, according to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
An icon who fell from grace
Aung San Suu Kyi spent nearly 15 years in detention at the hands of the military between 1989 and 2010, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work to bring democracy to Myanmar.
Her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in 2015, but she was prevented from becoming president herself by rules excluding those with foreign national children from holding that office. She was widely regarded as the de facto ruler of the country.
However her reputation abroad was severely damaged by the way she handled the Rohingya crisis, which started in 2017.
In 2019 Ms Suu Kyi appeared at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend her country against accusations of genocide.
BBC
James
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Does this make Aung San Suu Kyi the first world leader to be convicted/jailed for matters related to breaching Covid regulations, or even Covid altogether? (She may well not be the last)
anakwalajinn
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Former Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg was charged by the Police and had to pay a fine of around USD 2500 this April for breaching Covid-19 rules.
It was quite ironic as the held weekly press conferences for over a year highlighting the importance of following the rules.
Obviously not a case so extreme that she will get jailed... but quite serious in a Norwegian context!
https://www.reuters.com/world/norwa...police-over-virus-rules-violation-2021-04-09/
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Myanmar's Suu Kyi handed 5 year jail term for corruption
A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases against her, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said.
The Nobel laureate and figurehead of Myanmar's opposition to military rule is charged with at least 18 offences carrying combined maximum jail terms of nearly 190 years, all but killing off any chance of a political comeback.
The judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening and gave no explanation, said the source, who declined to be identified because the trial is being held behind closed doors, with information restricted.
Suu Kyi, who has attended all of her hearings, was displeased with the outcome and would appeal, the source said.
The 76-year-old led Myanmar for five years during a short period of tentative democracy before being forced from power in a coup in February 2021 by the military, which has ruled the former British colony for five of the past six decades.
It was not immediately clear if she would be transferred to a prison to serve the sentence.
Since her arrest she has been held in an undisclosed location, where junta chief Min Aung Hlaing previously said she could remain after earlier convictions in December and January for comparatively minor offences, for which she was sentenced to six years altogether.
A spokesman for the military government was not immediately available for comment.
The latest case centred on allegations that Suu Kyi, accepted 11.4 kg of gold and cash payments totalling $600,000 from her protege-turned-accuser, former chief minister of the city of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein.
Suu Kyi had called the allegations "absurd" and denies all charges against her, which include violations of electoral and state secrets laws, incitement and corruption.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Suu Kyi's days as a free woman were effectively over.
"Myanmar's junta and the country's kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age," he said.
"Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with nationwide protests and public anger suppressed by the military with lethal force. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested and many killed, tortured and beaten, in what the United Nations has called crimes against humanity.
The international community has imposed sanctions on the military and dismissed Suu Kyi's trials as farcical. The embassies in Myanmar of the US and Britain did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The military has said Suu Kyi committed crimes and is being given due process by an independent judiciary and rejects foreign criticism as interference.
The junta has refused to allow her visits, including by a special Southeast Asian envoy trying to end the crisis.
Nay Phone Latt, a former official in Suu Kyi's ousted ruling party, said court decisions were temporary, because military rule would not last long.
"We do not recognise the terrorist junta's rulings, legislation, or the judiciary," said Nay Phone Latt, a member of the shadow National Unity Government, which has declared a people's revolt against military rule.
"I don't care how long they want to sentence, whether it's one year, two years, or whatever they want. This won't last."
https://www.dawn.com/news/1687077/myanmars-suu-kyi-handed-5-year-jail-term-for-corruption
A court in military-ruled Myanmar sentenced deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi to five years in jail on Wednesday after finding her guilty in the first of 11 corruption cases against her, a source with knowledge of the proceedings said.
The Nobel laureate and figurehead of Myanmar's opposition to military rule is charged with at least 18 offences carrying combined maximum jail terms of nearly 190 years, all but killing off any chance of a political comeback.
The judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, handed down the verdict within moments of the court convening and gave no explanation, said the source, who declined to be identified because the trial is being held behind closed doors, with information restricted.
Suu Kyi, who has attended all of her hearings, was displeased with the outcome and would appeal, the source said.
The 76-year-old led Myanmar for five years during a short period of tentative democracy before being forced from power in a coup in February 2021 by the military, which has ruled the former British colony for five of the past six decades.
It was not immediately clear if she would be transferred to a prison to serve the sentence.
Since her arrest she has been held in an undisclosed location, where junta chief Min Aung Hlaing previously said she could remain after earlier convictions in December and January for comparatively minor offences, for which she was sentenced to six years altogether.
A spokesman for the military government was not immediately available for comment.
The latest case centred on allegations that Suu Kyi, accepted 11.4 kg of gold and cash payments totalling $600,000 from her protege-turned-accuser, former chief minister of the city of Yangon, Phyo Min Thein.
Suu Kyi had called the allegations "absurd" and denies all charges against her, which include violations of electoral and state secrets laws, incitement and corruption.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Suu Kyi's days as a free woman were effectively over.
"Myanmar's junta and the country's kangaroo courts are walking in lockstep to put Aung San Suu Kyi away for what could ultimately be the equivalent of a life sentence, given her advanced age," he said.
"Destroying popular democracy in Myanmar also means getting rid of Aung San Suu Kyi, and the junta is leaving nothing to chance."
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with nationwide protests and public anger suppressed by the military with lethal force. Tens of thousands of people have been arrested and many killed, tortured and beaten, in what the United Nations has called crimes against humanity.
The international community has imposed sanctions on the military and dismissed Suu Kyi's trials as farcical. The embassies in Myanmar of the US and Britain did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The military has said Suu Kyi committed crimes and is being given due process by an independent judiciary and rejects foreign criticism as interference.
The junta has refused to allow her visits, including by a special Southeast Asian envoy trying to end the crisis.
Nay Phone Latt, a former official in Suu Kyi's ousted ruling party, said court decisions were temporary, because military rule would not last long.
"We do not recognise the terrorist junta's rulings, legislation, or the judiciary," said Nay Phone Latt, a member of the shadow National Unity Government, which has declared a people's revolt against military rule.
"I don't care how long they want to sentence, whether it's one year, two years, or whatever they want. This won't last."
https://www.dawn.com/news/1687077/myanmars-suu-kyi-handed-5-year-jail-term-for-corruption
Court Trial Of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Enters Final Phase
A junta court will hear the final arguments in the 18-month-long trial of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi next week, a legal source said Tuesday, before reaching its final verdicts against the Nobel laureate.
Suu Kyi has been a prisoner since the military toppled her government in February 2021, ending the Southeast Asian nation's brief period of democracy.
She has been convicted on 14 charges, ranging from corruption to illegally possessing walkie-talkies and flouting Covid restrictions.
The junta court will hear "final arguments" from both sides related to five remaining charges of corruption on December 26, according to a source with knowledge of the case.
"The verdict will be given after that stage," the source said, adding a date had not yet been set.
Suu Kyi, 77, appeared in good health, the source said.
Each corruption charge carries a maximum jail term of 15 years.
Journalists have been barred from attending the court hearings and Suu Kyi's lawyers have been banned from speaking to the media.
In June, she was transferred from house arrest in military-built Naypyidaw to a prison compound, where her trial continues at a special court.
The military alleged widespread voter fraud during the November 2020 election, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, although international observers said the poll was largely free and fair.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with over 2,500 killed in the military's crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.
NDTV
A junta court will hear the final arguments in the 18-month-long trial of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi next week, a legal source said Tuesday, before reaching its final verdicts against the Nobel laureate.
Suu Kyi has been a prisoner since the military toppled her government in February 2021, ending the Southeast Asian nation's brief period of democracy.
She has been convicted on 14 charges, ranging from corruption to illegally possessing walkie-talkies and flouting Covid restrictions.
The junta court will hear "final arguments" from both sides related to five remaining charges of corruption on December 26, according to a source with knowledge of the case.
"The verdict will be given after that stage," the source said, adding a date had not yet been set.
Suu Kyi, 77, appeared in good health, the source said.
Each corruption charge carries a maximum jail term of 15 years.
Journalists have been barred from attending the court hearings and Suu Kyi's lawyers have been banned from speaking to the media.
In June, she was transferred from house arrest in military-built Naypyidaw to a prison compound, where her trial continues at a special court.
The military alleged widespread voter fraud during the November 2020 election, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, although international observers said the poll was largely free and fair.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the coup, with over 2,500 killed in the military's crackdown on dissent, according to a local monitoring group.
NDTV
UN Council Calls For Aung San Suu Kyi Release In 1st Ever Myanmar Resolution
The UN Security Council called for Myanmar's junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday as it adopted its first ever resolution on the situation in the turmoil-ridden Southeast Asian country.
The 15-member Council has been split on Myanmar for decades and previously only been able to agree formal statements about the country, which has been under military rule since February 2021.
Suu Kyi, 77, has been a prisoner since the army toppled her government almost two years ago and violently cracked down on dissent.
Wednesday's resolution "urges" the junta to "immediately release all arbitrarily detained prisoners," including Suu Kyi and ex-president Win Myint.
It also demands "an immediate end to all forms of violence" and asks for "all parties to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law."
The adoption marked a moment of relative Council unity in a year in which divisions have been heightened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Any opportunity for the Security Council to speak with one strong, united voice on any issue and especially on Myanmar would be much welcomed," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman said ahead of the vote.
The text was adopted with 12 votes in favor. Permanent members China and Russia abstained, opting not to wield vetoes following amendments to the wording. India also abstained.
Diplomats said the only existing Council resolution regarding Myanmar was the one the UN passed in 1948 approving the country's membership to the world body.
In 2008, the Council failed to adopt a draft resolution on Myanmar after Beijing and Moscow cast vetoes.
Then in December 2018, Britain made another attempt following the Rohingya crisis that saw 700,000 people flee Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh but a vote was never held.
Britain began circulating a draft text of Wednesday's resolution in September. Several amendments were made to ensure its passing, UN watchers say.
Language relating to the Council's determination to use all its powers should Myanmar fail to adhere to the resolution were reportedly dropped.
Several members also objected to a provision requesting the UN secretary-general to report to the Council on the situation in Myanmar every 60 days.
Instead, the resolution calls for the secretary-general or his envoy to report back by March 15, 2023 in coordination with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Council had issued one unified statement on Myanmar since the coup ended the country's brief period of democracy.
The military alleged widespread voter fraud during the November 2020 election, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, although international observers said the poll was largely free and fair.
A junta court has found the Nobel laureate guilty on every one of the 14 charges it has heard so far, including corruption, and jailed her for 26 years.
Rights groups have slammed the trial as a sham designed to remove the democracy figurehead permanently from Myanmar's political scene.
The military's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has killed more than 2,500 people, according to a local monitoring group.
NDTV
The UN Security Council called for Myanmar's junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi Wednesday as it adopted its first ever resolution on the situation in the turmoil-ridden Southeast Asian country.
The 15-member Council has been split on Myanmar for decades and previously only been able to agree formal statements about the country, which has been under military rule since February 2021.
Suu Kyi, 77, has been a prisoner since the army toppled her government almost two years ago and violently cracked down on dissent.
Wednesday's resolution "urges" the junta to "immediately release all arbitrarily detained prisoners," including Suu Kyi and ex-president Win Myint.
It also demands "an immediate end to all forms of violence" and asks for "all parties to respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law."
The adoption marked a moment of relative Council unity in a year in which divisions have been heightened by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"Any opportunity for the Security Council to speak with one strong, united voice on any issue and especially on Myanmar would be much welcomed," Secretary-General Antonio Guterres's spokesman said ahead of the vote.
The text was adopted with 12 votes in favor. Permanent members China and Russia abstained, opting not to wield vetoes following amendments to the wording. India also abstained.
Diplomats said the only existing Council resolution regarding Myanmar was the one the UN passed in 1948 approving the country's membership to the world body.
In 2008, the Council failed to adopt a draft resolution on Myanmar after Beijing and Moscow cast vetoes.
Then in December 2018, Britain made another attempt following the Rohingya crisis that saw 700,000 people flee Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh but a vote was never held.
Britain began circulating a draft text of Wednesday's resolution in September. Several amendments were made to ensure its passing, UN watchers say.
Language relating to the Council's determination to use all its powers should Myanmar fail to adhere to the resolution were reportedly dropped.
Several members also objected to a provision requesting the UN secretary-general to report to the Council on the situation in Myanmar every 60 days.
Instead, the resolution calls for the secretary-general or his envoy to report back by March 15, 2023 in coordination with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Council had issued one unified statement on Myanmar since the coup ended the country's brief period of democracy.
The military alleged widespread voter fraud during the November 2020 election, won resoundingly by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, although international observers said the poll was largely free and fair.
A junta court has found the Nobel laureate guilty on every one of the 14 charges it has heard so far, including corruption, and jailed her for 26 years.
Rights groups have slammed the trial as a sham designed to remove the democracy figurehead permanently from Myanmar's political scene.
The military's crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has killed more than 2,500 people, according to a local monitoring group.
NDTV
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Aung San Suu Kyi jailed for a further seven years
A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further seven years in prison, taking her overall jail time to 33 years.
The country's former democratically-elected leader has been under house arrest since a military ousted her government in a coup in February 2021.
Since then she's faced 18 months of trials on 19 charges - which rights groups say are a sham.
The UN Security Council called for her release last week.
On Friday she was sentenced on the final five charges she faced. A court found her guilty of corruption because she had not followed regulations in renting a helicopter for a government minister.
She had already been convicted of 14 different crimes including breaching Covid public safety rules, importing walkie-talkies and violating the official secrets act.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64123149
A Myanmar military court has sentenced Aung San Suu Kyi to a further seven years in prison, taking her overall jail time to 33 years.
The country's former democratically-elected leader has been under house arrest since a military ousted her government in a coup in February 2021.
Since then she's faced 18 months of trials on 19 charges - which rights groups say are a sham.
The UN Security Council called for her release last week.
On Friday she was sentenced on the final five charges she faced. A court found her guilty of corruption because she had not followed regulations in renting a helicopter for a government minister.
She had already been convicted of 14 different crimes including breaching Covid public safety rules, importing walkie-talkies and violating the official secrets act.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64123149
daytrader
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Global firms help Myanmar's military make weapons, says report
Myanmar's military is producing a vast range of weapons to use against its own people thanks to supplies from companies in at least 13 countries, former top UN officials say.
The US, France, India and Japan are among those named, despite Western-led sanctions intended to isolate Myanmar.
The report says the home-produced arms are used to carry out atrocities against those who oppose the military.
Myanmar has been engulfed in violence since a February 2021 military coup.
Opponents of the coup, which ousted the elected government, have joined ethnic rebel groups in resisting military rule.
The Special Advisory Council on Myanmar's report notes that several UN member states continue to sell weapons to the military.
"An equally important factor, however, is the fact that Myanmar's armed forces can produce, in-country, a variety of weapons that are being used to target civilians," it says.
The firms named supply Myanmar's military with raw materials, training and machines, the report says, and the weapons produced as a result are not used to defend its borders.
"Myanmar has never been attacked by a foreign country," explains Yanghee Lee, the UN's former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and one of the report's authors.
"And Myanmar does not export any arms. Since 1950, it's made its own arms to use against its own people."
...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64250674
Myanmar's military is producing a vast range of weapons to use against its own people thanks to supplies from companies in at least 13 countries, former top UN officials say.
The US, France, India and Japan are among those named, despite Western-led sanctions intended to isolate Myanmar.
The report says the home-produced arms are used to carry out atrocities against those who oppose the military.
Myanmar has been engulfed in violence since a February 2021 military coup.
Opponents of the coup, which ousted the elected government, have joined ethnic rebel groups in resisting military rule.
The Special Advisory Council on Myanmar's report notes that several UN member states continue to sell weapons to the military.
"An equally important factor, however, is the fact that Myanmar's armed forces can produce, in-country, a variety of weapons that are being used to target civilians," it says.
The firms named supply Myanmar's military with raw materials, training and machines, the report says, and the weapons produced as a result are not used to defend its borders.
"Myanmar has never been attacked by a foreign country," explains Yanghee Lee, the UN's former Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, and one of the report's authors.
"And Myanmar does not export any arms. Since 1950, it's made its own arms to use against its own people."
...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64250674
daytrader
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Myanmar junta hit by western sanctions as ‘silent strikes’ mark coup anniversary
The UK, US, Canada and Australia have announced a range of measures aimed at punishing Myanmar’s military
The UK, US and Canada have imposed fresh sanctions against Myanmar’s military, including measures from some aimed at stopping the supply of aviation fuel to its air force, which is accused of indiscriminately bombing civilian areas.
The sanctions were announced two years on from the 2021 February coup, in which Myanmar’s military ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining her and plunging the country into turmoil.
Since then, the junta has torched villages across the country, launched airstrikes on civilians and detaining anyone suspected of supporting pro-democracy movements – in an attempt to control determined opposition from the public.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday that the coup had placed Myanmar on “a disastrous path that has killed and displaced thousands”, and fresh sanctions would be imposed in conjunction with Canada and the UK.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...wo-years-on-from-military-coup-protest-strike
The UK, US, Canada and Australia have announced a range of measures aimed at punishing Myanmar’s military
The UK, US and Canada have imposed fresh sanctions against Myanmar’s military, including measures from some aimed at stopping the supply of aviation fuel to its air force, which is accused of indiscriminately bombing civilian areas.
The sanctions were announced two years on from the 2021 February coup, in which Myanmar’s military ousted the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining her and plunging the country into turmoil.
Since then, the junta has torched villages across the country, launched airstrikes on civilians and detaining anyone suspected of supporting pro-democracy movements – in an attempt to control determined opposition from the public.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said in a statement on Tuesday that the coup had placed Myanmar on “a disastrous path that has killed and displaced thousands”, and fresh sanctions would be imposed in conjunction with Canada and the UK.
...
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...wo-years-on-from-military-coup-protest-strike
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Myanmar military airstrike: More than 100 people feared dead
More than 100 people are feared to have been killed in Tuesday's airstrike by the Myanmar military, one of the deadliest so far in the civil war.
Survivors told the BBC they have collected at least 80 bodies, but expect the toll to rise further.
The United Nations has condemned the attack, which targeted a village in the north-western Sagaing region.
The military has increasingly used air strikes against their opponents since seizing power in February 2021.
The spokesman for the military junta, General Zaw Min Tun, told state television, "yes, we launched the air strike". He said they had chosen to attack Pa Zi Gyi because the village was holding a ceremony to mark the opening of an office for their local volunteer defence force.
These anti-coup militias, known as People's Defence Forces or PDFS, are waging an armed campaign against the military in various parts of Myanmar. Communities in Sagaing have put up some of the strongest opposition to military rule.
With so many army convoys being ambushed now on the roads, the junta is using air power more widely, targeting symbols of defiance of its rule. This includes schools and health clinics; sometimes entire villages are destroyed in a scorched earth campaign which it hopes will eventually exhaust the tenacious resistance it is facing in much of the country.
...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65238250
More than 100 people are feared to have been killed in Tuesday's airstrike by the Myanmar military, one of the deadliest so far in the civil war.
Survivors told the BBC they have collected at least 80 bodies, but expect the toll to rise further.
The United Nations has condemned the attack, which targeted a village in the north-western Sagaing region.
The military has increasingly used air strikes against their opponents since seizing power in February 2021.
The spokesman for the military junta, General Zaw Min Tun, told state television, "yes, we launched the air strike". He said they had chosen to attack Pa Zi Gyi because the village was holding a ceremony to mark the opening of an office for their local volunteer defence force.
These anti-coup militias, known as People's Defence Forces or PDFS, are waging an armed campaign against the military in various parts of Myanmar. Communities in Sagaing have put up some of the strongest opposition to military rule.
With so many army convoys being ambushed now on the roads, the junta is using air power more widely, targeting symbols of defiance of its rule. This includes schools and health clinics; sometimes entire villages are destroyed in a scorched earth campaign which it hopes will eventually exhaust the tenacious resistance it is facing in much of the country.
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https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-65238250
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Myanmar junta to free 9,652 prisoners on humanitarian grounds: state media
Myanmar's military government will release 9,652 prisoners, including 114 foreigners, under an amnesty to mark the country's independence day, state media reported on Thursday.
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the military seized power in February 2021, reversing a decade-long democratic experiment, and used deadly force to crush protests.
"With the intention of maintaining relations with other countries and on humanitarian grounds, 114 foreign prisoners will be pardoned," the junta said in a brief announcement on state media. "They will be deported."
In the country's commercial capital Yangon, groups of people gathered outside Insein Prison waiting for prisoners to be released, local media reported.
Among those still imprisoned is Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been appealing sentences adding up to 27 years in detention after being convicted of a string of offences ranging from incitement and election fraud to corruption. She denies all the charges.
The military insist she has received due process by an independent court.
Authorities typically release some prisoners to mark the day when Myanmar declared independence from British rule.
Source : Reuters
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Myanmar junta invites armed groups to stop fighting, start talks
The unexpected offer comes after the junta suffered a series of major battlefield reverses to ethnic minority armed groups and pro-democracy "People's Defence Forces" that rose up to oppose the military's seizure of power in 2021.
As well as battling determined resistance to its rule, the junta is also struggling with the aftermath of Typhoon Yagi, which triggered major flooding that has left more than 400 dead and hundreds of thousands in need of help.
"We invite ethnic armed groups, terrorist insurgent groups, and terrorist PDF groups which are fighting against the state to give up terrorist fighting and communicate with us to solve political problems politically," the junta said in a statement.
The military ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's elected civilian government in February 2021, triggering mass protests that were met with a brutal crackdown.
Civilians set up PDFs to fight back and ethnic minority armed groups -- many of which have fought the military for decades -- were reinvigorated, plunging the country into civil war.
Election pledge
Armed groups should follow "the path of party politics and elections in order to bring about lasting peace and development", the statement said.“The country's human resources, basic infrastructure and many people's lives have been lost, and the country's stability and development have been blocked" by the conflict, the junta said.
The junta, which justified its coup with unsubstantiated allegations of fraud in the 2020 elections won by Suu Kyi's party, has long pledged to hold fresh polls when conditions permit.
Census takers are due to start collecting data in early October in preparation for possible polls in 2025.
The military has lost swathes of territory in border areas in the past year after a major surprise offensive led by a trio of ethnic minority armed groups.
The groups have seized control of lucrative border crossings and last month took Lashio, a city of 150,000 people -- the biggest urban centre to fall to rebels since 1962.
Batches of conscripts have been training after the military enforced a draft law in February -- prompting tens of thousands of eligible young people to flee the country to avoid being called up, according to rights groups.
More than 5,700 civilians have been killed and over 20,000 arrested in the military crackdown since 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local monitoring group.
The United Nations warned last week that Myanmar was plunging into a human rights "abyss", detailing shocking torture meted out by the military on people in its custody.
Detainees reported being beaten with iron poles, bamboo sticks and motorcycle chains, and being terrorised with snakes and insects.
Pope Francis has offered refuge on Vatican territory to Suu Kyi, Italian media said on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old Nobel peace laureate is serving a 27-year prison sentence on charges ranging from corruption to not respecting Covid pandemic restrictions.
Rights groups say her closed-door trial was a sham designed to remove her from the political scene.
Myanmar junta invites armed groups to stop fighting, start talks
Myanmar's embattled junta on Thursday invited armed groups opposed to its rule to stop fighting and start talks to bring peace, after three-and-a-half years of conflict.
www.france24.com
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ICC prosecutor requests arrest warrants for the head of Myanmar's military regime
The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor asked judges on Wednesday to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.
Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who took power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya.
Nearly a million people were forced into neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.
From a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement that he intends to request more warrants for Myanmar's leaders soon.
“In doing so, we will be demonstrating, together with all of our partners, that the Rohingya have not been forgotten. That they, like all people around the world, are entitled to the protection of the law,” the British barrister said.
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The allegations stem from a counterinsurgency campaign that Myanmar’s military began in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. Hlaing, who heads the Myanmar Defense Services, is said to have directed the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as national police to attack Rohingya civilians.
Khan was in Bangladesh where he met with members of the displaced Rohingya population.
Myanmar does not belong to the global court, but Bangladesh does. In 2018 judges at the court ruled the prosecutor could look into crimes which were “completed” on the territory of a member state, such as forcible deportation.
In 2019, Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, formally requested to open an investigation into the situation and judges gave the green light for investigations into “any crime, including any future crime” committed at least partly in Bangladesh or another court member state and linked to the Rohingya.
The move paved the way for Khan to pursue crimes beyond forcing men, women and children over the border and into refugee camps.
The request comes days after a powerful rebel group seized a key trading town in northeastern Myanmar on the Chinese border, taking control of a lucrative rare earth mining hub in another setback for the military-led government.
The military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi's government in February 2021, triggering intensified fighting with long-established armed militias organized by Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups in its border regions which have struggled for decades for more autonomy.
In 2022, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, advanced a separate case against Myanmar brought by Gambia alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya. Five European countries and Canada have asked the court to back Gambia in the proceedings.
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Bloody siege ends Myanmar army control of western border
The end, when it came for the BGP5 barracks, was loud and brutal. First, a crackly speaker calling out for their surrender; then, a thunderous barrage of artillery, rockets and rifle fire that tore chunks out of the buildings in which hundreds of soldiers were hiding.
BGP5 – the letters stand for Border Guard Police – was the Myanmar military junta's last stand in northern Rakhine State, which lies along the border with Bangladesh.
Video by the insurgent Arakan Army (AA) which was besieging the base shows their rag-tag fighters, many barefoot, firing an assortment of weapons into the base, while air force jets roar over their heads.
It was a ferocious battle - perhaps the bloodiest of the civil war which has consumed Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup in 2021.
"They had dug deep ditches filled with spikes around the base," an AA source told the BBC.
"There were bunkers and reinforced buildings. They laid more than a thousand mines. Many of our fighters lost limbs, or their lives, trying to get through."
For the coup leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, this has been yet another humiliating defeat after a year of military setbacks.
For the first time his regime has lost control of an entire border: the 270km (170 miles) dividing Myanmar from Bangladesh now wholly under AA control.
And with only the Rakhine State capital Sittwe still firmly in military hands, though cut off from the rest of the country, the AA is likely to be the first insurgent group to take complete control of a state.
The army has been in headlong retreat from the Arakan Army since the beginning of the year, losing town after town.
The last army units withdrew in September to BGP5, a compound covering around 20 hectares just outside the border town of Maungdaw, where the AA laid siege.
BGP5 was built on the site of a Muslim Rohingya village, Myo Thu Gyi, which was burned down during the violent expulsion of much of the Rohingya population by the armed forces in 2017.
It was the first of many burned villages I saw on a visit to Maungdaw right after the military operation in September of that year, a mass of charred debris in among the lush tropical vegetation, its inhabitants killed or forced to flee to Bangladesh.
When I returned two years later, the new police complex had already been built, with all the trees removed, giving defenders a clear view of any attacking force.
The AA source told us their advance towards it was painfully slow, requiring the insurgents to dig their own ditches for cover.
It does not publish its own casualties. But judging from the intensity of fighting in Maungdaw, which began in June, it is likely to have lost hundreds of its own troops.
Its planes dropped supplies to the besieged soldiers at night, but it was never enough. They had plenty of rice stored in the bunkers, a local source told us, but they could not get any treatment for their injuries, and the soldiers became demoralised.
They started to surrender last weekend.
AA video shows them coming out in a pitiful state, waving white cloths. Some are hobbling on makeshift crutches, or hopping, their injured legs wrapped in rags. Few are wearing shoes.
Inside the wrecked buildings the victorious insurgents filmed piles of bodies.
The AA says more than 450 soldiers died in the siege. It has published images of the captured commander, Brigadier-General Thurein Tun, and his officers kneeling beneath the flagpole, now flying the insurgents' banner.
Pro-military commentators in Myanmar have been venting their frustration on social media.
"Min Aung Hlaing, you have not asked any of your children to serve in the military," wrote one. "Is this how you use us? Are you happy seeing all those deaths in Rakhine?"
"At this rate, all that will be left of the Tatmadaw [military] will be Min Aung Hlaing and a flagpole," wrote another.
The capture of BGP5 also shows the Arakan Army to be one of the most effective fighting forces in Myanmar.
Formed only in 2009 – much later than most of Myanmar's other insurgent groups – by young ethnic Rakhine men who had migrated to the Chinese border on the other side of the country in search of work, the AA is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance which has inflicted most of the defeats suffered by the junta since last year.
The other two members of the alliance have stayed on the border, in Shan State.
But the AA moved back to Rakhine eight years ago to start its armed campaign for self-government, tapping into historic resentment among the Rakhine population of the poverty, isolation and central government neglect of their state.
The AA leaders have proven to be smart, disciplined and able to motivate their fighters.
They are already administering the large areas of Rakhine State they control as though they were running their own state.
And they also have good weapons, thanks to their links with the older insurgent groups on the Chinese border, and appear to be well-funded.
There is a bigger question, though, over how much the various ethnic insurgent groups are willing to prioritise the goal of overthrowing the military junta.
Publicly they say they do, alongside the shadow government which was deposed by the coup, and the hundreds of volunteer peoples' defence forces which have sprung up to support it.
In return for the support it is getting from the ethnic insurgents, the shadow government is promising a new federal political system which will give Myanmar's regions self-rule.
But already the other two members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance have accepted China's request for a ceasefire.
China is seeking a negotiated end to the civil war which would almost certainly leave the military with much of its power intact.
The opposition insists the military must be reformed and removed from politics. But having already made so many territorial gains at the expense of the junta, the ethnic insurgents may be tempted to strike a deal with China's blessing rather than keep fighting to oust the generals.
The AA's victory poses more worrying questions.
The group's leadership is tight-lipped about its plans. But it takes over a state that was always poor and which has suffered greatly from the intense fighting of the past year.
"Eighty per cent of the housing in Maungdaw and the surrounding villages has been destroyed," one Rohingya man who left Maungdaw recently for Bangladesh told the BBC.
"The town is deserted. Almost all the shops and houses have been looted."
Last month the United Nations, whose agencies are being given very little access to Rakhine, warned of looming famine, because of the huge numbers of displaced people and the difficulty of getting any supplies in, past a military blockade.
The AA is trying to set up its own administration, but the BBC has been told by some of those displaced by the fighting that the group cannot feed or shelter them.
It is also unclear how the AA will treat the Rohingya population, still thought to number around 600,000 in Rakhine, even after the expulsion of 700,000 in 2017.
The largest number live in northern Rakhine State and Maungdaw has long been a predominantly Rohingya town. Relations with the ethnic Rakhine majority, the support base for the AA, have long been fraught.
They are now a great deal worse after Rohingya militant groups, which have their power base in the vast refugee camps in Bangladesh, chose to take sides with the military, against the AA, despite the army's track record of persecuting Rohingyas.
Many Rohingyas do not like these groups, and some say they are happy to live in an AA-run Rakhine State.
But tens of thousands have been expelled by the AA from towns it has conquered, and not been allowed back.
The AA has promised to include all communities in its vision for a future independent of the central government, but it has also denounced the Rohingyas it found itself fighting alongside the army.
"We cannot deny the fact that Rohingyas have been persecuted by Myanmar governments for many years, and the Rakhine people supported that," said the Rohingya man we spoke to in Bangladesh.
"The government wants to keep Rohingyas from becoming citizens, but the Rakhine people believe there should be no Rohingyas at all in Rakhine State. Our situation today is even more difficult than it was under the rule of the military junta."
BBC
The end, when it came for the BGP5 barracks, was loud and brutal. First, a crackly speaker calling out for their surrender; then, a thunderous barrage of artillery, rockets and rifle fire that tore chunks out of the buildings in which hundreds of soldiers were hiding.
BGP5 – the letters stand for Border Guard Police – was the Myanmar military junta's last stand in northern Rakhine State, which lies along the border with Bangladesh.
Video by the insurgent Arakan Army (AA) which was besieging the base shows their rag-tag fighters, many barefoot, firing an assortment of weapons into the base, while air force jets roar over their heads.
It was a ferocious battle - perhaps the bloodiest of the civil war which has consumed Myanmar since the military seized power in a coup in 2021.
"They had dug deep ditches filled with spikes around the base," an AA source told the BBC.
"There were bunkers and reinforced buildings. They laid more than a thousand mines. Many of our fighters lost limbs, or their lives, trying to get through."
For the coup leader, General Min Aung Hlaing, this has been yet another humiliating defeat after a year of military setbacks.
For the first time his regime has lost control of an entire border: the 270km (170 miles) dividing Myanmar from Bangladesh now wholly under AA control.
And with only the Rakhine State capital Sittwe still firmly in military hands, though cut off from the rest of the country, the AA is likely to be the first insurgent group to take complete control of a state.
The army has been in headlong retreat from the Arakan Army since the beginning of the year, losing town after town.
The last army units withdrew in September to BGP5, a compound covering around 20 hectares just outside the border town of Maungdaw, where the AA laid siege.
BGP5 was built on the site of a Muslim Rohingya village, Myo Thu Gyi, which was burned down during the violent expulsion of much of the Rohingya population by the armed forces in 2017.
It was the first of many burned villages I saw on a visit to Maungdaw right after the military operation in September of that year, a mass of charred debris in among the lush tropical vegetation, its inhabitants killed or forced to flee to Bangladesh.
When I returned two years later, the new police complex had already been built, with all the trees removed, giving defenders a clear view of any attacking force.
The AA source told us their advance towards it was painfully slow, requiring the insurgents to dig their own ditches for cover.
It does not publish its own casualties. But judging from the intensity of fighting in Maungdaw, which began in June, it is likely to have lost hundreds of its own troops.
Its planes dropped supplies to the besieged soldiers at night, but it was never enough. They had plenty of rice stored in the bunkers, a local source told us, but they could not get any treatment for their injuries, and the soldiers became demoralised.
They started to surrender last weekend.
AA video shows them coming out in a pitiful state, waving white cloths. Some are hobbling on makeshift crutches, or hopping, their injured legs wrapped in rags. Few are wearing shoes.
Inside the wrecked buildings the victorious insurgents filmed piles of bodies.
The AA says more than 450 soldiers died in the siege. It has published images of the captured commander, Brigadier-General Thurein Tun, and his officers kneeling beneath the flagpole, now flying the insurgents' banner.
Pro-military commentators in Myanmar have been venting their frustration on social media.
"Min Aung Hlaing, you have not asked any of your children to serve in the military," wrote one. "Is this how you use us? Are you happy seeing all those deaths in Rakhine?"
"At this rate, all that will be left of the Tatmadaw [military] will be Min Aung Hlaing and a flagpole," wrote another.
The capture of BGP5 also shows the Arakan Army to be one of the most effective fighting forces in Myanmar.
Formed only in 2009 – much later than most of Myanmar's other insurgent groups – by young ethnic Rakhine men who had migrated to the Chinese border on the other side of the country in search of work, the AA is part of the Three Brotherhood Alliance which has inflicted most of the defeats suffered by the junta since last year.
The other two members of the alliance have stayed on the border, in Shan State.
But the AA moved back to Rakhine eight years ago to start its armed campaign for self-government, tapping into historic resentment among the Rakhine population of the poverty, isolation and central government neglect of their state.
The AA leaders have proven to be smart, disciplined and able to motivate their fighters.
They are already administering the large areas of Rakhine State they control as though they were running their own state.
And they also have good weapons, thanks to their links with the older insurgent groups on the Chinese border, and appear to be well-funded.
There is a bigger question, though, over how much the various ethnic insurgent groups are willing to prioritise the goal of overthrowing the military junta.
Publicly they say they do, alongside the shadow government which was deposed by the coup, and the hundreds of volunteer peoples' defence forces which have sprung up to support it.
In return for the support it is getting from the ethnic insurgents, the shadow government is promising a new federal political system which will give Myanmar's regions self-rule.
But already the other two members of the Three Brotherhood Alliance have accepted China's request for a ceasefire.
China is seeking a negotiated end to the civil war which would almost certainly leave the military with much of its power intact.
The opposition insists the military must be reformed and removed from politics. But having already made so many territorial gains at the expense of the junta, the ethnic insurgents may be tempted to strike a deal with China's blessing rather than keep fighting to oust the generals.
The AA's victory poses more worrying questions.
The group's leadership is tight-lipped about its plans. But it takes over a state that was always poor and which has suffered greatly from the intense fighting of the past year.
"Eighty per cent of the housing in Maungdaw and the surrounding villages has been destroyed," one Rohingya man who left Maungdaw recently for Bangladesh told the BBC.
"The town is deserted. Almost all the shops and houses have been looted."
Last month the United Nations, whose agencies are being given very little access to Rakhine, warned of looming famine, because of the huge numbers of displaced people and the difficulty of getting any supplies in, past a military blockade.
The AA is trying to set up its own administration, but the BBC has been told by some of those displaced by the fighting that the group cannot feed or shelter them.
It is also unclear how the AA will treat the Rohingya population, still thought to number around 600,000 in Rakhine, even after the expulsion of 700,000 in 2017.
The largest number live in northern Rakhine State and Maungdaw has long been a predominantly Rohingya town. Relations with the ethnic Rakhine majority, the support base for the AA, have long been fraught.
They are now a great deal worse after Rohingya militant groups, which have their power base in the vast refugee camps in Bangladesh, chose to take sides with the military, against the AA, despite the army's track record of persecuting Rohingyas.
Many Rohingyas do not like these groups, and some say they are happy to live in an AA-run Rakhine State.
But tens of thousands have been expelled by the AA from towns it has conquered, and not been allowed back.
The AA has promised to include all communities in its vision for a future independent of the central government, but it has also denounced the Rohingyas it found itself fighting alongside the army.
"We cannot deny the fact that Rohingyas have been persecuted by Myanmar governments for many years, and the Rakhine people supported that," said the Rohingya man we spoke to in Bangladesh.
"The government wants to keep Rohingyas from becoming citizens, but the Rakhine people believe there should be no Rohingyas at all in Rakhine State. Our situation today is even more difficult than it was under the rule of the military junta."
BBC
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