Blog Elements – Page 58

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Australia’s Ex-Foreign Minister Named UN Myanmar Envoy

April 6, 2024/in News

United States – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday appointed former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop as his new envoy for Myanmar. The post has been vacant since the departure in June 2023 of Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer. Bishop, the current chancellor of the Australian National University, brings extensive government experience to the role. She […]

Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Most residents had left the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the attack. Junta artillery shelling in the southern part of Myanmar killed five people and burned down an estimated 400 homes, the first major attack in relatively peaceful Mon state since the February 2021 military coup d’état, residents said. Naval […]

Australia’s Ex-Foreign Minister Named UN Myanmar Envoy

April 6, 2024/in News

Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

Australia’s Ex-Foreign Minister Named UN Myanmar Envoy

April 6, 2024/in News

United States – UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday appointed former Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop as his new envoy for Myanmar.

The post has been vacant since the departure in June 2023 of Singaporean diplomat Noeleen Heyzer.

Bishop, the current chancellor of the Australian National University, brings extensive government experience to the role. She was also cabinet minister for education, science and training.

She was a member of parliament for 20 years.

Bishop will be asked to work with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and “all stakeholders to advance toward a Myanmar-led political solution to the crisis”, said Khaled Khiari, the UN’s assistant secretary general.

The UN emphasized Myanmar’s mounting hunger, mass displacement and safety concerns since the 2021 coup.

It said around 2.8 million people have been displaced in Myanmar, 90 percent of them since the junta took power in 2021 with the number rising since fighting intensified last October.

Food insecurity affects about 12.9 million people, about a quarter of Myanmar’s population, according to the UN.

Irrawaddy News

Junta artillery destroys 400 homes, kills 5 in southern Myanmar

April 5, 2024/in News

Most residents had left the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the attack.

Junta artillery shelling in the southern part of Myanmar killed five people and burned down an estimated 400 homes, the first major attack in relatively peaceful Mon state since the February 2021 military coup d’état, residents said.

Naval vessels fired heavy weapons at Dhamma Tha village in Kyaikmaraw township from the Gyaing River on March 27-28, killing a 12-year-old child, two women and two others, according to the Mon State Federal Council, or MSFC, a political organization representing the people of the state.

More houses went up in flames after junta troops barred fire trucks from entering the area, destroying about one-third of the village’s more than 1,000 homes, residents said.

Houses burn following a naval attack from a nearby river by the military junta, in Dhamma Tha village, Kyaikmaraw township, in southern Myanmar’s Mon state, March 27, 2024. (Mi Jandai Mon via Facebook)

The village — the native home of the leader of an ethnic Mon armed resistance group that declared war against the junta in February — was the first community in the state to suffer significant damage in more than three years after the military toppled the elected government.

The Myanmar military’s power grab triggered a wave of resistance by insurgents and ethnic armed organizations across the country. In response, junta forces have targeted civilians, viewing them as a support base for armed resistance groups, resulting in thousands of deaths and mass displacements.

The junta attacked Dhamma Tha village, even though Nai Banyar Lel, deputy leader of the anti-junta New Mon State Party-Anti-Dictatorship group, or NMSP-AD, and his family do not live there, said Mi Su Ta, head of the MSFC’s Humanitarian and Relief Department.

“It was a very crazy and inhumane attack on the village,” he told Radio Free Asia. “It was also a terror attack on civilian targets.”

Residents said most people fled the village to avoid getting caught up in armed conflict before the deadly shelling occurred, and returned afterwards only to see houses they had built with money they earned from blue-collar jobs in Thailand and Malaysia in ashes.

More than 10,000 people who lost their homes fled to Mawlamyine, capital of Mon state and the country’s fourth-largest city with an estimated population of 438,000.

Suppressing ‘the revolutionary spirit’

Dhamma Tha village is close to Kawt Bein village police station in Kawkareik township of neighboring Kayin state, which was captured by the Karen National Liberation Army — an ethnic armed group that controls parts of Mon state — and joint revolutionary forces on March 25, and to Ta Ra Na village where junta troops are based.

NMSP-AD spokesman Nai Banya Mon said the military council retaliated against Mon resistance forces and Mon communities for their strong support of the seizure of Kawt Bein police station.

“It was concluded that the village was set on fire to suppress the revolutionary spirit of the Mon people, and the military might have considered this tactic to crack down on the resistance movement of the Mon people,” he said.

Area resistance groups said the junta has reinforced its troops so they don’t lose the Ta Ra Na village police station near Dhamma Tha village to resistance fighters.

The military council has not issued a statement about the shelling of the village.

RFA could not reach Aung Myat Kyaw Sein, Mon state’s natural resources minister and spokesman under the junta, for comment.

Junta forces, including pro-regime militias, burned about 79,000 civilian homes across Myanmar between February 2021 and December 2023, according to the independent research group Data for Myanmar.

RFA News

Spring Revolution

Civil Society Position Paper on ASEAN’s Goal of a Myanmar-Owned and -Led SolutionDecember 18, 2024 - 12:11 pm
Recommendations to ASEAN and Its Member States (1) Move beyond the 5PC to achieve a Myanmar people-led and people-centered solution to the crisis in Myanmar. ASEAN’s “Myanmar-owned and -led” approach must be backed by genuine political will that aligns with and supports the collective aspirations of the people of Myanmar. (2) Cease all pressure on […]
The Airstrikes after the journey to the China of the Junta Military LeaderDecember 10, 2024 - 1:28 pm
Operation 1027 was a coordinated military attack against the junta on October 27th, 2023. It was carried out by the Northern Brotherhood, which includes the Arakan Army, Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army. Several months later, the Three Brotherhood Alliance held three meetings to negotiate with China on January 11 […]
Human Rights Situation weekly update (September 15 to 21, 2024)September 27, 2024 - 8:26 am
Human Rights Violations took place in States and Regions from Sep 15 to 21, 2024 Military Junta Troop launched airstrikes and dropped bombs in Sagaing Region, Mandalay Region, Shan State, Chin State, Rakhine State, and Kachin State from September 15th to 21st. The Military Junta committed arresting, occupying the properties, threatening by using power, and […]

Multimedia

Reparation (Cartoon Animation)December 21, 2024 - 8:08 am
Human Rights Basic 4 signs Cartoon AnimationDecember 8, 2024 - 9:07 am
Human Rights Cartoon AnimationDecember 8, 2024 - 9:03 am
JusticeOctober 7, 2024 - 10:28 am

ND Burma

ND-Burma formed in 2004 in order to provide a way for Burma human rights organizations to collaborate on the human rights documentation process. The 13 ND-Burma member organizations seek to collectively use the truth of what communities in Burma have endured to advocate for justice for victims. ND-Burma trains local organizations in human rights documentation; coordinates members’ input into a common database using Martus, a secure open-source software; and engages in joint-advocacy campaigns.

Half Sized Blog Element (Single Author Style)

Half Sized Blog Element (Multi Author Style)

Full Sized Blog Element (Big Preview Pic)

ND Burma

Recent Posts