Junta escorts international news team across Yangon, urges police to show restraint

A team from CNN is led by a military convoy as people bang pots and pans in defiance of the regime

While murders of protesters by the junta’s armed forces have been well documented through March 30, there was a reduction in the use of deadly force as a CNN news crew arrived in Myanmar on March 31 under close supervision by the regime.

Myanmar Now has learned that the junta warned its police force not to use excessive force against crowds during the visit by CNN chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward.

The crew traveled across Yangon escorted by a military convoy on Wednesday to the sound of people banging pots and pans from their homes– an expression of defiance against the ruling junta.

A police force directive signed by police Maj Myo Khine Oo dated March 30 has been widely circulated on social media outlining the tactical change.

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“When trying to handle crowds, every stage of the process must be done step-by-step in accordance with [riot control] procedures, and responsible officers at all levels need to supervise police to ensure that they do not go beyond [these] limits,” the message read.

Police who have left their posts in opposition to the junta and are participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement told Myanmar Now that the directive is genuine.

On Wednesday, the CNN news crew visited factories which were set on fire in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township, with photos of the trips since shared on social media.

A former military officer who spoke to Myanmar Now on condition of anonymity said the junta appeared to be exercising restraint while the CNN staff were in-country.

“It is obvious. When CNN was present, security forces were on hidden sentry duty. Soldiers and police were kept as invisible as possible. The news crew was escorted by [the army’s] convoy,” the ex-military officer explained.

Ari Ben-Menashe, an Israeli-Canadian lobbyist hired last month by Myanmar's junta, has said that international news agencies would be allowed to come to Myanmar, after which the CNN crew arrived.

As CNN tours Yangon, five local media outlets remain banned by the junta since March 9: Mizzima, 7Day, DVB, Khit Thit and Myanmar Now. More than 50 journalists have been arrested since the February 1 coup, and 15 are formally facing charges, according to the Facebook page Detained Journalists Information Myanmar.

On March 26, the junta threatened on state-run TV to shoot protesters “in the head or back,” and a total of more than 100 civilians in at least 40 towns and cities were shot dead by the junta’s armed forces the following day on March 27.

Abuses against protesters were documented on Wednesday, despite the police directive calling for restraint. The armed forces used slingshots to disperse anti-coup protesters in Yangon and a bank employee was injured when a vehicle she was in was shot at by the junta’s troops at U Chit Maung Road in Yangon’s Tamwe township.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) has said that 636 civilians have been killed and more than 2,700 detained since the junta seized power.

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Soldiers threaten to burn down Mandalay Region village after residents denounce ‘military dogs’

More than 100 people fled Latpan Kyin after the junta’s forces arrived on Sunday

Myanmar Now

Published on Jul 30, 2021

A protester holds a banner in Latpan Kyin village on July 24 (Supplied)

Over 100 people fled a village in Mandalay Region’s Kyaukpadaung Township last week after the junta’s forces arrived and threatened to burn down every house if residents there continued to refer to soldiers as “military dogs,” two locals told Myanmar Now.

Police and plainclothes soldiers arrived at Latpan Kyin in more than 10 military trucks on Sunday and fired their guns in the air. The village has about 100 households.

One Latpan Kyin resident said that the military left after two nights once they forced community leaders in the village to sign pledges.

“They made them pledge not to protest and not to call them military dogs,” he said. “They’re worried we might harm their informant, so they made influential people sign the pledge and threatened to burn down the village next time.”

The evening before the soldiers arrived, Latpan Kyin villagers staged an anti-coup protest with banners reading: “Everyone revolt against the military dogs!” and “Never forgive. Never negotiate.”

The resident, who was among those who led the protest, said he believed the military had hoped to capture him and other activists during the raid. But soldiers left without making arrests after everyone fled except supporters of the military’s Union Solidarity and Development Party, he added.

The raid came after a conflict between a large number of residents and the village administrator, Htay Win, who is an alleged military informant, the resident said.

“The informant in our village has been asking the military to come for a while now,” he said. “He’s the administrator of the village. There was one occasion where the whole village threw rocks at him. He’s been calling the military to come ever since. He wants revenge, I guess.”

Residents initially fled to neighbouring villages but then moved to towns further away after hearing rumours that soldiers were searching the surrounding area.

Another Latpan Kyin resident said the military searched an activist’s house and stole 400,000 kyat, and also confiscated a man and a woman’s mobile phones.

Soldiers also fired shots in the air to scare people, he said. “They talked for a while and just started shooting.”

Military raid

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KIA attacks two junta military bases in northern Shan State

The Kachin forces fired artillery at two military posts located near strategic bridges

Myanmar Now

Published on Jul 30, 2021

A KIA soldier is seen on the frontline in 2012 (EPA)

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked two Myanmar military bases in northern Shan State early Thursday afternoon, the organisation’s spokesperson said.

KIA information officer Col Naw Bu told Myanmar Now that the Kachin forces fired heavy artillery at the junta’s military posts near two bridges: Nam Hkaing on the Union highway between Kutkai and Namphetka and Nam Paw, between Namphetka and Muse.

He added that the number of casualties was not yet confirmed.

"Fighting has broken out in many places these days. Fighting also broke out in the Mong Ko area,” Col Naw Bu said, referring to the town in Muse Township on the Shan-China border.

Nam Hkaing bridge is around 10 miles north of Kutkai and is a connecting point on the Lashio-Muse section of the Union highway.

A woman staying in the Hokho internally displaced persons camp in Mong Yu Lay village near Nam Hkaing bridge said she heard the sound of artillery shells being fired for around one hour, beginning at 11am.

"Because it was so close to us, we could hear the explosions. Out of fear, we did not dare to go out to see what was happening,” she said.

The junta’s military base near Kutkai town fired artillery shells back towards a base belonging to the KIA’s Battalion 9 under Brigade 6. Other Kutkai-based Myanmar military units joined the shelling, according to a Kutkai resident.

The fighting took place in an area where the KIA’s ninth battalion is active. There have been frequent clashes between the KIA and the junta’s army along the Lashio-Muse highway.

Mong Ko has also seen frequent bouts of fighting between the ethnic Kokang Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Myanmar military.

Since the February 1 military coup, heavy fighting has taken place between the KIA and the junta’s armed forces in northern Shan State and in neighbouring Kachin State.

The KIA, in cooperation with local People’s Defence Forces, has also fought the junta’s troops in Kawlin, Katha and Htigyaing townships in upper Sagaing Region.

On Monday afternoon, the KIA intercepted and attacked seven naval vessels belonging to the junta on the Irrawaddy River near Shwegu in Kachin State.

Prior to the coup, the KIA was not among the ethnic armed organisations signatory to the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement with the government and military, but had engaged in preliminary peace talks with the National League for Democracy administration.

In February, following the military’s attempted seizure of power in Myanmar, the KIA announced that they would protect anti-coup protesters in Kachin State and welcomed the resistance movement.

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PDF accuses pro-junta forces of using children to capture more than 50 of their members in Sagaing

Local resistance fighters in Mingin Township followed children carrying white flags to what they believed were negotiations with the Pyu Saw Htee, but what was actually a military set-up

Myanmar Now

Published on Jul 30, 2021

A photo circulating the social media showing some of the captured PDF members

A military-backed armed group allegedly used children to lure and capture more than 50 members of the People’s Defence Force (PDF) in Sagaing Region’s Mingin Township on Wednesday, according to a member of the local resistance who escaped.

Prior to the set-up, the Mingin PDF had been engaged in a clash with a local Pyu Saw Htee group—a nationwide pro-military network formed to counter the anti-coup resistance. The battle was one of the first reported between the PDF and the Pyu Saw Htee.

The fighting took place at 5am near Taung Phyu village east of the Chindwin River, where the Pyu Saw Htee had been stationed. The Pyu Saw Htee reportedly fired heavy weaponry including an RPG, which injured three local resistance fighters, a PDF member said.

After exchanging gunfire for 30 minutes, the PDF troops were reportedly approached by a group of adults who appeared to be civilians, following children carrying white flags. They invited them to enter the village—unarmed—for negotiations to end the clash, according to the PDF member.

He recounted the incident to Myanmar Now, saying that he was one of 18 fighters who opted not to follow the children. They were in the minority: some 57 PDF troops laid down their arms and walked into Taung Phyu expecting to engage in dialogue.

“We felt like they were luring us in. If they were real civilians, they’d have taken cover first to avoid getting shot, and then they would have come to us,” the escaped PDF member said.

He noted that after the 57 PDF members entered the village, there was no ceasefire or pause for talks; instead, the fighting continued as the remaining PDF members attempted to flee.

“Three of us were carrying the injured while five of us covered for them so that we could flee to the other side of the river on a boat. We only were able to escape because we managed to meet up with our group,” the escaped PDF member said.

Photos have circulated on social media showing some of the 57 captured PDF members with their hands tied behind their backs to a bamboo pole. Since not all of those who were taken were pictured, the other PDF members are concerned that some of their comrades have already been killed.

“I heard they took five members of the PDF leadership by helicopter to the northwestern regional military headquarters in Monywa,” a management officer of Mingin PDF said.

Myanmar Now was unable to independently verify where the PDF members had been taken.

Among the captured PDF members was a 20-year-old second year university student from the University of Computer Studies, Monywa, his mother told Myanmar Now.

“It’s unjust. [The military] are the ones with weapons, so they are persecuting my son. I heard that my son didn’t even have any weapons on him when he was taken,” she said.

The junta’s information department announced on Friday in military-run news outlets that “locals” in Taung Phyu had captured 53 “insurgents” alive in possession of 50 hunting rifles, and three dead bodies.

taungphyu_village.jpeg

A screengrab from Google Maps showing Taung Phyu village on the banks of the Chindwin River

A Mingin PDF leader said that the military “took advantage” of their desire to protect civilians and used it against them in order to trick and capture their members.

“That’s actually our weak point,” he said. “We have strict policies not to harm civilians as our very purpose is to protect civilians. They knew we were working with compassion and ethics and they took advantage of that.”

The Mingin PDF management officer said that before their members were captured, they had been prepared to attack the Pyu Saw Htee stronghold in Panset village near Taung Phyu on Wednesday morning.

In Panset, hundreds of pro-military fighters accompanied by several junta troops had already set up a makeshift base with bunkers and sandbag fortifications, so the PDF was dependent on reinforcement troops in order to ambush them. The group of PDF members captured in Taung Phyu were among those reinforcements.

“They only have one group, so we decided to surround them in the places they were stationed. We were going to send all of our groups to Panset village. We were forced to withdraw as one of our groups was captured,” the Mingin PDF management officer said.

The junta soldiers and Pyu Saw Htee members were allegedly providing military training and weapons in Panset with the support of a Union Solidarity and Development Party representative, according to local sources.

Myanmar Now was unable to confirm this at the time of reporting.

Around 15 villages near Panset along the Chindwin River in Mingin have recently been terrorised by the military and the Pyu Saw Htee, with reports that they have shot at civilians and forced villagers to flee their homes.