NUG interim president Duwa Lashi La delivered a video address via social media in which he asserted that the military had not only seized control of the country by force through a Feb. 1 coup d’état, but also violated the livelihoods and property of Myanmar’s 54 million citizens, necessitating its immediate overthrow.

In his 14-point address, the NUG leader said peaceful resistance had failed to convince the junta of the need to hand power back to the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government and that the people of Myanmar would no longer accept oppression “with their heads bowed.”

“The people’s resistance against the military dictatorship starts today, Sept. 7,” he said.

“This revolution is a people’s revolution, and the entire population of the Union of Myanmar must resist Min Aung Hlaing’s brutal military,” he said referring to the coup architect and junta leader, an army senior general.

The leader of the five-month-old NUG called on the numerous branches of the People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias and armed ethnic groups to “target the military and their support pillars to take control of their regions,” while also urging “all levels of local administrators to stop working immediately.”

He also urged the PDF to “protect the lives and property of the people” and to “strictly follow the regulations and instructions issued by the People’s Defense Army” under the NUG’s command.

The acting NUG president asked the public to avoid unnecessary travel and advised households to “store adequate amounts of food and medicine,” while preparing to aid PDF units.

Additionally, Duwa Lashi La called on the country’s Border Guard Force (BGF) and all militias under the junta to “join forces with the people” against the military, while asking that police personnel and civil servants formally align themselves with the NUG as soon as possible.

Witnesses told RFA’s Myanmar Service that residents of major cities, such as Yangon and Mandalay, were desperately buying food and medicine following the announcement on Tuesday.

The NUG declaration came weeks after the announced plans for a “D-Day” operation to purge the country of the junta through a popular uprising supported by a network of PDF groups formed to protect the public from the military.

In the seven months since the coup, security forces have killed 1,051 civilians and arrested at least 6,313, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP)—mostly during crackdowns on anti-junta protests.

The junta says it had to unseat Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD government because the party engineered a landslide victory in Myanmar’s November 2020 election through widespread voter fraud. It has yet to present evidence of its claims and public unrest is at an all-time high.

In Washington, a U.S. State Department spokesperson noted the declared launch of a “people’s defensive war” against the military regime, but called for peace to allow the delivery of aid and medicine.

“The United States does not condone violence as a solution to the current crisis in Burma and calls on all sides to remain peaceful,” said the spokesman, using the country’s former name.

“The worsening COVID-19 situation inside Burma underscores the need for a peaceful environment that allows for equitable, safe, and unhindered delivery of humanitarian assistance.  We continue to urge the regime to end all violence, restore Burma to its path to democracy, and to release all those unjustly detained,” the spokesman said.

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the pro-military Strategic Studies Institute, called the NUG’s announcement an “empty statement” that would have no effect, noting that the military had arrested “a number of PDF members and terrorists.”

“You can make an announcement only when you are in control of the situation,” he said.

“They are making an announcement without the ability to accomplish anything. Their supporters couldn’t follow their instructions if they wanted to.”

Thein Tun Oo said the number of bombings claimed by anti-junta groups had dropped and suggested “there won’t be many clashes or explosions in the cities as more and more PDF members are being arrested.”

Attempts by RFA’s Myanmar Service to contact military spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment went unanswered Tuesday.

At a Aug. 27 news conference in the capital Naypyidaw, Zaw Min Tun acknowledged that the military had “yet to take full control of the country” because the NUG, Parliament’s Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives (CRPH), and the PDF were seeking to undermine its rule through the D-Day campaign and other actions.

Despite Thein Tun Oo’s assessment that the NUG announcement would have little effect, representatives of various anti-junta groups pledged to join the fight and told RFA they believe it could ignite a full-scale revolution.

Other groups, including a PDF branch in Sagaing region’s Pale township, called on the NUG to follow up on its announcement with material support.

“We have made preparations to some extent and could begin the fight very soon, but we need an adequate number of weapons, as we have to face a powerful and well-organized enemy,” said Bo Naga of the Pale PDF. “We have high morale but not enough weapons.”

Armed ethnic groups said they expect fight against the junta to intensify.  But they said the NUG’s announcement made little difference to them because many of them are already fighting the military, which stepped up offensives in Myanmar’s remote border regions after seizing power in February.

“It’s nothing exciting for us because we have been fighting in our state every day like the ‘D-Day’ they are talking about,” said a spokesman for the Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) in Kayah state in the countries east..

“The announcement is expected to intensify the fighting. We are better prepared than ever, and all our comrades are already in place.”

Expectations that clashes would increase were echoed by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in northern Kachin state and the MNDAA Kokang military in neighboring Shan state – both regions that border China.

Immediately following the announcement, fighting was seen to intensify between the military and armed ethnic groups, as well as local branches of anti-junta militias.

A spokesman for the Beikthano PDF in Magway region’s ancient city of Bishnoi told RFA that his group carried out five bombings on military sites in the townships of Natmauk, Yesagyo, Myothit and Taungdwingyi shortly after noon. At least two soldiers were killed, and several others wounded, he said.

Meanwhile, clashes broke out in several villages in the deep southern Tanintharyi region townships of Pathein Chaung and Palaw under the control of the Karen National Union (KNU) on Tuesday, causing an unknown number of residents to flee the area.

Sources said the military suffered casualties but that no PDF members were killed in the fighting, although RFA was unable to independently verify the reports.

PDF forces in Kayah state’s Loikaw and Demawso townships also carried out attacks on the military on Tuesday.

The clashes came a day after a two-hour long battle broke out between Kanpetlet CDF and the YDF-Saw coalition forces and junta soldiers in Chin state after two military columns attacked a CDF battalion base. 

A spokesman for the Kanpetlet CDF said eight members of the CDF and three members of the YDF-Saw were injured in the clashes and that the military suffered at least 20 dead. RFA was unable to confirm the exact number of casualties.

Also on Monday, the military expanded its offensive against Kokang forces in northern Shan state’s Mongkoe sub-township near Myanmar’s border with China. Local media reported that a 34-year-old villager was wounded when junta troops shelled Phaungsai village, some 10 miles from Mongkoe.

Nearly 700 refugees have fled the fighting in recent days and have been unable to return to their homes, according to sources.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Aug. 27 that the number of people who need humanitarian aid in Myanmar increased to nearly two million since the military coup on Feb. 1.

OCHA said earlier last month that there are 205,260 internally displaced persons in Myanmar, most of whom are in Kayin, Kayah, Shan and Chin states.

They join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of conflict between the military and ethnic armies who were already counted as IDPs at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO.

Amid the fighting, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Special Envoy to Myanmar has called for a four-month ceasefire to allow the delivery of much-needed aid to the country—struggling with the triple crisis of political tensions, a failing economy, and a COVID-19 outbreak—as early as mid-September.

Erywan Yusof, Brunei’s second foreign minister, told Japan’s Kyodo News online over the weekend that he proposed the cease-fire until the end of this year in a videoconference with Myanmar’s military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, last week, and that the military had accepted it.

Erywan was appointed special envoy to Myanmar in early August, months after ASEAN leaders agreed to a “five-point consensus” that would see the junta end violence in the country, enter into dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the country’s political

The consensus calls for an immediate cessation of violence, the start of dialogue for a peaceful solution, the facilitation of the dialogue by a special envoy, humanitarian aid and the envoy’s visit to Myanmar to meet with all parties concerned.

In his speech, NUG interim president Duwa Lashi La said he hoped ASEAN countries and the rest of the world, including the United Nations, would understand as the announcement was made based on the needs of the country.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

The military has been embroiled in fighting with many of the hundreds of militia groups formed by citizens to oppose the junta, some of which are receiving training and support from armed ethnic groups that have been fighting with Myanmar’s military for decades.

In the country’s western Chin state, home to the mostly Christian ethnic Chin population, fighting between the military and local Chinland Defense Force (CDF) militias has raged since April.

During their campaign against the CDF, the junta’s forces set up posts inside churches, and in a church in Mindat township, troops drank liquor and destroyed copies of the Bible, a pastor told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

"They were drinking and behaving in the local church in Chat Village of Mindat Township, as if it was a tavern. There is much destruction in the church,” Chin Baptist Convention general secretary Law Ha Ling said.

He said soldiers defaced other places of worship in Chin state, including a Catholic church in Tal village in Falam Township on August 5, which they occupied for five days.

In recent clashes with the CDF, three churches in Mindat were also damaged, including the Great Catholic Church, which was broken into by soldiers.

"This shouldn't have happened. I think they should be even more careful, especially in a country like ours, which is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country that we have built together,” Law Ha Ling said. 

“Whoever rules the country should not let this kind of thing happen… by insulting a religion, it could be seen as an insult to the ethnic nationalities who believe in that religion,” he said.

Churches destroyed

Fighting destroyed two Baptist churches in the Chin state town of Kanpetlet on Aug. 6, a resident told RFA on condition of anonymity.

"This is a war crime because we know that soldiers are not allowed to be deployed in public buildings such as churches and hospitals,” said Salai Za Op Lin, deputy executive director of the Chin Human Rights Organization.

Junta spokesman Maj. Gen Zaw. Min Tun was unavailable for comment on the occupation and destruction of churches.

During its campaign in Chin state, the military destroyed stocks of food, at least some of which would go to feed refugees, a member of the local shadow government in Mindat township told RFA.

“The most important thing right now is rice. During the fighting, as the military passed through the villages, they doused the rice bags with diesel fuel or cut them open on the ground. There will be food shortages soon,” the administrator told RFA.

According to records compiled by RFA and relief groups, fighting since the February overthrow of Myanmar’s elected government has displaced around 280,000 people.

Fighting in eastern Kayah state has displaced more than 130,000 people, while another 70,000 refugees are sheltering parts of Karen and Mon states that are controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU), according to Naw Wa Khushee, spokeswoman for the Karen Peace Support Network, a refugee relief group.

In Kachin state, 336 post-coup clashes between the junta forces and the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) have displaced around 10,000 people, according to the Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team (KPICT), a group formed after the coup to advocate for the Kachins during military rule.

A local resident, who did not want to be named for security reasons, said that refugees had to live in makeshift shelters because there was no proper camp in Kachin state.

“There must be thousands of people as they came from about 500 houses from four villages,” the resident said, adding that they sometimes take refuge in churches at night and return home or to work in the morning. 

Pandemic effect

In Shan state, refugees face additional difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Maing Mai, a schoolteacher helping refugees in the eastern state.

"Some of the refugees are having difficulty getting enough food. A lot of things are not going well. Previously, there were many aid organizations, but COVID-19 brought about a lockdown in the camps,” Maing Mai said. 

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) told RFA that it estimated some 200,000 refugees were in Kachin, Kayah, Kayin and Chin states and the Sagaing and Magway regions.

The Kachin Baptist Church (KBC) told RFA that it is trying to win the release of three Christian pastors detained for holding peace prayer services.

Rev. Koshan Singsar of the KBC, Rev. Z Kaw Htinah of Christ Church and Rev. M Hawng Di of the Rawan Baptist Church, each in their 60s, held the special prayer service March 3, where they allegedly used the phrase “ending military dictatorship,” in violation of section 505 (a) of Myanmar’s Penal Code, which forbids defamation of the military.

The three pastors were arrested June 28 and are currently held at Nam Hot Prison in Putao township.

Their lawyer in July asked for the court to grant them bail, but the court asked him to file for bail at the next hearing. The courts where then shut down due to a nationwide upswing in the COVID-19 pandemic and the men remain in detention.

M Hawng Di has kidney and stomach diseases as well as diabetes, and Koshan Singsar has suffered a stroke. All three pastors face a high risk of contracting COVID-19 in prison, Nogmung residents told RFA.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

The 100 laborers are among a pool of some 230,000 workers who’ve sought work in China in the wake of armed conflict, environmental destruction and natural disasters in Myanmar, the Mekong region’s largest source of migrants, according to the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Myanmar migrants working in factories, construction sites, farms, restaurants, and as domestic helpers in China are not legally allowed to work in their giant neighbor, leaving them vulnerable to abuses including forced labor, wage theft, human trafficking, extortion, and debt bondage, aid groups say.

One of 100 Myanmar workers who had been working without pay since April at the Nishi Haitai Marine Food Co., Ltd. plant in the Shandong port city of Weihai contacted the Myanmar Embassy about the abusive practices.

Police first raided the plant in early June and arrested some Myanmar workers, but they were not sent to the Myanmar border for deportation and remain as forced laborers in the same factory, said the worker, who used the pseudonym Phoe Taung in his communication with the embassy and with RFA.

Around 60 Chinese police raided the plant in a second raid in August, and arrested 40 of the 100 workers, including Phoe Taung’s brother, Aung Myat Min, he said.

“The company must have bribed the police to raid and arrest Myanmar workers,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

“They arrested them instead of paying the wages for three months they were owed. The workers later realized the police were not bogus and that they were working together with the owner.”

Police confiscated the Myanmar workers’ cellphones, money, and other possessions, and have not yet announced when they would deport them back to Myanmar, said Phoe Taung.

Police officers came to the seafood processing plant, but the Chinese owners “had some police in their pockets,” Phoe Taung said.

The officers detained Aung Myat Min in handcuffs in a kitchen away from other workers and left him there for four days, he added.

Phoe Taung is now in hiding from the plant owner and Chinese police, who have been looking for him since he reported the abuse of Myanmar workers to the embassy and the media.

Myanmar’s embassy in Beijing told the workers that Chinese police would help them return home, but so far none of relatives of the detained workers have been contacted by the embassy, and their families have not been able to contact them while they are being held by Chinese authorities, Phoe Taung said.

Phoe Taung and his brother, from Taze township in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, worked in the Shandong plant for a monthly salary of 5,000 yuan (U.S. $773) before the coronavirus pandemic, Phoe Taung said.

The father of the two migrant workers said that during the pandemic his son hired a middleman to travel to Shandong for the factory job through an illegal border crossing at Muse in northern Shan state.

“He worked for the same company before, so he trusted them, assuming that the situation would be the same,” Win Myint said. “They gave meals to the workers, but they hadn’t received their wages for a long time.”

No Sino-Myanmar labor agreement

The Myanmar embassy in Beijing told him that officials there would take care of the arrested workers, but “they just ran away from the responsibility,” he said.

Win Myint said as he has been contacting Myanmar embassy, but everyone who answers the phone immediately hangs up on him.

RFA contacted the Myanmar embassy in Beijing on Aug. 30, but a staffer told a reporter to call back later, and subsequent calls were not answered.  RFA also contacted the Chinese embassy in Yangon by email, but has not received a response.

Myanmar authorities have been issuing red permit booklets with one-year expiration date for residents of northern Shan state to cross the border into China for travel.

Migrant workers from other states and regions can get a green permits for a single-trips to the Chinese border town of Ruili, across from Muse.  

Volunteers who provide assistance to Myanmar migrant workers said many laborers use the border-crossing permit booklets and cards illegally to work in China.

Ko Htay, chairman of Muse Humanitarian Aid Network, said his organization receives requests from detained migrant workers every day.  

“Some people from Kunming contacted us yesterday [because] they are too afraid to contact Myanmar consular office there as they don’t want to be charged,” he said.

The lack of a bilateral agreement regarding migrant workers is the cause of the problems, Ko Htay said.

“Myanmar has a bilateral agreement with Thailand, so migrant workers in Thailand have got some form of protection,” he said.

“In Thai-Myanmar border towns like Maesot, migrant workers assistance groups are operating their activities legally. It is not the same in China.”

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

Doctors not already detained by the junta are on the run to avoid arrest warrants, even as the country struggles with increasing numbers of new COVID-19 cases.

According to RFA records complied since the Feb. 1 coup, four doctors -- Phyo Thant Wai, Thiha Tun Tin, Sai Kwan Saing and Nyein Thu Aung -- have died as a direct result of violence committed by the junta’s security forces during anti-coup protests.

A fifth doctor, Maung Maung Nyein Tun, a surgeon at Mandalay Medical University who had joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) and provided free surgery to poor patients, was arrested by junta troops on June 13 and died Aug. 8 after contracting COVID-19 in prison.

The safety of detained doctors has been a major concern, according to their colleagues who remain free.

The junta’s violent repression of anti-coup protests and professionals who walked off their jobs to support the CDM has killed at least 1,044 people and arresting 6,197 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The AAPP has released a list of 45 arrested doctors and 416 doctors for whom arrest warrants had been issued through Aug. 30.  Most were arrested and charged under Section 505 (a) of Myanmar’s Penal Code, which punishes acts that “hinder, disturb, damage the motivation, discipline, health and conduct” of military personnel and government employees, but there have been no court sentences yet. 

Three doctors from Mandalay -- Kyaw Kyaw Thet, Thet Htay, and the widow of Maung Maung Nyein Tun, Swe Zin Oo -- were arrested in June and July. Sources told RFA that they are in prison and at least two of them have been infected with COVID-19.

“We only know that Dr. Kyaw Kyaw Thet and Dr. Thet Htay have contracted COVID-19. There is no word yet on where they are being held or what the charges are,” a CDM doctor in Mandalay told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Kyaw Kyaw Thet, who was beaten and arrested by the military in Mandalay on July 13, was giving lessons to medical students on YouTube after the coup and sharing medical knowledge with the public.

Thet Htay had been working in charity clinics and hospitals. He was arrested on July 16 while returning home from seeing a patient at a hospital.

“There are very few hematologists like Dr. Swe Zin Oo in our country. Imprisonment of such doctors is therefore very detrimental,” said the doctor, who requested anonymity for security reasons.

Another Mandalay doctor who joined the CDM told RFA that being sent to prison during a pandemic is essentially the junta’s way of imposing a death sentence.

“In other words, they are being tortured and persecuted and killed indirectly. If people die in prison, the military can just put the blame on COVID. These are people that just have to die for opposing the junta. There is no proper treatment in the prisons,” said the second doctor, who requested anonymity to speak freely.

“Dr. Maung Maung Nyein Tun lost his life because he couldn’t get enough oxygen. He didn’t get proper treatment when he contracted the virus in his cell and he was not hospitalized until it was too late. It’s like he was deliberately sent to his death.”

According to a survey conducted by Medical Family Mandalay, a local anti-junta rights group made up of medical industry professionals, 85 health workers in the city, including doctors and nurses, were arrested during protests after the coup and repeatedly subjected to psychological threats and physical abuse.

Some said they were arrested in their homes for getting involved in nonviolent anti-coup protests or supporting the protesters.

During the third wave of the pandemic, Myanmar’s cultural center and largest city Yangon has had a high mortality rate, but doctors there were not spared from arrests by the junta.

Members of the military disguised as COVID-19 patients on July 19 entered the temporary headquarters of the COVID-19 Prevention and Public Benefit Office in the city’s North Dagon township and arrested five doctors.

“They opened free clinics to treat patients and were arrested for it. Look at the case of North Dagon. We have had so much concern for these comrades. We are wondering whether they are doing well, whether they are getting enough food and water or if they are in life threatening situations,” a CDM doctor in Yangon told RFA.

“Those doctors who escaped arrest and are in hiding, like me, are also living in fear. We don’t know when we too might be arrested, so we are living with anxiety every day. It’s not only me, but all doctors like me are dealing with this,” the physician said.

The junta announced days after the coup that people could get treatment for coronavirus at military hospitals, but when the third wave hit n July, civilians were denied military care unless they were part of a military family, sources told RFA. 

The military has also arrested key people in Myanmar’s health sector, including Htar Htar Lin, the leader of the country’s COVID Vaccination Team, and Maw Maw Oo, chairman of the Myanmar Emergency Medical Association. Their whereabouts remain unknown. 

According to statistics from Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center, Myanmar has confirmed 406,099 cases of the virus and 15,600 deaths as of Friday.

Doctors in Myanmar told RFA that deaths peaked when more than 1,000 people died on a single day in July, but the rate of infection has not dropped yet.

An AAPP researcher blames the high infection rate and death toll on the coup.

“If the intellectuals, professionals and health workers and our young philanthropists were not in prison, if the young people did not flee to the jungles, we would certainly have survived the third wave of Covid,” the researcher told RFA. 

“The main culprit was the military regime that seized power on Feb. 1," the official said.

The New York-based PHR Physicians for Human Rights and CPHHR Johns Hopkins University Center for Public Health and Human Rights have reported at least 252 attacks on health workers by the junta since the Feb. 1 coup.

More than 190 health workers had been arrested in at least 86 hospital raids since the coup. Hospitals have been seized and occupied by the military at least 55 times, the two groups said in a report.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG), a shadow government made of former lawmakers ousted in the coup, as well as several armed ethnic groups, last month issued calls on members of the military and police to switch sides.

The security forces that have joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) that sprang up to resist the coup with protests and widespread work stoppages are represented by two groups. The CDM Myanmar Police Channel says 1,000 police have joined the movement, while People’s Embrace says about 1,500 members of the military have switched sides, and both groups say their numbers are growing.

To date, the highest-ranked defector has been an army colonel, the groups said on Facebook.

The NUG’s defense minister, Ye Mon, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that the appeal to the military is part of the shadow government’s plan to overthrow the military dictatorship.

"We understand that there are intelligent people among the military and the police. Especially those who know what is right or wrong, what is justice and what is injustice,” said Ye Mon.

“We believe there are many people who know which side they should choose. We expect this directive to have a major impact on most members of the police force and military personnel, except for the handful of the junta’s leaders and minions who have committed a series of war crimes," he said.

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,043 people and arresting 6,132 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Ye Mon said the skills and expertise of security forces who defect would be extremely useful in helping the people regain control of the country. In addition, he said the NUG would provide for the safety and well-being of their families.

Captain Lin Htet Aung, who recently joined the CDM, told RFA that the NUG’s outreach had been effective and many soldiers and police officers still serving the junta have contacted his group to learn more about how they can defect. 

“One of the reasons that people are not leaving the army is because they are thinking about their current rank and position, as well as their own security,” said Lin Htet Aung.

“The NUG is giving guarantees for that. Many in the armed forces are aware of this statement and have contacted us,” he said.

Current members of the military can be divided into three groups: those who support the junta, those who do not trust the junta, and a neutral group, Lin Htet Aung said. The defection of the latter two groups would spell doom for the junta, he added.

The NUG’s defense ministry last week urged police and soldiers to stop obeying junta orders and to stop arresting, torturing and killing civilians and destroying public property.

The ministry also called on them to stop attacking the people’s defense forces (PDF), the hundreds of militia groups formed by citizens opposed to the coup, some of which are receiving training and support from armed ethnic groups that have been fighting with the military for decades.

The NUG also told security forces how to contact the NUG if they wish to join the resistance.

A former police officer from Myingyan, in the country’s central region, told RFA that the messages from the NUG are encouraging to other police officers because there are many who want to leave but do not know how.

“There were people who wanted to leave their posts from the very beginning. It is encouraging for them to see such a statement that welcomes them,” Thet Naing Oo said.

“It was not only that they didn’t approve of the coup. They were unhappy that most of the higher positions in the police force were given to former army officers instead of those among them who had loyally served as officers for years. It was a slap in the face,” he said.

The Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) and the Chin Regional Defense Force (CDF), two of the armed ethnic groups that control territory in the country and have been fighting the military for years, told RFA they are trying to encourage members of the security forces to switch sides.

"The military coup was an unjust and coercive process. Only an insane person would say the actions of the junta are fair,” a KNDF spokesman told RFA.

He said it was common in Myanmar’s history for power hungry generals to exploit lower ranking soldiers for their own benefit, so these soldiers should stop serving the junta as soon as possible.

“There is still time for those in the army and police force as well as those who are working in support of the junta to engage with the people,” he said.

The KNDF said on Aug. 20 that it would work with the people to uproot the military dictatorship and would welcome those who join the movement with special security guarantees as well as monetary support from public donations.

The CDF, which launched the first civilian armed uprising after the coup, announced on Aug. 10 that it would pay each member of the military who joins the opposition force 5 million kyat (U.S. $3,037) and guarantee their safety.   

CDF officials would not disclose to RFA where the money was coming from, but a spokesman for the group said that they expected the announcement to entice soldiers to defect.

"Wouldn’t it be better if there is one less gun pointing at ordinary people?” he said.

“We released the statement as an incentive for police and soldiers who are confused, those who do not want to die for nothing in the jungle and those who dislike the military council," said the spokesman.

The stepped up defection enticement effort came as branches of the PDF militias from a dozen regions in Myanmar announced an alliance to collectively take on the country’s junta. The groups are mostly based in embattled Sagaing region and Chin state, but are also located in of Mandalay and Magway regions, as well as Kachin and other ethnic states.

The junta said last week that the NUG and other groups are trying to disrupt government business and are carrying out terror attacks daily to intimidate the public. The military also offered rewards to whistleblowers and informants who help make arrests of people associated with anti-junta groups.

The military has not yet commented on soldier or police defection to the CDM or other resistance groups.

Local media outlets have quoted military sources as saying that the number of soldiers and officers leaving their posts to join the CDM is rising daily, prompting the junta to consider releasing the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi and holding national elections.

According to the CIA’s World Factbook, there are about 400,000 soldiers in Myanmar’s military, making it one of the largest in Southeast Asia.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

Sheltered in camps near the Rakhine state capital Sittwe, the Rohingya were driven from their homes by ethnic clashes with the state’s majority-Buddhist population in 2012, and had been supported until now by contributions from the U.N. World Food Programme.

Deliveries of food have fallen off, though, due to economic disruptions tied to the spread of coronavirus in Myanmar, and the Rohingya now have trouble finding sufficient food, shelter, or work in the camps, one camp resident said.

“How can we eat when we are not allowed to work outside the camps?” asked Maung Kyaw Sein, a resident of the Thekkair-byin refugee camp, adding that he and others have now lived in the camp for around ten years.

“We want to go back,” he said. “We want to return to our old places, where we can find work and food. We can’t find any work here, and we don’t have enough rice or any other kinds of food.”

Deadly ethnic clashes in Rakhine in 2012 destroyed factories and other businesses in Sittwe, killing nearly 200 Rohingya and displacing 140,000 members of the persecuted community, who are denied citizenship and labeled illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. They were settled in 14 camps west of Sittwe after their homes were burned down and their property destroyed during the fighting.

Five years after the Sittwe violence, Myanmar's military launched a scorched-earth campaign against ethnic Rohingya villages in response to attacks by Muslim insurgents on police posts in Rakhine, burning villages, killing residents, and driving 740,000 Rohingya across the border to Bangladesh. About 600,000 Rohingya remain in Rakhine state, which has about 3.1 million people.

The 2017 attacks have since been described by international rights groups and foreign governments as constituting acts of “genocide” and “crimes against humanity.”

Requests ignored

The Rohingya in Sittwe have repeatedly asked to be settled again in their former villages along the Bay of Bengal in northern Rakhine, but previous Myanmar governments—including the National League for Democracy government ousted in a Feb. 1 military coup—have ignored their requests without explanation.

Although government authorities had previously promised to build new houses for the displaced Rohingya, nothing was ever done, said one resident of the Thekkhair-byin refugee camp named Maung Maung.

“We had to move from Sittwe in 2012 to the refugee camp south of Sittwe, and our entire family now has to live in a 10’ by 10’ room, so we have a lot of difficulties,” he said.

“Government officials would sometimes come here and say they would give us a house,” he said, adding, “We asked them instead to let us go back to our former areas, but nothing has happened yet.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons, another refugee said they would like to ask authorities for permission to travel freely and return to their original places of residence because of food shortages in the camps.

“In the past, we had shops and could operate our own businesses, but we can’t do anything here. We hope that the government will give us back our original places,” he said.

Myanmar military forces still guard the roads leading to Rohingya refugee camps in Sittwe, and discrimination against the Rohingya continues, local Muslim Rohingya elders say, adding that some Rohingya leave the area illegally by boat each year in attempts to reach Thailand or Malaysia, where they hope to find a better life.

Calls requesting comment from the Rakhine State Military Council on the refugees’ demands for repatriation and freedom of movement rang unanswered.

Death in detention

Ruby Alam, a Rohingya administrator in U Shay Kya village in Rakhine’s Maungdaw township, died in detention this week after being arrested by Myanmar security forces, sources told RFA. His body was brought to the Maungdaw township hospital on Aug. 31, a village administrator said on Wednesday.

“We learned that he was arrested on Aug. 29, and his body was returned to the hospital yesterday morning and then buried in the evening. That’s all we know,” the administrator said, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

Ruby Alam was buried at a Muslim cemetery at around 5:00 p.m., said Shwe Htoo Khaing, chairman of the Maungdaw Karuna Network Funeral Aid Association, whose group was asked by the hospital to help. “It was our duty to help them. We could not ask what happened,” he said.

Reached for comment, Nay Oo—Maungdaw District Administrator for the Military Council—denied any knowledge of Ruby Alam’s death, and no information on why he had been arrested was immediately available.  

His body bore signs of bruising on his arms and legs, and he was believed to have died of a heart attack, sources said.

'Bengalis'

Earlier this week, Myanmar’s ruling junta instructed government employees and administrative staff in a secret memo not to use the term “Rohingya” to describe those living in the Sittwe camps or the hundreds of thousands driven by the military into Bangladesh in 2017, sources who received the memo told RFA.

Instead, the memo said, the ethnic group should be called “Bengalis,” a pejorative term referring to the group’s supposed status as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, though many have lived in Myanmar for generations.

The National Unity Government (NUG), formed in opposition to military rule, has promised to amend the country’s constitution to give citizenship to the Rohingya, who are not recognized as an official ethnic group in Myanmar.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Kyaw Min Htun. Written in English by Richard Finney.

The nearly 50,000 people from dozens of villages in the township left the area over several days beginning on Aug. 27, when government soldiers arrived in Kinma and Wun Chone villages. For the last seven days, soldiers have been interrogating villagers about a local branch of the People’s Defense Forces (PDF) militia and destroying supplies they say could be used to support the fighters, a resident told RFA’s Myanmar Service, speaking on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

“Residents of at least 30 villages have fled their homes as they heard the military will launch an operation," the resident said.

“I think approximately 50,000 people have fled. Most of them are from large villages, except some from one or two small villages.”

Another resident said government troops had bivouacked at a monastery in Kin Ma village and were terrorizing inhabitants.

“Today they burned 36 bags of rice and the tarps we kept for distributing to IDPs,” the resident said, using an acronym for internally displaced persons.

“We learnt that they burnt them on the grounds between the monastery and a mess hall.”

The rice and tarps had been donated by local charities in Kinma village, the resident said.

Some of the villagers who fled have returned to their homes, but most are too afraid to come back, he added.

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected National League for Democracy (NLD) government on Feb. 1, claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,041 people and arresting 6,107 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local PDF militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmar’s periphery.

Pauk township has been the scene of frequent fighting between the PDF and junta troops, with villages regularly caught in the crossfire of artillery blasts and mine explosions.

On June 16, nearly all the homes in Kinma village were torched to the ground during clashes, with both sides blaming the other for the incident.

As recently as Monday, seven government troops were killed and an unconfirmed number of others injured by a PDF mine attack near Wun Chone village, residents said.

Loikaw township IDPs

Fighting in Kayah state’s Loikaw township has also forced residents to flee their homes in recent weeks, with sources in the region saying that clashes between the military and a joint battalion of Karenni National Defense Force (KNDF) and Karenni Army fighters in Loilem Lay village on Aug. 31 prompted nearly 8,000 people to seek refuge in temporary camps.

The fighting, which lasted for more than an hour, caused casualties on both sides and came a day after junta troops fired mortars into Loikaw’s Daltahay village, while also raiding Loilem Lay and Tee Lom villages, according to the KDNF’s spokesperson.

An IDP, who declined to be named for security reasons, said that he and others placed as much food as they could on motorbikes and fled.

“There are at least 8,000 people from Htee Sel Khar village tract,” he said.

Volunteers said there were at least 170,000 IDPs from the Kayah state townships of Demoso, Loikaw, Fruso and Bawlakhe since May 20.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta deputy information minister Major Gen Zaw Min Tun for confirmation of the fighting in Magway region and Kayah state went unanswered Wednesday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) announced on Aug. 27 that the number of people who need humanitarian aid in Myanmar increased to around two million since the military coup on Feb. 1.

OCHA said earlier last month that there are 205,260 IDPs in Myanmar, most of whom are in Kayin, Kayah, Shan and Chin states.

They join more than 500,000 refugees from decades of conflict between the military and ethnic armies who were already counted as IDPs at the end of 2020, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center, a Norwegian NGO.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

The PDF groups, which are mostly based in embattled Sagaing region and Chin state, but are also located in of Mandalay and Magway regions, as well as Kachin and other ethnic states, announced on Aug. 28 that they had allied to bolster their resistance to the military and told RFA’s Myanmar Service they would welcome additional militias into the fold.

“It means a stronger united force through which each group can help the others with whatever is needed,” said a member of the Nhalone-hla Hardcores, a group based in the seat of Mandalay’s Myingyan township.

“Right now, we are 12 in a unified group. If other groups want to join us, our leaders will consult with them and decide whether to accept them or not.”

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected NLD government on Feb. 1, claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,041 people and arresting 6,107 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local PDF militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmar’s periphery.

The alliance of a dozen PDF groups announced over the weekend expands on one formed by the Mindat PDF, which had been engaged in frequent clashes with the junta forces, the Kanpetlet Defense Force (KDF), the Chin National League—comprised of the Falam, Kalay and Kabaw PDFs—and the Zomi Federal Union—comprised of the Tedim and Tunzan PDFs—formed on Aug 24.

A spokesman for the Mindat PDF in Chin state told RFA that there had been several clashes with the junta troops throughout the month of August and said the military’s advantages in ammunition and manpower necessitated the merger.

“The main reason is to be able to help one another in case the whole country revolts against the junta at the same time … We can exchange information among ourselves as well as with the [shadow National Unity Government] NUG,” the spokesman said.

“But most of what we agreed to was our own decision. After several clashes, we were running out of weapons and ammunition while they became more powerful in strength as well as in weaponry. We were also struggling with manpower. The dictatorship will not be overthrown just by winning one or two clashes. We need to be well-prepared in resources and fight together as one.”

PDF groups in Chin state have been fighting with the military since mid-April and in Mindat township clashes took place as recently as Tuesday, a Chinland Defense Force member said.

“Our priority is not to get people hurt. We all have agreed to what we want as our ultimate goal—those in one area should rise up when another area is under pressure. Otherwise, that area might be wiped out,” he said.

“We have to be ready at all times to help other groups as soon as we get information. Though the NUG is the main vehicle that connects us, it would make more sense if our resistance groups came together with the same desire to uproot this dictatorial junta.”

Reports of the alliance came a day after junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun urged the PDFs to surrender and called on the public to provide information on the groups to assist in shutting them down.

“These are very serious and devastating acts of violence,” he told a press conference in the capital Naypyidaw. “I don’t think any country has ever faced such degrading acts. We want to ask the public to oppose such extremists and terrorists in our nation.”

It also came as Police Chief Kyaw Lin of the junta’s Ministry of Home Affairs warned that legal action has been taken against NUG, Parliament’s Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Committee of Representatives (CRPH), and PDFs under anti-terrorism laws and that arrest warrants were being sent to InterPol’s 194 member countries.

Political analyst Ye Tun, a former member of the Burmese Communist Party (BCP), told RFA Wednesday that no matter how many resistance groups are formed, only a good leader can lead them to victory against the military.

“Only by forming a single army under a unified military commander can the whole nation be victorious,” he said.

“The groups are currently fighting in a loose alliance through guerrilla warfare. They need a strong unified leader to become a formidable force.”

The NUG recently said it will soon announce a date for local PDFs to join in a “D-Day” military strike against the junta.

Likelihood of power transfer

Also on Wednesday, several key political parties expressed doubt about the military regime’s promise that it would hold a new election and transfer power to a civilian government within two years.

On Aug. 27, the junta’s deputy information minister announced during a press conference in Naypyidaw that preparation was “already underway … [to] transfer the power and government authority to the winning party of the new election according to democratic principles.”

However, representatives of the country’s top political parties were quick to dismiss the pledge.

Sai Leik, the general secretary of the Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD), noted that the junta has reneged on its promises to transfer power to a civilian government in the past and said his party “doesn’t trust them this time either.”

A member of the NLD’s central executive committee who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFA that the junta is working to remove his party from politics altogether and would likely only hold elections if it is guaranteed to win them.

“They will purge the opposition either through [failure to contain] COVID-19, violence, or detention,” the NLD member said.

“They will only allow the candidates they want to participate and create a situation that will guarantee their victory. Only then, they will hold an election.”

Political analyst Ye Htun said that if the military holds an election without the NLD’s participation, the new government will lack the support of the public.

“Without the NLD’s participation, [the military] will never hold a free and fair election,” he said.

“Whichever party wins will have no legitimacy; this is for sure. There are an endless number of instabilities in the country. I think it is the best to allow NLD to participate in the election, instead of disbanding it.”

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Sources close to the ambassador tell Radio Free Asia that one of the plotters arrested in early August was on a team of security volunteers at Myanmar’s U.N. mission in New York, but was sidelined because he was suspected of intruding into the ambassador’s office. He later confessed to his involvement in the plot to kill Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun.

U.S. authorities revealed the plot on Aug. 6, after they arrested the security volunteer, Phyo Hein Htut, 28, and another suspect, Ye Hein Zaw, 20, who is said to have been an intermediary who sent money from an arms dealer in Thailand to bankroll the attack. The alleged goal was to force Kyaw Moe Tun to step down as Myanmar’s permanent representative to the UN. Both suspects are Myanmar citizens residing in New York.

RFA spoke at length with Thaung Hlaing and Phoe Khwar, who are among Burmese democracy activists living in New York who volunteered to help provide security for the ambassador because of fears for his safety after he spoke out against the military junta that seized power Feb. 1. Phoe Khwar was once a student activist, who served as a bodyguard for Aung San Suu Kyi after her release from house arrest in 1995 – long before she emerged as the nation’s civilian leader.

The ambassador has previously told RFA that he learned of the plot from the Burmese community in New York who have rallied around him since he gave a high profile address Feb. 26 to the U.N. General Assembly, appealing to the international community to end military dictatorship and help restore democracy in Myanmar. The junta has demanded he step down as an ambassador, which he has refused to do.

A U.N. credentials committee is expected to meet to decide about who represents Myanmar at the world body, which opens a new General Assembly session and holds its annual gathering of world leaders in mid-September.

Thaung Hlaing said the Burmese pro-democrats in New York had been concerned that the ambassador could be shut out of his own embassy by the military – the fate of Myanmar’s ambassador to London in April. So they changed locks at Myanmar’s U.N. mission in New York, guarded it day and night, and provided an escort to the ambassador when he traveled outside the mission.

Among the volunteers assigned to guard the building was Phyo Hein Htut who had befriended Phoe Khwar.

Phyo Hein Htut had past associations with Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party. He had participated in the Mother’s House, or Amay Eain, an NLD-run education network. He spoke good English and was part of a delegation from the network that visited China in 2017, according to Myo Yan Naung Thein, an NLD researcher. Phyo Hein Htut had also attended the Yangon School of Political Science.

He departed Myanmar for the United States in September 2019, spent time in San Francisco before coming to New York, his Facebook history shows. He did various casual jobs, and after the coup in Myanmar, he took part in a pro-democracy demonstration in New York on Feb. 12. He also attended an anti-coup protest in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., on May 22, a photo of the event taken by an RFA reporter shows.

But his behavior on the ambassador’s security detail raised suspicions. Thaung Hlaing told RFA that one night Phyo Hein Htut entered the room of the ambassador’s secretary to take pictures.

“We had four guys during the day and four guys during the night taking turns on sentry duty,” Thaung Hlaing said. “Each man slept for three hours at a time. And this guy (Phyo Hein Htut) while on sentry duty went into the room of the ambassador’s secretary, a Filipino woman, and took pictures.”

“Nobody knew about that at first. After two days, the ambassador told Phoe Khwar that his secretary had complained someone had entered the room. I think she was talking about some documents not being in the proper place.”

After that Phyo Hein Htut was not allowed to enter the mission premises.

It would later emerge after the two suspects were charged, that Phyo Hein Htut had been contacted over Facebook and Facetime by the arms dealer in Thailand. According a deposition by an FBI agent, Phyo Hein Htut said the arms dealer had seen a picture of him at the Myanmar mission and had offered him money to hire attackers to kill the ambassador.

Thaung Hlaing identified the arms dealer, who has not been named by U.S. authorities, as a Bangkok-based friend of Phyo Hein Htut’s father. He allegedly appears in a photo at the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok taken in August 2017. RFA was not able to independently verify the identity of the person named by Thaung Hlaing or trace him to seek comment.

Phyo Hein Htut’s motives for allegedly conspiring in the plot, which he would subsequently reveal to Phoe Khwar and Thaung Hlaing, remain obscure. RFA has sent e-mails to his lawyer for comment, but has received no reply as of Wednesday.

Phyo Hein Htut may have been short of money. A restauranteur in New York who requested anonymity to speak about the suspects who had visited his restaurant, said that a friend of Phyo Hein Htut’s father who had provided him accommodation in New York had kicked him out of the house.

“The young man said he didn’t want to do it but he accepted the money as he needed it,” Thaung Hlaing said of the plot. “And he told me that he had planned to tell us about the plot. We asked him to tell us everything and promised we would try to extricate him from the plot.”

Given the gravity of the alleged conspiracy, the amount of money he got for his role in it seems small. According to the FBI deposition, the other suspect, Ye Hein Zaw transferred $4,000 from the arms dealer to Phyo Hein Htut through a money transfer app as an advance payment on the plot to attack the ambassador. Phyo Hein Htut then requested another $1,000 to finish the job.

And who ordered the plot remains murky. Logic suggests that those who would benefit from forcing the ambassador to step down were supporters of coup leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. The junta has denied involvement.

But there are some clues suggesting Phyo Hein Htut and his family had ties to senior figures in the military. A photo provided by Phyo Hein Htut to Thaung Hlaing shows him next to Kyaw Kyaw Naing Tun, a grandson of former junta chief Senior Gen. Than Shwe. The two men used to frequent Yangon nightclubs together, Thaung Hlaing recounted Phyo Hein Htut as saying.

Phyo Hein Htut initially revealed the plot to kill the ambassador to Phoe Khwar. Thaung Hlaing said he subsequently met with Phyo Hein Htut on Aug. 2 and listened in on a phone conversation he had with the arms dealer. They met again in New York’s Central Park with Phoe Khwar, at which point Phyo Hein Htut revealed that hotels had been booked in New York and Westchester for two other alleged plotters who were to arrive from overseas.

At this point, Thaung Hlaing informed ambassador, who alerted U.N. security officials. The FBI questioned Thaung Hlaing that night, and the following day, Aug. 4, Phyo Hein Htut was arrested. Ye Hein Zaw was arrested Aug. 5.

On Aug. 6, Phyo Hein Htut and Ye Hein Zaw were charged with conspiracy to assault and make a violent attack upon a foreign official, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane and Ye Kaung Myint Maung.

Myanmar solidarity groups have appeared in around 37 countries, including South Korea, Malaysia, the Czech Republic, and the democratic island of Taiwan, where RFA's Mandarin Service and The Reporter, a Taiwan-based magazine, caught up with them in a joint project published by both media outlets.

With an exodus of migrant workers and refugees in recent years, around one million Burmese are now living outside the country, and overseas activism is beginning to make a tangible impact, with aid money finding its way back to aid the political opposition to the military regime.

A government-in-exile, known as the National Unity Government, has united a number of overseas groups across 27 countries in a bid to reverse the coup and return to some semblance of democratic government.

Zeyer, a 44-year-old migrant worker who has been in Malaysia for 25 years, said the coup and subsequent violence in response to a mass civil disobedience campaign have had a profound impact on his co-workers from Myanmar at an electronics factory.

Along with compatriot Zed, Zeyer joined the "We Love Motherland" campaign group set up to resist the coup on Feb. 13, 2021.

"We can't let the soldiers steal our country," he told The Reporter. "I want to fight for my son's future here [in Malaysia]."

The group soon made contact with more than 20 similar organizations in Malaysia, and started coordinating with them to streamline the flow of money back into Myanmar from supporters overseas.

The alliance also provides a platform for exchange and communication between the groups and does some lobbying work.

"It can also persuade the Malaysian government to make policies that are beneficial to the national unity government," Zed said.

Some 20,000 Burmese migrants are currently living in South Korea, where they are concentrated in a few industries and cities, of which Pyeongtaek, about an hour’s drive from Seoul, is one.

34-year-old Myo Zin has worked in an auto parts factory in South Korea for the last seven years. He also runs a Burmese store near the Pyeongtaek railway station. He has previously served as chairman of the local migrant workers' association, which helps Myanmar migrant workers negotiate with South Korean bosses.

When the coup came, this usually slick businessman became the leader of migrant workers from Myanmar in Pyeongtaek.

It's quite a change of emphasis.

"Before, I used to think constantly about how to make money, but now I think about how to support the struggle all the time," he said, revealing that he donates around half of his monthly salary to the cause.

He says he won't stop until the junta is overthrown.

Hitting the streets

Shwe Moe, who has been in South Korea for 20 years, hits the streets of major cities in South Korea on weekends to explain what is going on back home in Myanmar to local people.

She has been working as an English tutor to primary school students, and recently cut back her hours to four days a week to give her more time for activism.

She now travels the length and breadth of South Korea, attending meetings with other exile groups and organizing petitions to the government on issues like visa extensions for Myanmar nationals too afraid to return home.

"Sometimes I have meetings from morning until night," Shwe Moe said.

The Overseas Burmese Union has organized a team of educators to design teaching materials for use in Myanmar's school system, so students affected by the violence can still attend classes online.

Linn Thant, who was officially recognized by the Czech government as the representative of the Myanmar National Unity Government in the Czech Republic on May 24, told The Reporter that his daily job is to deal with government officials in Eastern Europe and Asia.

"My job is actually very similar to Taiwan officials persuading other countries to recognize Taiwan," he says.

The democratic island, which has never been ruled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), nonetheless faces the ongoing threat of invasion by Beijing, which puts huge pressure on its diplomatic partners to shut Taiwan's 23 million people out of participation in international agencies.

"The most important thing is to get them to recognize the National Unity Government as the legitimate government representing Myanmar," Linn Thant, a former leader of the 1988 student-led pro-democracy movement in Myanmar, said.

Anonymous death threats

But his work isn't without personal risk.

Linn Thant told The Reporter he has received numerous, anonymous death threats. But he has no intention of caving in to attempts to intimidate him.

In Busan, 27-year-old Pan, a member of the Kachin ethnic group from Myanmar, has repurposed her Facebook page previously reserved for pictures of her son and anecdotes about her daily life, to campaign for donations for those resisting the military junta, post-coup.

"I feel a great weight of responsibility on my shoulders," Pan told The Reporter. "I feel like I have to encourage everyone."

"I was rendered exhausted by this coup, and my heart is broken into pieces," she said, adding that she needs to limit her exposure to online comments amid tensions between the majority Bamar ethnic group and the Kachin.

There are other pressures, too.

An overseas Burmese who declined to be named said that he chose not to let his family back home know that he was engaged in the resistance movement overseas, for fear they would worry, and for fear that his identity could be revealed and make them a target of the military.

The Facebook pages of Shwe Mo, Pan and other overseas campaigners display photos of resistance, with people making the three-finger salute that characterizes the Myanmar democracy movement.

They too are aware that this could attract unwanted attention from the regime, but want to encourage public support for the movement nonetheless.

Reported by RFA's Mandarin Service and The Reporter, a Taiwan-based investigative magazine. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

Clashes began on Aug. 28 when military troops attacked members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the formal name of the Kokang army, and escalated the following day throughout Lashio’s townships of Pangsang, Kyukoke and Mongko, local sources told RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Four civilians, including a 10-year-old child, were killed in shelling by military troops on Aug. 29, said a resident of Lashio—a city of 130,000 people populated by Shan, the country’s second largest ethnic group, majority Burmans and Chinese.

“They fire heavy artillery, and the local civilians don’t see it coming,” the source said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“Many civilians have been killed by the shelling. An entire family was killed in a blast two days ago. We are living in fear, as the shelling comes out of nowhere. We are all terrified by the artillery blasts.”

A resident of Mongko township, who also declined to be named, said that fighting also occurred on Monday and broke out again on Tuesday around 7:00 a.m. between the villages of Mongko and Mangmao.

“The villagers have fled their homes,” the resident said. “I don’t know where they are fleeing to. I don’t know the exact number of causalities. I heard some soldiers were killed in the fighting.”

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected NLD government on Feb. 1, claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,040 people and arresting 6,069 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmar’s periphery.

Volunteers assisting civilians in Lashio told RFA on Tuesday that more than 800 civilians had fled the fighting in the area over the past four days.

“We’ve got more than 700 IDPs (internally displaced persons) now,” said a volunteer in Mongko, where the refugees are temporarily sheltering at a Buddhist monastery and a church.

“They need mostly food and medicine. So far, we have been taking care of them with donations from the town residents. Additionally, there are no drivers or vehicles to transport commodities for these IDPs. We can transport medicines. But most drivers are too scared to drive out of town.”

Additionally, residents and volunteers said that more than 130 civilians had fled fighting in Mongko township near Post No. 102 on the border with China, adding to the 700 IDOs sheltering in the town center.

Soldiers killed

Sources in the area told RFA that the military had “lost many soldiers” during the past four days of clashes.

The MNDAA released a statement on Monday that included photos of machine guns, rifles, pistols and ammunition its fighters had captured from the military, as well as confiscated uniforms with insignias denoting the ranks of Major and Captain.

The Kachin Waves media outlet, based in neighboring Kachin state, reported Tuesday that the MNDAA and residents had discovered the discarded bodies of 17 government troops who were killed during fighting near Phaingkaung village in Mongko township.

Attempts by RFA to contact junta spokesperson Major Ge Zaw Min Tun for further information about the recent fighting and military casualties went unanswered Tuesday.

In April, three ethnic armed groups that support Myanmar’s anti-junta protest movement, including the MNDAA, killed 14 police officers and burned their station to the ground in a dawn raid in Naungmon, south of Lashio.

The raid sparked fierce fighting in Khar Shwe village outside Lashio as the military regime sent helicopters to attack ethnic rebels with the Three Brotherhood Alliance, which also includes the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Among the 45 charged under Sections 55, 56 and 63 of the country’s anti-corruption law since the Feb. 1 coup are NLD leader and former state counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, former mayor of the capital Naypyidaw Dr. Myo Aung, five former regional and state chief ministers, two former cabinet ministers, and a former speaker of a regional parliament, according to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service.

Those found guilty face up to 15 years in prison and fines.

Chu Chu and Nang Shwe Myint, the wives of Sagaing Region Chief Minister Dr. Myint Naing and Shan State Chief Minister Dr. Lin Htut, told RFA that the charges against their husbands and other NLD officials are laughable, as the party has always sought to root out corruption as one of its principal platforms.

“We have fought all along against corruption because we don’t accept it—the NLD has always worked to rid the country of corruption, which it despises,” Chu Chu said.

“Do you think [party members] would violate this law themselves? [The junta] just uses any charge it wants. Our conscience is clear. I can say without a doubt that we have never committed any acts of corruption.”

Nang Shwe Myint said it is “unbelievable” that nearly all the NLD’s state and regional chief ministers have been prosecuted for graft.

“[The junta] just does what it wants,” she said. “I strongly believe the [NLD leaders] have done nothing like the corruption they are accused of. I have nothing else to say about these bogus charges.”

Documents and data obtained by RFA list other NLD officials in detention for corruption as Naypyidaw Deputy Mayor Ye Min Oo, Mandalay Region Chief Minister Dr. Zaw Myint Maung, Magway Region Chief Minister Dr. Aung Moe Nyo, Bago Region Chief Minister Win Thein, Rakhine State Prime Minister Nyi Pu, Kayin State Chief Minister Nang Khin Htwe Myint, Kachin State Chief Minister Dr. Khet Aung,  and Mon State Prime Minister Dr Aye Zan.

Two former NLD union ministers charged with corruption are Minister for Religion and Culture Thura Aung Ko and Minister for Social Welfare, Relief and Resettlement Win Myat Aye. Of the two, Thura Aung Ko was arrested by the military, but Win Myat Aye is on the run. Magway Region Hluttaw Speaker U Tar and Yangon Region Social Affairs Minister Naing Lin and other regional and state cabinet ministers have also been charged under anti-corruption laws.

Bid to ‘damage reputations’

Myanmar’s military overthrew the democratically elected NLD government on Feb. 1, claiming the party had stolen the country’s November 2020 ballot through voter fraud. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing at least 1,040 people and arresting 6,069 others, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The junta has said the NLD government “failed to follow proper procedures” and “abused power for personal gain,” squandering state finances. Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing told a meeting of junta officials in Naypyidaw on Aug. 23 that the Anti-Corruption Commission is “investigating illegal activities under the previous government.”

But legal analysts told RFA that the military’s bid to prosecute the NLD’s leaders on corruption charges is aimed at tarnishing the party’s image at a time of heightened political rivalry in the country.

“To open charges of corruption against those who hold office amid intense political competition is mainly to damage their reputations and also to suppress their opposition activities,” veteran lawyer Khin Maung Myint told RFA.

“We have seen this in many cases. Whether the charges are true or not will only be found out after the two sides appear in court and find a decision.”

Saw Than Htut, the brother of Karen State Prime Minister Nang Khin Htwe Myint, said the junta is seeking to justify long prison terms for NLD members, including Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent some 15 years under house arrest under the country’s former military junta until her release in 2010.

“The reason the military is suing all these leaders on corruption charges, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and chief ministers of various states and regions, is so that they can hold onto power,” he said.

“Of course, our leader is such a shrewd person. She is clean and our NLD leaders have worked to fight corruption all along.”

While RFA has been able to identify 45 NLD leaders who are facing prosecution under Myanmar’s anti-corruption law, sources say the number of actual arrests and imprisonments is likely to be much higher.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Thet Thet Aung, a labor official with the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society rights group, told RFA’s Myanmar Service that authorities have been offering monetary rewards to factory workers to get the Sinopharm vaccine, while others are threatening to fire those who refuse to.

She said workers at a small number of factories had not been pressured to get vaccinated, but most had been “forced” to do so.

“Most workers are too scared to be vaccinated … because they haven’t been given any details about the vaccine,” she said.

“But the factory told them they would be fired if they didn’t get vaccinated. This is happening in many factories.”

Thet Thet Aung said workers at one factory had been asked, without any pressure, to get vaccinated, but that it has now “become mandatory.”

“If you refuse, you would be fired. That’s the situation,” she said.

“The workers are now questioning who will take the responsibility if something happens [to them] after taking the vaccine. And the factory officials said it was not their responsibility. There are some factories where workers are not pressured about this. But that’s only a few.”

She said the workers are unwilling to be vaccinated because the factory has refused to give them a leave of absence if they become ill after receiving the shot.

China has shipped millions of doses of its Sinopharm vaccine to Myanmar in July and August as the Southeast Asian nation grapples with a third outbreak of COVID-19 that has killed 6,241 people and infected nearly 98,000 in the past month. Officials say at least 15,183 people have died and 392,300 have been infected since the start of the pandemic, but sources say the numbers are likely much higher.

Efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus in Myanmar were dealt a serious blow when the military seized power in a Feb. 1 coup d’état. The country’s healthcare system is now at the brink of collapse due to a poorly managed response to a third wave of COVID-19 that has killed more than 8,600 people in the past month alone.

The country’s public hospitals are operating at maximum capacity and have been turning away all but the most seriously ill. Other patients are being forced to settle for treatment at home amid shortages of basic medical necessities, including oxygen supplies critical to mitigating hypoxia, when oxygen fails to reach bodily tissues.

Vaccination drive

Workers at the Grand Enterprises Garment (GEG) factory in Yangon’s Dagon Myothit (East) township, which employs more than 30,000 people, said some people “sweated profusely” and “fainted” after being given the vaccine on Aug. 21.

A woman at the GEG factory, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told RFA that some of the workers took the vaccination after being promised cash rewards.

“It was last Saturday, and I went for the vaccination. One of the guys at the top of the line was vaccinated and very soon after that, he fainted and fell. It happened right before our eyes,” she said.

“Another man who said he had a heart condition had breathing difficulties after getting the shot. He wasn’t sent to any hospital as the factory had its own clinic. They said the man recovered at the clinic after a while.”

The woman said that while workers were told they would not receive a leave of absence, they were offered 5,000 kyats (U.S. $3) to take the vaccine.

“A lot of people got interested after that and agreed to get vaccinated. The same happened at seven other branches of the factory,” she said, adding that around 1,000 people were vaccinated that day.

A security official at the GEG factory told RFA that the shots were given without checking the medical history of each factory worker.

“We first heard that a pregnant woman had fainted. But it wasn’t true. A guy sweated profusely after the vaccination and fainted,” he said.

“After some inquiries, we found out that the shots were given without checking the medical records of the workers. They just checked their oxygen levels and gave them the shots, which is not right.”

Workers told RFA that GEG officials stopped vaccinating workers that day due to the fainting incidents.

WHO guidance

Reports of the forced vaccinations at factories came days after Dr. Khin Khin Gyi, director of the junta’s Central Infectious Diseases Control Division under the Ministry of Health, told the official MRTV on Aug. 23 that members of the public could “take their vaccinations with confidence,” as the vaccines from China had already been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO).

“There is no harm in being vaccinated and one would only get positive benefits [from doing so],” he said at the time.

But during a news conference the following day, Dr. Zaw Wai Soe, the health minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), slammed the junta for a vaccination rollout that he said has not followed WHO guidelines.

“We have to follow the plan that has been recognized by the WHO and agreed upon,” he said.

“It may be difficult for the public and our country as a whole to get protection against the virus, as we are seeing, in many cases, an unsystematic procedure in the administration of the vaccines.”

Dr. Zaw Wei Soe said the NUG government was working to ensure that people are vaccinated “systematically,” adding that the WHO will soon deliver 4 million doses of the U.S.-made Pfizer vaccine and 2.2 million doses of the Chinese-produced Sinovac vaccine. He said the NUG is also working to obtain 15 million doses of vaccines purchased from India prior to the coup.

According to a statement issued by the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association in June, there are 11 factories in Myanmar that have been shuttered since February and 41 factories that are temporarily closed. It said a total of 502 garment factories are currently in operation.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

Myanmar’s military seized power from the government on Feb. 1 in response to what it said was a fraud-tainted victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the country’s November 2020 election. The junta has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed anti-coup protests, killing 1,038 people and arresting 6,033, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Western governments have responded with sanctions, calling on the regime to hand back power to the NLD, but the junta has indicated it has no plans to step down and has been forced to shift its diplomatic focus elsewhere amid its growing status as an international pariah.

In June, the U.N. General Assembly voted not to sell weapons to the junta amid its brutal crackdown on unarmed civilians. The U.S. and 118 other countries voted in favor of the resolution, but 36 countries, including Russia, abstained.

Last week, Russian officials announced plans to deliver an air defense weapons system to Myanmar’s military. And on Monday, the head of Russia’s military technology department confirmed the aid will arrive in “a timely manner,” speaking to the junta’s General Staff General Maung Maung Aye, who is in Moscow leading a delegation to the International Military Technology Forum (IMTFA) 2021.

The announcements followed an Aug. 23 meeting between Gen. Maung Maung Aye and Russian Deputy Defense Minister Lt. Gen. Alexander Fomin, during which the former pledged more cooperation between the two countries in military affairs and technology.

Meanwhile, junta spokesman Maj. General Zaw Min Tun told The Irrawaddy online newspaper last week that relations with Russia are “stronger than ever.”

Thein Tun Oo, executive director of the Thayninga Institute for Strategic Studies, a group of former military officers, said the military’s close ties with Russia and other powerful nations would allow the junta to “reap the benefits [it] deserves,” despite being ostracized by the West.

“That is why Russia, which is still a leader in military technology, is recognized as an ally,” he told RFA’s Myanmar Service on Monday.

Seeking buyers

Other analysts pointed out that the increased ties work both ways and said that, as a leader in the global arms market, Russia would not miss out on the opportunity to sell weapons while the West sanctions Myanmar’s military.

“Russia wants to sell its weapons and at the same time opposes pressure from the U.S. and the E.U.,” said Dr. Hla Kyaw Zaw, a China-based Myanmar political analyst.

“When it needs to find buyers for its weaponry, it has to deal with a country like ours. On the other hand, the junta is forced to work with such an ally for its own benefit.”

Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing traveled to Russia in June, visiting arms and military vehicles manufacturer Rosoboronexport, and meeting with company officials on military technical cooperation. Myanmar has been a major customer of Rosoboronexport for many years.

Myanmar accounts for only 0.07 percent of Russia’s exports, but its market for arms has grown in recent years. The value of arms, military-related equipment, and nuclear material exports to Myanmar grew from less than U.S. $8 million in 2014 to more than U.S. $115 million in 2020, accounting for 51 percent of all exports.

A study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) found that Russia had recorded some U.S. $10.7 billion in arms sales to Southeast Asia from 1999 to 2018—more than any other country. Of that, Myanmar’s military bought U.S. $1.5 billion, the second most after Vietnam, the study said.

Investment opportunities

Analyst Dr. Sai Kyi Zin Soe said Russia’s interest in Myanmar is not limited to the weapons trade.

“It sees Myanmar not only as a major arms customer, but also as a strategic country for geopolitical influence in Southeast Asia,” he said.

“Additionally, while most foreign investors are leaving Myanmar, Russia seems to be considering expanding its investment there.”

Lt. Gen. Alexander Fomin told the official Myawaddy TV in June that Southeast Asia is a key hub for global economic development. He noted the nation’s abundant natural resources and transportation opportunities, which he suggested could produce benefit for Russia in terms of both military affairs and geopolitical influence.

Zaw Pe Win, an economist, told RFA the junta expects to receive economic investment from Russia, which is seeking oil and mining opportunities.

“Russia, I think, is only interested in trading weapons and defense equipment, and investing in oil and the mining of metals,” he said.

According to a 2018 statement from the Russian Embassy in Yangon, Russian companies are currently operating a steel factory in Myanmar’s Shan state and engaging in oil exploration in the country.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

According to reporting by RFA’s Myanmar Service, at least 41 people who have been questioned as suspects by the authorities have died in detention centers, police prisons, and jails within a few days of their arrest.

At least two people died last week following interrogations, sources told RFA, including a 72-year-old man named Kan Htauk from Hnan Khar village in Magwe region’s Gangaw township and a 30-year-old man named Thet Naing Oo from Kyauk Kan village in Mandalay region’s Myingyan district. A third, 27-year-old Thet Naing Soe of Sagaing region’s Monywa township, died sometime after his arrest on Tuesday.

The military seized power in a coup on Feb. 1, claiming that a landslide victory by the National League for Democracy (NLD) in the country’s November 2020 general election was the result of voter fraud.

It has yet to provide evidence of its claims and has violently repressed widespread protests, killing 1,023 people and arresting 5,975 since the coup, according to the Bangkok-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Amid nationwide turmoil, the military has stepped up offensives in remote parts of the country, triggering fierce battles with local People’s Defense Force (PDF) militias and some of the dozens of ethnic armies that control large swathes of territory along Myanmar’s periphery.

On Aug. 18, a military convoy of 40 vehicles was ambushed with mines planted by members of a branch of the PDF in Gangaw township. That evening, soldiers entered nearby Hnan Khar village and set up a temporary camp. As troops arrived, every able-bodied adult in the village fled their home, leaving only Kan Htauk behind due to his old age and poor health, residents told RFA.

Kan Htauk was taken into custody and severely tortured by the soldiers, he told his fellow villagers after escaping from detention on Aug. 21 and rejoining them, mere hours before his death.

“They asked me if I knew any members of [the PDF],” he said in a testimony that was recorded on video.

“I said I didn’t know, so they kicked me repeatedly. They also pulled my hair and punched my face. I covered my eyes with hands to protect myself.”

Kan Htauk passed away from his injuries the same evening.

Thet Naing Oo was arrested by junta forces on Aug. 18 in front of the school in his village of Kyauk Kan, where junta troops and paramilitary forces had been stationed, a resident told RFA, speaking on condition of anonymity, citing a fear of reprisal.

His body was sent to the village cemetery less than 24 hours later, the resident said, noting that friends and family discovered severe injuries to his face and head when they went to collect it.

“He had several injuries from torture in detention,” the resident said.

“He is a father of three. He was arrested for riding a motorbike too fast. There was no other reason for his arrest.”

Other residents of the village told RFA they could not understand why the military would have arrested and tortured a regular civilian like Thet Naing Oo.

Told to retrieve body

Thet Naing Soe, an air conditioner repairman in Monywa township, was arrested by the military on Aug. 24, reportedly in Yadanarbon ward, although his family was never informed why or where he was taken.

His mother, who he lived with, along with his two elder sisters, told RFA that his family was notified about his death at 2:00 a.m. the following day and told to retrieve his body.

“There were brown spots on his cheeks that looked like cigarette burns,” she said.

“There were also bruises on his neck. It seemed he was beaten on the back of his neck. There was a bit of blood in his ears and there were bruises on his hands that indicated they had been tied with a rope.”

Thet Naing Soe’s mother said the family buried him shortly afterwards at Myoma Cemetery in Monywa.

A member of Thukahita Funeral Services and Blood Donors Association, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the military had sent Thet Naing Soe’s body to Monywa General Hospital, wrapped up on the pretext that he had died of COVID-19—a common claim made by authorities after someone dies in custody.

Aung Myo Min, the human rights minister for Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government (NUG), said the truth must be uncovered about what happened to the 41 people who have died after being interrogated by the military.

“We are going to set up a mechanism to investigate and prosecute the crimes from the past,” he said.

“We have been submitting the cases of the deaths from military torture and arrest of children to the U.N. Human Rights Council. We will have to work together to bring down the junta to stop these crimes.”

Aung Myo Min said the NUG hopes that evidence of the abuses will lead to serious repercussions for the military during the upcoming 76^th session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next month.

According to RFA’s reporting, civilians who have died in a matter of days or hours after detention include members of the NLD party from Shwe Pyi Thar and Pabaedan townships and the capital Naypyidaw, poet Khet Thi from Sagaing region, and others from Yangon region, Bago region, Mandalay region, Sagaing region and Magwe region.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.