On the Edge of No Escape, The Junta has Lost Control
“The burning of houses and destruction in Thantlang Town in Chin State remind us of the same ‘four-cuts operation’ used by the Burma Army decades ago, which burnt down 3,000 Karen villages, including churches and schools, and forced out over one hundred thousand Karen from their homes.”
One year since the people of Myanmar, apart from those who were disenfranchised such as the Rohingya, largely voted to return the National League for Democracy (NLD) into power, the military’s desperation following its illegal coup attempt continues to become manifest in brutal scorched earth tactics. The military operation underway in the northwest area of Sagaing, Chin, and Magwe, as well as violence and cruelty seen in Tanintharyi Region and southern Shan State this past week, highlights the urgent need for concrete action from the UN Security Council (UNSC) as well as the desperation of the military junta that is not in control of the country.
The consequences of the military build-up in recent weeks in Chin State, Magwe and Sagaing Regions to crush the strong resistance forces in that area is becoming clear. The town of Thantlang, Chin State, which was already mostly emptied of its 8,000 residents after junta attacks on the town in September in which 18 houses were burned down and a pastor murdered, has been the scene of yet more destruction. The town was again shelled by junta troops and approximately 200 houses burned down due to fires caused by shelling and the torching of buildings according to the Chin Human Rights Organization. Churches, the offices of INGO, Save the Children, as well as an orphanage have deliberately been set alight and shelling continued through the weekend of the 6th of November.
In a statement very familiar to other non-Bamar ethnic communities throughout Myanmar who have experienced the Bamar death project that the Myanmar military calls statebuilding, local residents and resistance groups were blamed for the burning of their own homes. Famously during the Rohingya genocide in 2017 both the military, and it must be said, the NLD-led government of the time, explained that the Rohingya had in fact burned their own homes down. Staged photos of residents pretending to be Muslim Rohingya, burning down homes, were even disseminated and cited as proof. Yet this was quickly established to be fake and sinister propaganda.
The Karen National Union released a statement offering solidarity with the people of Chin State, highlighting how these same scorched earth tactics have also long been used in Karen State: “The burning of houses and destruction in Thantlang Town in Chin State remind us of the same ‘four-cuts operation’ used by the Burma Army decades ago, which burnt down 3,000 Karen villages, including churches and schools, and forced out over one hundred thousand Karen from their homes.” The Northern Alliance – a coalition of northern ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) also released a statement condemning the violence in Thantlang. Indeed, as Operation Anawrahta, as the junta offensive is rumoured to be named, gains momentum, more scorched earth tactics, such as the burning of homes and whole villages, displacing communities and deepening the already dire humanitarian crisis, are expected.
The violence and the brutality of the junta has not been limited to the northwest region of Sagaing, Magwe and Chin. In Pekhon Township, southern Shan State, 4,000 people have had to flee in recent days due to junta shelling, human rights violations, and military assaults, after fierce fighting with local Karenni resistance groups. Torcing of homes, looting properties, destroying rice paddy, and other human rights violations such as extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and torture have been reported. The use of local villagers as human shields is also a common tactic. A photograph of 19 abducted people from Kathae Village, Pekhon Township, blindfolded and being led away by junta troops, evidences this brutality. Used as human shields so as to avoid attacks from local resistance organizations, the families of those abducted, who a week later do not know their exact whereabouts or status, fear for their families’ lives. As a relative of two of those abducted told the media outlet, Myanmar Now, “All we know is that the military always beats and tortures the people they take. I can’t even imagine what it’s like for them now.” In Tanintharyi in the south, junta troops burned down the house of an anti-coup protest leader, and abducted the mother of another after failing to find their targets.
The rainy season is ending in Myanmar, and in normal years, this entails the ratcheting up of Myanmar military offensives against ethnic armed organizations (EAOs). This time last year also saw the re-election of the NLD and a triumphant mood in many parts of the country. Despite the fond nostalgia for a seemingly more hopeful time, it should not be forgotten that many people, such as those living in conflict-affected areas in Rakhine, Shan and Kachin States where voting was cancelled, those displaced, and the Rohingya community who were disenfranchised, were not invited to the NLD’s populist victory party.
This year however, is not a normal year. The nationwide resistance to the attempted coup, from peaceful protests, strikes, a nationwide civil disobedience movement joined by defectors from the military and police, the National Unity Government, the People’s Defence Forces, as well as EAOs, means that the junta is not in control of the country. It is attempting to rectify this in the only way it knows how – brute force. The build-up of troops in the northwest is reminiscent of the troop buildup before the genocidal wave of violence against the Rohingya in 2017. It is clear that atrocity crimes are going to be committed on a huge scale. And as made clear by 521 Myanmar civil society organizations in a statement addressing the situation in Chin, Sagaing and Magwe, allies of the Myanmar people in the international community must act. The statement urges the UNSC to adopt “a resolution that consolidates international action to resolve the deepening crisis, a global arms embargo to stop the flow of weapons, including dual-use goods, and refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court.” Given the impending violence, there is an urgent need for action and as the statement implores, “The UN must not continue to fail the people of Myanmar.” Economically, politically, administratively, and militarily, the Myanmar military is losing on all fronts. It is time to stand with the people of Myanmar and support the Spring Revolution.
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[1] One year following the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, the former military junta changed the country’s name from Burma to Myanmar overnight. Progressive Voice uses the term ‘Myanmar’ in acknowledgement that most people of the country use this term. However, the deception of inclusiveness and the historical process of coercion by the former State Peace and Development Council military regime into usage of ‘Myanmar’ rather than ‘Burma’ without the consent of the people is recognized and not forgotten. Thus, under certain circumstances, ‘Burma’ is used.
Resources from the past week
Statements and Press Releases
Rohingya Cautions UN Security Council Over Chin Crisis – Do Not Repeat Mistake In Failing To Act
By 29 Rohingya community organisations
By 521 Civil Society Organizations
COP26 Partner Jaguar/Land Rover Linked to Burmese Military
By Burma Campaign UK
Myanmar/Burma: Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the European Union
By Council of the European Union
CDF Kalay-Kabaw-Gangaw ၏ တိုက်ပွဲသတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ (၈) ရက်။)
By Chinland Defense Force, Kalay-Kabaw-Gangaw
By Justice For Myanmar
International accounting bodies are reputation laundering for the terrorist Myanmar military junta
By Justice For Myanmar
တိုက်ပွဲသတင်းထုတ်ပြန်ချက် (၂၀၂၁ ခုနှစ်၊ နိုဝင်ဘာလ (၈) ရက်နေ့။)
By Karenni Nationalities Defense Force
By Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team
KPICT Statement on Bombardment of Thantlang No.(3/P-1/KPICT/2021)
By Kachin Political Interim Coordination Team
By National Unity Government (President Office)
အမျိုးသားညီညွတ်ရေးအစိုးရ အမျိုးသမီး၊ လူငယ်နှင့် ကလေးသူငယ်ရေးရာဝန်ကြီးဌာန အမိန့်အမှတ်(၁၀/၂၀၂၁)
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Women, Youths and Children Affairs and Ministry of Human Rights)
ပြည်သူ့တော်လှန်ရေး အင်အားစုများအတွက် လမ်းညွှန်ချက်
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Defence)
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Communications, Information and Technology)
By National Unity Government (Ministry of Communications, Information and Technology)
SSPDF ၏ သဘောထားထုတ်ပြန်ကြေငြာချက်
By People Defense Force – Southern Shan State
အဝေးသင်ကျောင်းသားများသို့ တိုက်တွန်းနှိုးဆော်ချက်
By Taungoo University Student Union
By The Baroness Cox of Queensbury of London
One-year anniversary of the 2020 Myanmar elections: UK statement
By United Kingdom (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office)
One-Year Anniversary of November 8 General Elections in Burma
By United States Department of State
Reports
Crimes Committed by the Terrorist Junta in October
By Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
အောက်တိုဘာလအတွင်း အကြမ်းဖက်စစ်အုပ်စု၏ ကျူးလွန်မှုများ အကျဉ်းချုပ်ဖော်ပြချက်
By Assistance Association for Political Prisoners
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