Junta Propaganda Alert: Don’t Be Fooled by the Sham Peace Narrative

In an effort to orchestrate a cosmetic political rebrand from an illegal military junta to a façade civilian administration manufactured through a sham election, Myanmar’s military junta is systematically intensifying its propaganda campaign. By promoting fabricated narratives of peace, exaggerating its territorial control, and silencing dissent through personal attacks, all while continuing to bomb civilians, it seeks to lure the international community into normalizing engagement. The international community and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must remain vigilant against these narratives and avoid any actions or forms of engagement that could lend legitimacy to the illegal criminal junta.

Following its manufactured sham election and Min Aung Hlaing’s self-appointment as president—both overwhelmingly rejected by the people of Myanmar and widely condemned by the international community—the military junta launched a calculated political campaign under the guise of a so-called peace plan through its “100-Day Plan” from April to July 2026. The junta offers peace with one hand while killing civilians with the other. Within the first 40 days of announcing its so-called peace plan, its airstrikes killed 143 civilians and injured 264 others.

The junta’s propaganda campaign also relies on exaggerating territorial control to project an image of stability and effective governance. Most recently, the junta claimed that its troops had secured the 115-mile Monywa–Yargyi–Kalewa Road, a strategic route linking central Myanmar to the India border. Yet these limited gains have not marked a turning point on the battlefield. By exaggerating such tactical advances, the junta seeks to mislead the international community into believing it has achieved a strategic breakthrough. In reality, the junta has recaptured only selected urban centers and sections of key transport corridors, while democratic resistance forces have strategically withdrawn from some towns to protect civilians from further attacks, maintaining control over many rural townships and villages where the junta still lacks control. According to Burma News International (BNI) and Myanmar Peace Monitor (MPM), resistance forces continued to control approximately 87 towns as of May 2026, after capturing around 100 towns since the launch of Operation 1027 in October 2023.

The military junta has long weaponized disinformation, hate speech, and junta-backed propaganda to manipulate public perception and attack its opponents. On 8 July 2026, junta-controlled media began a coordinated propaganda campaign targeting Ambassador U Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, through crude personal attacks in an apparent attempt to discredit and remove him from his position as the highest-ranking diplomat representing the Myanmar State and its people. The campaign was further amplified by pro-junta propaganda accounts, including an X account named Views of Myanmar, which circulated AI-generated videos. In fact, U Kyaw Moe Tun was duly appointed by Myanmar’s democratically elected government before the military’s illegal coup attempt on 1 February 2021. His credentials were subsequently retained by the UN Credentials Committee and have continued to be recognized by the United Nations General Assembly.

Using a similar strategy, the junta hired the American lobbying firm DCI Group under a US$3 million contract to advance its political and propaganda agenda by attempting to normalize its sham election, lobby for the lifting sanctions, attract foreign investment, and influence U.S. policymakers. Alarmingly, it has also launched a website, Myanmar Democracy Now, reportedly commissioned by the junta’s Ministry of Information, as part of the same coordinated campaign to promote pro-junta narratives, manufacture legitimacy, and secure financial lifelines to sustain its campaign of terror.

Against this backdrop, the ASEAN Chair convened an Informal Meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers in Bangkok, Thailand on 12 July 2026, inviting the illegal junta’s foreign minister despite growing concerns and repeated warnings from civil society and other stakeholders.

Prior to the meeting, former Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato’ Sri Saifuddin Abdullah warned,

“This meeting means ASEAN is normalising its relations with the junta that has consistently shown contempt for ASEAN’s efforts to resolve Myanmar’s crisis that is caused by the junta.”

Similarly, Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M) called on the Philippines Foreign Affairs Secretary Lazaro to cancel the meeting and to maintain ASEAN’s ban on engagement with the junta. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) likewise urged ASEAN and its member states to reject steps toward legitimizing the military junta.

Such high-level engagement with the criminal junta breaches ASEAN’s own rule-based policy and undermines its own Five-Point Consensus (5PC) on Myanmar.

ASEAN must uphold its commitment by consistently excluding the military junta from high-level meetings. As the junta intensifies its campaign to manufacture international legitimacy—while showing no genuine intention to implementing ASEAN’s 5-PC—it is more important than ever for ASEAN not only to uphold its own commitments but also to engage with Myanmar’s legitimate representatives, including the National Unity Government (NUG) and help promote accountability to address the junta-created polycrisis. Any relaxation of ASEAN’s restrictions would only reward the junta’s political project and further entrench its violence.

As Khin Ohmar, Chairperson of Progressive Voice (PV), observed:

“The military is not a reformed institution wearing a civilian suit. It is a collapsing institution seeking a diplomatic lifeline.”

ASEAN must not allow the criminal military junta to revive its failed bid for legitimacy through renewed engagement.

This is the moment for ASEAN and the international community to demonstrate principled leadership and greater resolve. ASEAN and its member states must halt any further engagement with the illegitimate criminal junta.

At this critical juncture, ASEAN and the international community must close every avenue through which the junta seeks recognition, acceptance, and political normalization. At the same time, the international community must urgently strengthen and expand coordinated sanctions against the junta and all individuals, entities, and businesses that enable its campaign of terror by supplying weapons, aviation fuel, dual-use goods, financial support, and other critical resources. Equally important, the international community must address the root causes of Myanmar’s crisis, not merely its symptoms, by taking stronger action against the military cartel that continues to perpetrate atrocities against Myanmar’s peoples with total impunity.

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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.

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Progressive Voice is a participatory, rights-based policy research and advocacy organization that was born out of Burma Partnership. Burma Partnership officially ended its work on October 10, 2016 transitioning to a rights-based policy research and advocacy organization called Progressive Voice. For further information, please see our press release “Burma Partnership Celebrates Continuing Regional Solidarity for Burma and Embraces the Work Ahead for Progressive Voice.”