A Country in Dire Straits

"We're really not clear on the scale of the destruction at this stage."

"They were talking about a town near Mandalay where 80 percent of the buildings were reportedly collapsed."

"But it wasn't in the news because telecommunications have been slow."

Lauren Ellery, deputy director of programs, Myanmar, International Rescue Committee 

 

"Water, both in quantity and in quality, is immensely lacking in the whole country and most specifically in the regions affected by the earthquake."

"The lack of water is creating an issue in terms of immediate survival, but could also create an issue in terms epidemics in the future that we definitely want to avoid."

Field Coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) Mikhael De Souza  

People queue for relief supplies after a strong earthquake near the earthquake's epicenter, in Sagaing, Myanmar, March 31, 2025.  Reuters

"With USAID effectively gutted and critical staff receiving their final notices in the midst of an emergency, the US Government's ability to respond to the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar and future crises is severely compromised."

"Speed, collaboration, and resources are life and death matters when disaster strikes. The illegal decision to dismantle USAID means the U.S. will be unable to show up like it has in past emergencies."

"The U.S. has already missed the first urgent window to help find survivors. The second wave of crisis is the millions of people displaced who will soon face threats of disease, hunger, and more without access to clean water, food, shelter and other resources."

"The Trump administration must step up and continue the U.S. legacy of providing partnership and leadership right now for the communities who need urgent support."

Abby Maxman, president and CEO, Oxfam America

Rescue teams work to evacuate residents trapped under the rubble of a collapsed building in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Sunday.  Sai Aung Main/AFP/Getty Images

 

Last week's massive earthquake in Myanmar has seen the death toll well past 2,000, according to state media. Rescuers spoke of several hundred Muslim, praying at mosques during Ramadan, were crushed to death when the mosques collapsed. A collapsing monastery crushed 200 Buddhist monks.

"The straight nature [of the fault] means earthquakes can rupture over large areas - and the larger the area of the fault that slips, the larger the earthquake."

"To accommodate all of this motion, [the Indian plate moving beneath the Burma microplate], faults - cracks in the rock - form which allow tectonic plates to 'slither' sideways." 

"There have been six magnitude 7 or greater earthquakes in this region in the last century."

Dr Rebecca Bell, reader in tectonics at Imperial College London

Daw Khin Saw Myint, 72, and her granddaughter are among thousands sleeping outdoors after losing their homes   BBC

Bangkok is an impoverished country, a country embroiled in a civil war, where humanitarian organizations are already challenged in their efforts to respond to the needs of the civilian population. The effects of the earthquake are predicted to exacerbate the outbreak of hunger and disease. 

The 7.7 magnitude quake's epicentre on Friday hit close to Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, damaging the city's airport. The tremor buckled roads while hundreds of buildings along the country's central area collapsed. Power outages have hampered relief efforts, as have shortages of fuel and problematic communications.

 

Search-and-rescue operations have been hampered by a lack of heavy machinery. The result of which has been rescuers without tools using their bare hands to remove rubble in their search for survivors. Daily temperatures in the region register 40 degrees celsius. At Mandalay's collapsed U Hla Thein monastery rescuers were still searching for some 150 of the dead monks.

 

Rescuers face tough conditions to retrieve the bodies of victims, with temperatures reaching nearly 40C  BBC

 

Approximately 700 Muslim worshippers at Friday prayers were trapped and killed when mosques collapsed. According to a member of the Spring Revolution Myanmar Muslim Network, 60 mosques were damaged or destroyed. Several mosques were seen toppling, on videos posted on the Irrawaddy online news site.

 

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the military government, informed the prime minister of Pakistan that 2,065 people had died in the earthquake, and over 3,900 were injured, while some 270 people remain missing. Numbers that relief agencies expect to rise sharply in reflection of slow access to remote areas where communications are non-operational.

 

According to the World Health Organization, three hospitals were destroyed, with 22 others partly damaged in the region. A number of countries have sent rescue teams to the scene; Israel, Russia, China, India and a few southeast Asian countries. Millions of dollars in aid have been promised by the European Union, Britain, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and others. 

Five men are still stuck under this building.    BBC

S.O.S. Save Our Souls! Is There No One There???

"I last spoke with the boat's captain on December 18 and he told me that at least 17 people on board had died due to a lack of food and water."

"They have only been able to drink water when it rains."

"Please tell me, I just want to know if my family is alive or dead. We all want to see our families, that is all we request from the world. Just help us."

Sham Shur Alom, Rohingya refugee in Malaysia

"Several reports indicate dozens of people have already died during this ordeal, while survivors are hungry and thirsty without access to food and water and suffering from sickness."

United Nations' refugee agency 

"Father, please send a boat or I will jump into the ocean. I can't tolerate the pain and struggle anymore. There is no food or water to drink. People are drinking salt water. People are close to dying and mental breakdown. They're going to bite each other."

"Baba. I don't know why I am here. My teeth are dry from the lack of drinking water. Please do whatever is humanly possible for you."

Mosharrof Ullha, to his father Ata Ullha, Rohingya, Cox's Bazar Refugee Camp, Bangladesh

"We urge the Government of India to urgently coordinate and cooperate with other regional governments on the search and rescue operations of Rohingya refugees who are currently stranded in Indian waters with no medical support, food and water"    Amnesty India

The world of the unwanted homeless is ever on the move, hoping to find surcease from their stateless status, their unwanted presence, their suffering and their timeless dilemma. They aspire to live, to have a future, they are not economic migrants but refugees. As it happens, refugees who are Muslim, whom the Myanmar military expunged violently from the country where they were living. Originally from Bangladesh, the Rohingya lived for generations in Myanmar. But Buddhism and Islam oppose one another.

 

Living for years since their expulsion from Myanmar on the border in Bangladesh in an immense squalid refugee camp teeming with refugees whom no one wants responsibility for, there are those who dream of escape, of finding a new life and opportunity elsewhere in the world where they will be accepted, where human aspirations to belong and to succeed in life can be found. And in following that dream they sacrifice themselves to chance and fortune, and sometimes lose.

A boat stranded for close to three weeks in the Indian Ocean is desperate for rescue. So far a dozen of the Rohingya refugees populating the wooden craft open to the air, directionless, have died. With no humanitarian intervention from nearby nations fears are that more people will die in the next few days. And the unthinkable, that the  hopeful refugees on board will all perish from neglect by those who could mount a rescue. Indonesia, the nation with the largest Muslim population globally has seen fit not to respond.

Predictably, India, with the world's third largest minority population of Muslims has no wish to acquire more people of the faith its own majority Hindu population is hostile to. Late November saw the open wooden boat set off from Bangladesh for Malaysia, yet another majority Muslim population, with over 150 asylum seekers aboard. On December 4 its engine failed, leaving the vessel to drift at sea, its food and water supplies steadily diminishing.

Most of the people on the ship had set out to meet family in Malaysia, anxious to flee the sprawling Cox's Bazar refugee camp in Bangladesh with its hundreds of thousands of hopeless people languishing there for the past five years. The boat captain refused to allow those who have managed to make contact with the boat by satellite phone, to speak with their relatives. Open to the elements, conditions on the boat are unspeakably urgent.

The Indian navy and coast guard say no information about the adrift ship has reached them; wide-spread media coverage of the crisis aside. "We have no information about the issue",  a spokesperson for the Indian navy responded, to a query. To the present, it is believed that approximately two thousand Rohingya refugees have opted to risk a sea voyage in 2022 as conditions in the refugee camps both in Myanmar and Bangladesh continue to deteriorate.

Although Sri Lanka's navy rescued a boat of 104 Rohingya a week ago, other nations have no wish to encourage the mass flow of people by intervening to offer support. Bangladesh, the Muslim country from which the Rohingya originated has not seen fit to integrate them back into its society as a Muslim-to-Muslim responsibility. Nor have Indonesia or Malaysia recognized their religious responsibility to embrace fellow Muslims.

Rohingya refugees sit on a wooden boat as Indonesian officials conduct evacuation at the Krueng Geukueh port in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Indonesia, on December 31, 2021.

Fachrul Reza / Xinhua via Getty Images

"Many more will die soon if they are not rescued, due to dehydration."

"We have approached the Indian coast guard and the Thai and Indonesian governments."

"None of them responded."

Mohammed Rezuwan Khan, Rohingya refugee, Cox's Bazar

The "Falling Stars" of Myanmar

"Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them."

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews 

"While we are singing the revolution song for him [the deceased at a funeral], security forces just arrived and shot at us."

"People, including us, run away as they opened fire."

Aye, funeral mourner, Yangon

 

"An 11-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, two 13-year-old boys, a 13-year-old girl, three 16-year-old boys and two seventeen-year old boys, all reportedly shot and killed."

"A one-year-old baby girl gravely injured after being struck in the eye with a rubber bullet. These were the latest child casualties on the bloodiest day in Myanmar since the military takeover."

"Millions of children and young people have been directly or indirectly exposed to traumatizing scenes of violence, threatening their mental health and emotional well-being."

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore

Anti-coup protesters run around their makeshift barricade they burn to make defense line during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo)

 Once again, using live ammunition, and according to some eyewitnesses, even machine guns, Myanmar security forces opened fire on civilians protesting the takeover of the military junta now controlling Burma, after the ouster of the duly elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Even while promising the protesters that the junta planned to restore democracy at some point, they haven't hesitated to use raw munitions against their own civilian population determined to restore democracy even at the steep price of loss of life.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar stated that the army was conducting "mass murder", calling on the world to isolate the junta and halt its access to weapons. This, when a member of the UN Security Council, Russia, has committed itself to supporting the military junta and will continue providing it with the military arms deemed a necessity to pursue its goal of dominating the country by force. The junta should be cut off from funding, from oil and gas revenues, repeated the UN Special Rapporteur.

Sunday was the day for funerals as people gathered to mourn 114 protesters killed the day before in the most disastrous crackdown on protesters since the February1 coup. At a service for 20-year-old student Thae Maung Maung in Bago, close to the capital Yangon, the military opened fire and mourners fled for their lives. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group spoke of another 12 people killed on Sunday bringing the total death toll since the coup to 469.

In Yangon and Mandalay where the brunt of the casualties took place on Saturday large-scale protests were no longer in evidence after the Armed Forces Day celebrations and subsequent killing of 114 people. In Mandalay people surrounded a police station accusing the security forces of arson after five houses were burned down. Six children between ten and 16 years of age were among those killed on Saturday. They were, said the protesters, "Falling Stars".

 

Family members and relatives attend the funeral ceremony of 13 year-old Sai Wai Yan, who was shot dead while playing outside his house in Yangon, Myanmar on March 28

 

"We salute our heroes who sacrificed lives during this revolution and We Must Win This REVOLUTION", one of the main protest groups, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities posted on Facebook. Two dozen ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country took part in heavy fighting against the army, resulting in 3,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Thailand after military jets bombed areas controlled by the Karen National Union militia.

The Kachin Independence Army fought on Sunday with the military in Hpakant, a jade-mining area of the north where Kachin forces attacked a police station and the military responded in an aerial assault. During the parade marking Armed Forces Day, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing assured the country that the military would protect the people while striving toward democracy.

Mourners attend the funeral of Tin Hla, 43, who was shot dead by security forces during a protest against the military coup in Thanlyin township, outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar on March 27.

Russia, a "True Friend" to Myanmar

"Security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect."

"This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force."

"Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule."

"We call for an immediate end to the violence and the restoration of the democratically elected government."

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda   

 

"I think around 10am or 10.30, police and soldiers came to that area and then they started to shoot at civilians. They didn't give any warning to the civilians." 

"They just came out and they started to shoot. They used rubber bullets but they also used live bullets to kill civilians in a violent way." 

Student protester, Mandalay  

 

"[At least 50 people had now been killed] and many wounded."

"[One video clip showed police beating an unarmed volunteer medical crew. Another showed a protester being shot and probably killed on the street]."  

"I asked some weapons experts and they could verify to me, it's not clear but it seems that the police weapons like 9mm submachine guns, so live ammunition [was in use]."

UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener

The US said it was appalled by Wednesday's violence  Reuters

Ahead of the Myanmar junta's plan to proceed with the annual Armed Forces Day celebration, the most prestigious of days for the military, a broadcast on the MRTV news channel spoke directly to protesters, telling them: "You should learn ... that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back"; warning protesters of the military's no-hold-barred response to continuing protests against proceeding as they have been since the February 1 coup that removed the elected government to be replaced by the military.

The response from determined Burmese was to just go on protesting. Even though the day before saw a record 38 protesters dying from counter-protest actions on the part of the military who fired live rounds at the people. Western sources are horrified, condemning the violence against the civilian population. The United Nations, as usual, urges calm and a return to democracy. The Security Council cannot proceed with a condemnation of the Burmese military, since China and Russia are in full support of the coup.

Troops parade in Naypyitaw on March 27 during Armed Forces Day, the Myanmar military's most important annual event.   © Reuters

Saturday's festivities celebrating the Myanmar military proceeded as planned. There were military representatives from eight neighbouring nations besides Russia, including China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Russia's deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin arrived in the capital Naypyitaw to meet with junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Nyanmar state television broadcast the two men inspecting a display of 'weapons' seized from protesters.

That included makeshift shields, motorcycle helmets and unlit petrol bombs. The Deputy Defence Minister lauded Myanmar as a reliable ally to Russia and a valued strategic partner in Asia. He was there to attend the parade marking Armed Forces Day held on Saturday, as an indication of Russia's high regard for its ally. All others were military attaches, lower ranking personnel representing Burma's near neighbours.

Russia's Defence Ministry's Zvezd TV channel ran a video showing Fomin shaking hands and receiving a medal and a ceremonial sword from Min Aung Hlaing with uniformed military officers in attendance. "You, distinguished Senior General, took part in our parade last year, our parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War", Fomin is shown, telling the junta leader, in reference to the Second World War.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin (left) receives a medal from Burma's armed forces chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on March 26.

In the most  high-profile sign to date of Russia's support for the new Myanmar rulers despite outrage throughout the West along with deep concerns the country's Asian neighbours have expressed for the plight of the protesters in the Burmese military's violent response to the public's wish to have Aung San Suu Kyi returned to govern the nation, Myanmar is clearly content with the support it has received from Russia and China, to offset the condemnation from the West.

According to MRTV, Min Aung Hlaing informed Fomin of his gratitude for the visit "amid our political transformational situation and the COVID-19 pandemic". A total of 320 people have been killed in the crackdown on dissent, according to activist groups. The result of which has seen the United States, Britain, Australia and the European Union imposing sanctions on the ruling military council, along with the army's broad network of businesses.

Moscow has provided army training and offered university scholarships to thousands of Burmese soldiers. It has also provided arms to the military that has been blacklisted by a number of Western countries reacting to the military's atrocities against its civilian population. According to a 2020 study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia is the source of some 15 percent of weapons sourced by Myanmar from 2014 to 2019. Which it has so far  used only against its own people.

Getty Images

Myanmar's Rejection of Military Coup

"This is the time for our citizens to test their resistance against the dark moments." 

"In order to form a federal democracy, which all ethnic brothers who have been suffering various kinds of oppressions from the dictatorship for decades really desired, this revolution is the chance for us to put our efforts together."

"Despite our differences in the past, this is the time we must grip our hands together to end the dictatorship for good."

Mahn Win Khaing Than, acting head, Committee for Representing the Union Parliament

 

Despite repeated demands of the international community, including South Korea, there are an increasing number of victims in Myanmar due to violent acts of the military and police authorities."

South Korean Foreign Ministry

 

"This accusation [against Suu Kyi of minor charges] is the most hilarious joke."

"She might have other weaknesses but she doesn't have weakness in moral principle."

Lawyer Khin Maung Zaw

Protesters lined roads with car tires and set them alight to separate themselves from the security forces  Getty Images

 In view of the military junta's violent crackdown on the relentless protests roiling Myanmar following the February 1 coup that removed Aung San Suu Kyi and her elected government on February 1, restoring her to house arrest while arresting member officials of her National League for Democracy party (several of whom have died in custody), Britain has urged its citizens to leave the country. 

New charges have been levelled against Suu Kyi behind the trifling accusations of having sidestepped coronavirus rules and having in her possession illegal radios. According to Brigadier-General Zaw Min Tun, a junta spokesman, Suu Kyi had accepted gold and illegal payments to the value of $600,000 while in government.

Security forces in the troubled country continue to crack down on protesters refusing the pleas of the military junta to convince them that the military administration is best for the country, that when matters settle down there will be a return to elections and 'democracy'. Clearly the November election that swept the polls returning the National League for Democracy and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi to power was unsatisfactory in the opinion of the military.

 

Security forces used live rounds against protesters in Hlaing Tharyar   Reuters

More violent and bloody days this weekend, with an estimated additional 38 people having been killed. The British foreign office gave warning that "political tension and unrest are widespread since the military takeover and levels of violence are rising." South Korea, in view of the turmoil and violence, has stated its intention to suspend defence exchanges. It will reconsider development aid to Myanmar.

 

By Friday, over 70 protesters were killed since the military seized power, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group. Friday saw memorials held for some of the victims. Seoul plans the suspension of defence exchanges and to ban arms exports, limit exports of other strategic items, reconsider development aid and grant humanitarian exemptions permitting Myanmar nationals to remain in South Korea until such time that the situation improves.

 

A night protest took place in another part of Yangon on Sunday   Reuters

In Yangon and a number of other cities and towns witnesses posted photographs on social media and news organizations of riot police and armed soldiers confronting the protesters with violent responses. A Polish journalist was arrested and a Japanese journalist was held briefly while reporting on a protest. A hospital in Hakha, Western Chin state saw riot police and armed soldiers forcing 30 patients to leave, evicting staff from on-site housing.

 

Hospitals and universities across Myanmar have seen occupations by soldiers as attempts are made to crush the civil disobedience movement that arose when government employees such as doctors and teachers began responding to the coup, and following violence. The movement has expanded toward a general strike paralyzing many sectors of the economy, infuriating the military.

 

Suu Kyi, 75, faces four mischievous charges, such as illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and flouting coronavirus curbs. The addition of corruption charges is being read as a plan to see that harsher penalties accrue, to send her to prison for years, and out of the way of the military junta with which she had practised an at-arms-length cooperative administration. 

Property set ablaze in Yangon's industrial neighbourhood of Hlaing Tharyar lights up the night sky   EPA

 

The protesters believe that China has been encouraging the military junta in its crackdown on the peaceful protests. China did in fact ensure that there would be no official censure of Myanmar's military junta for the coup and the following violence in reaction to the people's rejection of the coup against their legitimately re-elected choice of state head. 

 

The protests have deliberately chosen to target Chinese-owned businesses as a direct state of their rejection of Chinese interference in the country's affairs. According to Beijing reporting sources, people armed with iron bars, axes and petrol had set alight and damaged 10 Chinese facilities - mostly clothing production or storage factories - in Yangon where a Chinese hotel was also attacked. 

"[Some Chinese] factories [in Hlaing Tharyar and neighbouring Shwepyitha] were looted and destroyed and many Chinese staff were injured and trapped."

"[Myanmar must] take further effective measures to stop all acts of violence, punish the perpetrators in accordance with the law and ensure the safety of life and property of Chinese companies and personnel in Myanmar."

Chinese Embassy in Myanmar

Myanmar's Military Martyring Myanmar

Hundreds of thousands of people gathered in Yangon, Myanmar to protest the military’s ouster of civilian leadership.   Credit...The New York Times

"China and Myanmar are friendly neighbors."

"We hope that all parties will properly handle their differences under the Constitution and legal framework to maintain political and social stability."

Wang Wenbin, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman

 

"I would seriously urge the entire nation to join hands with the Tatmadaw [Burmese military] for the successful realization of democracy."  

"Historical lessons have taught us that only national unity can ensure the non-disintegration of the Union and the perpetuation of sovereignty."

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing

 

"We are saddened to see media reports that a protester shot by police in Naypyidaw has died, marking the first reported death ... as a result of security forces response to the protests."

"We applaud yesterday's announcement of sanctions by the United Kingdom and Canada against the Burmese military leaders responsible for the coup."

"[Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed with Australian, Indian and Japanese counterparts] the urgent need to restore the democratically elected government in Burma."

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price 

Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader, campaigning for Parliament in Aungban in 2012.  Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

"[A] full extended lockdown [of the economy has been planned]."

"To continue economic and business activities as usual ... will only benefit the military as they repress the energy of the Myanmar people."

"The time to take action in defence of our democracy is now."

Nine-union alliance joint statement

 

"They are killing people just like killing birds and chickens."

"What will we do if we don't revolt against them? We must revolt."

Myanmar union leader

And revolt they did and continue to do, with one massive protest after another, since Myanmar's civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi was summarily deposed and placed in custody and house detention yet again, by the head of the Myanmar military. She had been, up to the present, in a type of coalition of necessity with the military, until February 1 when the coup surprised and alarmed the country. The November election that brought her an overwhelming majority expressed the will of the people for her to continue bringing Myanmar ever closer to the democratic sovereignty Suu Kyi represented.

 

The peaceful demonstrations draw immense crowds, taking place in all of the country's cities. The junta is under increasing pressure to tamp down the unrest. Its increasing use of force, culminating in deadly force and the deaths of protesting citizens have brought it censure from the West, and a recommendation from its neighbours, who consider the dissent an 'internal matter' calling for non-interference, to restrain the use of force against its population in the interests of avoiding criticism. 

While Western governments censure Myanmar's military's violent response to the demonstrations, just as they did when the military routed its minority Rohingya population into Bangladesh, the United Nations cannot condemn the country whose powerful neighbour as a member of the permanent UN Security Council blocks any censure. Sharing a long border, Beijing serves as a patron nation to Myanmar just as it does to North Korea, and it doesn't hurt to have powerful friends of influence quietly shoring up one's interests.

The major trade  unions in Myanmar now call on its members to shut down the economy in support of a campaign against the military coup which has allowed its forces to fire weapons and occupy hospitals in the capital Yangon following yet another day of massive protests. Gunfire and stun grenades were reported in many districts of the capital by witnesses, following nightfall with soldiers setting up camp in hospitals and university compounds, the latter a rich source of youthful protesters.

According to the non-profit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the army was "intentionally terrorizing residents" in Yangon. The nation was freshly shocked when, overnight while in police custody National League for Democracy official Khin Maung Latt died. A member of parliament's upper house quoted reports of bruising seen on Khin Maung Latt's head and body. "It seems that he was arrested at night and tortured severely. This is totally unacceptable", understated the member of the coup-dissolved parliament, Ba Myo Thein.

An immense demonstration in Yangon, the country’s largest city, on Feb. 22.  Credit...The New York Times

 On Sunday, police fired stun grenades and tear gas to break up a sit-in by tens of thousands of people in Mandalay on Sunday, 70 of whom were arrested. Tear gas and stun grenades were launched at protesters in Yangon and in the northern region of the country, seen through videos posted on Facebook. Police opened fire to break up a protest in a historic temple town, with live bullets. Soldiers were shown in a video posted by Myanmar Now beating men in Yangon who were rallying in protest despite security forces conducting overnight raids on campaign leaders and opposition activists.

Another member of Parliament, Sithu Maung who had worked closely with Khin Maung Latt, described soldiers and police detaining his father on Sunday night: "They broke into the house ... and point with guns, I was told". His father too was taken into custody and beaten. Over 50 people have died at the hands of security forces to the present. By Saturday the military junta had detained over 1,700 people, according to figures given by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group.

 

Much of the world has condemned the violence used against democracy advocates. In Bangkok on the day of the coup, protesters held up images of Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi.  Credit...Adam Dean for The New York Times

"Noble Intentions" -- Inconvenient Consequences

"We used a laundry detergent box with a wire attached to make it look like a bomb. We did not bring any [real] weapons because we had absolutely no intention of harming anyone."
"In the eyes of the authorities, I am not a pro-democracy exile but simply just a former hijacker or a terrorist."
"Our country was closed to the outside world. Terrible things were being done to our people by the government in power. Life in the jungle was difficult, brutal and dangerous."
"I became desperate and came up with a plan that was dramatic, yet without harming anyone. I rejected violence. I approached the pilot and told him we were students and that we wanted the plane diverted to Bangkok."
"I am a peace-loving person. I lived under a regime that was barbaric. They were exterminating ethnic groups. They were murdering those who opposed them. I had to act."
"I recognize the danger of our actions. Even though our intentions were noble, the means we chose were wrong."
Than Soe, 48, Asylum seeker

Than Soe, left, is fighting to stay in Canada as a human rights activist rather than be deported back to Myanmar. Supplied

"I do not believe he [Than Soe] had any intentions of harming anyone on that plane."
"I believe the students were just inexperienced boys who wanted to make a political statement and were neither dangerous nor threatening."
Tienchai Sirisampan, deputy prime minister, Thailand

"This matter has been proceeding since 2004 and I can find no evidence in the record to suggest that the applicant poses any kind of risk or threat to national security or public safety."
"[The Canadian Minister of Public Safety's logic is] unintelligible and unreasonable".
Justice James Russell, Federal Court of Appeals

Mr. Soe lives in Canada with his family. He arrived in Canada in 2003 and immediately claimed political asylum, a man from Burma who had rejected the military administration of his country of birth and who had become a political activist attempting to overturn the military. In the process he became an admirer and adherent of a more famous political activist, Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League for Democracy, advocating for free elections. A woman whose courage had earned her admiration and honourary Canadian citizenship.

After Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested by the military government ruling Myanmar, Than Soe, then 19 years of age, along with two other young activists sought a way to alert the world to the plight of his country. They decided to hijack a plane and have it fly where their own government had no control, and there they would deliver their message. They obtained two seats aboard a flight heading to Rangoon, with 79 passengers and four crew.

The laundry detergent boxes they claimed were bombs convinced the pilot to land at a Thai military airbase where Than Soe and his colleagues meant to read a three-page statement along wth seven demands, written in English, stamped with bloody thumbprints. The demands? Release of Suu Kyi and all political prisoners; an end to the civil war against ethnic groups; and guarantees for freedom of expression.

It was Thailand's deputy prime minister who was delegated to negotiate the release of the passengers and crew with the hijackers. An eight-hour deliberation ensued during which time passengers were released. The negotiator, Tienchai Sirisampan, handed the hijackers two Thai newspapers reporting on the hijacking on their front page, along with the contents of the document and the demands. At which point Than Soe and his colleagues surrendered.

He was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison, but eventually pardoned and released after serving two-and-a-half years. The court was given a letter from the deputy prime minister that went a long way toward exonerating the young men of criminal intent. Released in 1990, Mr. Soe remained in Thailand until winning a scholarship to an American university in 1996. He had been enrolled in engineering studies from the age of 16 in Rangoon.

That was where his pro-democracy and humanitarian values were developed as a result of witnessing military abuses. It was when, on August 8, 1988 he attended student protests, identified later as the 8888 Uprising. These were protests that unleashed increasing violence by the military, with the army opening live fire on student demonstrators. An estimate of thousands were said to have died in the crackdown.

In the United States he earned an economic degree and began work on an engineering degree in 2001. And that's when U.S. immigration officials caught up with his history, arresting him. He was released after an American judge agreed that he did not represent a threat, and that if he were to be returned to Myanmar his life would likely be forfeit. When he left the U.S. it was for Canada, crossing illegally and applying for asylum as a refugee in 2003, in Kitchener, Ontario.

The Immigration and Refugee Board found him inadmissible, citing his history of engaging in an 'act of terrorism'. Appeals to the Federal Court and re-hearings and new appeals followed. The current minister of public safety cited him as a security threat last year, just as his predecessor had in 2006.
The Federal Court sent the case back to the Immigration and Refugee Board for reconsideration.

Working as a technician for a large Canadian company, Than Soe has lived a law-abiding life as a valuable citizen-in-waiting, hoping to be granted permanent residence status. In interviews he points out the atrocities committed by the current government of Myanmar against the Rohingya, formally acknowledged as a genocide by Canada and other Western democracies. Surely the government that declared its readiness to offer haven to Rohingya, can also embrace one who defended their human rights.

A government, furthermore, that has limitless patience for hordes of economic migrants illegally crossing into Canada, declaring themselves refugees and taking advantage of a long backlog of claims that stretch into years before each can be assessed. In the meantime, establishing themselves as residents, taking advantage of Canada's generous social welfare, becoming a drain on the health and welfare system, crowding homeless Canadians out of shelters by their very numbers.

Last year, Ralph Goodale, minister of public safety, denied Soe’s request to remain in Canada. Supplied

Terrorists and False News

"Stop the violence. Today we have seen pictures of small children killed by Burma's security forces. Over the last several years, I have repeatedly condemned this tragic and shameful treatment."
"I am still waiting for my fellow Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to do the same. The world is waiting and the Rohingya Muslims are waiting."
Malala Yousafzal, Pakistani Nobel Peace Laureate

State security forces have been killing men, women and children. They have been slitting throats, there have been beheadings."
"Soldiers have opened fire on groups of people and then set the bodies on fire, including children."
Matthew Smith, chief executive, Fortify Rights humanitarian group

"[The situation in Rakhine is] really grave [marking time for Suu Kyi to] step in."
"The de facto leader needs to step in -- that is what we would expect from any government, to protect everybody within their own jurisdiction."
Yanghee Lee, UN special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar

AFP/Getty Images:  Myanmar's de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi said tensions were being fanned by fake news

Under Myanmar's military junta rule it seemed to the outside world to represent a sad and sorry situation that the Rohingya were persecuted, but it was fully anticipated once the military stepped back and a democratic election resulted bringing the world-famed human-rights campaigner Aun San Suu Kyi to the executive administration of the nation, steps would be taken to protect this religious and ethnic minority. Instead, they continued to be viewed as despised interlopers with no legal status.

Rohingya families have lived in Rakhine for generations, yet they remain, in the view of the Buddhist majority and the government, illegal migrants whose presence is unwanted. Without citizenship rights in Myanmar the 1.1-million Rohingya require permission to travel outside their established villages, as well as needing to acquire official permission to even marry among themselves.

The most recent outbreak of violence, caused by an armed Rohingya group, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, that attacked a military base resulted in the army invading villages and burning down the homes of the Rohingya living there, forcing them to move on to avoid being killed. Pushed out of their traditional towns and villages, Rohingya, fleeing death have crossed into neighbouring Bangladesh.

Photo: More than 120,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh due to the violence. (AP: Bernat Armangue)

All they possessed is gone, they are famished and have no resources to maintain life. Smugglers were paid for passage across the Naf river between Myanmar and Bangladesh, leaving the refugees with nothing to support themselves with. The new government of Suu Kyi could have restored the Rohingya with the citizenship that the military junta had stripped them of, but did not.

Myanmar's National League for Democracy appears to support freedom and democracy for Buddhist Burmese, but sees it being of little value to Muslim Rohingya. They are thus stateless, with close to 400,000 searching for haven in Bangladesh now living in squalid refugee camps. The "clearance operations" to flush out insurgents from Rohingya villages has flushed out innocent civilians with nowhere to go, no resources to sustain them.

Photos of a Rohingya man holding mines on the Myanmar side of the border were sent to CNN by activists and examined by a mine expert, who confirmed that the two objects are PMN1 antipersonnel devices

The government of Myanmar insists it was the insurgents themselves who set fire to their own houses and took to slaughtering Buddhists in the western state of Rakhine, while the starving refugees speak of targeted shootings by Myanmar troops who warned them to leave, if they valued life. In their desperation to flee they faced danger crossing the border into Bangladesh as well, thanks to the explosives the Burmese military has planted there.

But this is all, of course, 'fake news'.

Source: CNN  

Rohingya Muslims flee violence in Myanmar