Military
The Myanmar regime claimed on state TV on December 17 that recent aerial assaults on the village of Kone Thar in northern Shan State’s Namhsan Township were aimed at the anti-junta People’s Defence Force (PDF), not the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA). It alleged that PDF members were temporarily stationed there to transport weapons and ammunition to resistance strongholds in Sagaing and Magway regions. While it acknowledged that clashes with the TNLA took place, it said that these were based on a misunderstanding and were soon resolved.
In response, the TNLA said in a statement released the following day that the junta’s explanation for the week-long air and ground offensive was based on “false news” and that contrary to the regime’s claims, no weapons or ammunition were seized after the assaults.
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A military column of around 50 junta troops overran a base operated by anti-regime forces in southern Shan State’s Ywangan Township on December 13. According to a spokesperson for the Ywangan Urban Guerrilla group, some weapons and ammunition were lost during the raid on the camp, which was located near the village of Nwar Ban Gyi, about two miles north of the town of Ywangan. Members of the group managed to retreat with the help of local resistance allies, said the spokesperson. Ywangan sits on the border between Shan State and Mandalay Region and is about 60 miles from the cantonment town of Ba Htoo, where several infantry battalions and military training schools are located.
Junta affairs
The UN General Assembly’s credentials committee last week rejected an attempt by Myanmar’s military to take over the country’s seat in the world body, according to reports. Senior diplomat Kyaw Moe Tun, who was appointed to occupy the position by Myanmar’s ousted civilian government before last year’s coup, remains as permanent UN representative. It is the second time that the junta has failed in its bid for recognition by the UN as the legitimate ruling regime.
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A coup regime-controlled court in Naypyitaw sentenced Bo Bo Nge, the ousted deputy governor of the Central Bank of Myanmar, to 20 years in prison on two charges of corruption on December 13, according to sources familiar with the proceedings. The details of the court verdicts were not known at the time of reporting. Bo Bo Nge was among the civilian state leaders and cabinet members arrested by the military as it staged a coup on February 1 last year in Naypyitaw. The junta indicted him on charges of corruption and moved him to Mandalay’s Obo Prison in May. Before being appointed as deputy governor of the Central Bank, Bo Bo Nge served on the economic committee of Myanmar’s ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy (NLD).
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Two labour rights activists and a driver who was arrested along with them were sentenced to three years in prison each on incitement charges on December 15, according to their colleagues. Khine Thinzar Aye, a communications officer for the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM), and Ei Phyu Myint, a member at the Industrial Workers’ Federation of Myanmar (IWFM), were arrested at a flash-mob protest in Yangon’s South Okkalapa Township on April 20 along with their driver, Nyan Sein.
At least 118 members of the CTUM, which has more than 60,000 members nationwide, remain in junta custody since last year’s coup for opposing the military takeover. Four other members of the CTUM were arrested at a similar protest on Panbingyi Street in Yangon’s Kyeemyindaing Township on September 13.
Media
Freelance journalist Soe Yarzar Tun was sentenced to four years in prison on December 16 after a regime-controlled special court in Insein Prison found him guilty of violating Section 52a of the Counter-Terrorism Law. The charge was based on information found on his phone after his arrest, which was used to accuse him of communicating with anti-regime groups. He was indicted in April after being arrested the previous month in Bago Region’s Thone Sel Township, just days after escaping a raid on a monastery where he was practising as a monk. A source close to his family told Myanmar Now that several others held under the same charge were also convicted at the same time.
On the same day, the Insein Prison court also sentenced two other journalists to five years in prison on a different charge. Htet Htet Aung, a news editor from the Yangon-based Thingangyun Post, and Wai Lin Yu, a reporter with the same publication, were both charged under Section 5 of the Explosive Substances Act following their arrest in September of last year. Both men denied owning the explosives found in the apartment where they were taken into custody.
International affairs
On December 13, the Kuala Lumpur High Court in Malaysia lifted a stay of deportation for 114 Myanmar nationals, in a move that could see them forcibly returned to their home country despite the risk to their safety. In a joint statement, Amnesty International Malaysia and Asylum Access Malaysia called on the government to “halt any decision to send people back to a violent and dangerous situation.” In February 2021, Malaysia immigration officials sent 1,086 people back to Myanmar despite a temporary stay announced by the high court in the wake of the coup on the first of that month.
Since April of this year, Malaysia has returned more than 2,000 Myanmar nationals, including many asylum seekers. On October 6, it sent 150 back under arrangements made together with the junta-aligned Myanmar embassy. Six were defectors from the Myanmar navy, at least one of whom was arrested upon his return. Myanmar nationals make up the majority of the roughly 185,000 asylum seekers and refugees currently registered by the UNHCR in Malaysia.
