MIG-29 Dropped Cluster-bombs on a School in Depayin

                       (Staff post from THE MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 13May 2025.)

At around 9:30 am in the morning of May-12 a MIG-29 jet fighter coming up from the Shan-del Air Force Base in Meik-hti-lar flew over the Oh-htain-dwin Village of Depayin Township in the Sagaing Division of Myanmar.

The MIG-29 flew over and then came back quickly and dropped two large cluster bombs right onto the village school where more than 150 young students were attending that day. One dropped right into the one-storeyed main building with five crowded classrooms and another one in the front yard of the school. The bombs killed forty young schoolkids and two female teachers and wounded more than sixty other students.

The Russain-made large cluster bombs had two stage explosions. One in the air just before the impact and releasing at least 40 bomblets to kill people around and the second one hitting the floor and destroying the building.

According to the eyewitnesses the countless pieces of mutilated body parts were scattered all over the ground and inside the classrooms. Grieving parents had to sadly identiffy their children’s body parts by their cloths and jewelleries like bracelets and rings worn that day.

Do-gooders Want Chickens Free-range: It killed Millions!

             (Mandy McKeesick’s post from THE GUARDIAN AUS on 11 May 2025.)

(Australia right now is experiencing severe egg shortages, largely due to avian influenza popularly known as the bird-flu. Since late 2023, frequent outbreaks across Victoria and New South Wales have led to the culling of over one million layer-hens.)

‘Not a surprise’: what’s behind Australia’s egg shortage, and is it here to stay? Consumers have shown a preference for free-range eggs, but those farming systems are more vulnerable to biosecurity risks like bird flu.

Greg Mills knows his eggs. He has been working in the industry for more than 15 years: with the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries; as an industry adviser to the national poultry welfare code; as a university lecturer on egg production; and as an on-farm consultant in the development of free-range farms.

He has talked eggs to schoolchildren at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and presented to wider audiences on why we have intensive livestock systems. In 2017 he was named Kondinin rural consultant of the year. So, when Mills says that what we are seeing on supermarket shelves now – no eggs or expensive eggs – is here to stay, it pays to listen up.

US Vs China Proxy War in Myanmar?

          (Andrew Seth’s post from THE INTERPRETER AUS on 08 May 2025.)

Is the United States really planning a proxy war in Myanmar? Despite reports to the contrary, the likelihood of any Western country joining the conflict is vanishingly small.

There is a school of thought, found mainly in South Asia, that claims the United States and its allies are preparing to launch a “proxy war” in Myanmar. The operation would ostensibly be aimed at destroying Myanmar’s armed forces (Tatmadaw) and denying China access to the Indian Ocean.

Over the past few years, such claims have been promoted by a number of articles and editorial comments in local news outlets and on some websites. The basic outlines of the narrative are as follows:

US officials, including members of the State Department, the National Security Council, the Charge of the US embassy in Yangon, and the Deputy Commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, have all reportedly travelled to Bangladesh to work out the details of the planned operation with Sheikh Hasina’s government.

From TaungKham to NaungCho, Army Advances

        (Translated posts from the KHIAN ZAW’s FACEBOOK pages in April-May 2025.)

As a part of Northern Alliance’s Operation-1027, TNLA the Palaung Army captured the southern parts of Shan-North including Thibaw and KyaukMel and NaungCho. From NaungCho they tried to capture the high hilly lands around TaungKham last year in August.

But Myanmar Army,  correctly believing that losing TaungKham will threaten the major cantonment town of Pyin-Oo-Lwin where all three military academies (DSA, DSTA, & DSMA) are situated, fought back bitterly with the reinforcements from the Shan-South and Mandalay. One good luck for Myanmar Army is China’s last-minute intervention in Shan-North by pressuring the Kokang Army (MNDAA) to stop fighting against Myanmar Army.

Now Myanmar Army has only the Palaung Army (TNLA) against them to take back Taung Kham and the all the towns and villages on the road all the way to Lashio. And the town of NaungCho is the first in that way.

Indian Jets Attacked Pakistan: 5 Indian Jets Shot Down

                (Staff posts from the ABC NEWS AUSTRALIA on 07 May 2025.)

Eight dead after missiles strike nine sites in Pakistan, Pakistani Kashmir: Loud explosions have been heard in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir, where India says it has attacked "terrorist infrastructure". Delhi said it targeted nine sites and Pakistan vowed to respond to the attacks.

Pakistan shot down five Indian aircraft in 'defensive' act, military spokesperson says: Pakistani military spokesperson, Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry, has given further detail on its retaliation against India's missile strikes. "So far, I can confirm you that five Indian aircrafts including three Rafale, one SU-30 and one MiG-29 have been shot down, and one Heron drone has also been shot down," he said.

"I would also like to emphasise that all of these engagements have been done as a defensive [act] ... after the Indian aircraft attacked the fire on the Pakistani territory." He said one of the "engagements" took place near Bhatinda in India. "And there are other locations also as the information keeps on coming, I'll keep on updating," he said. Lieutenant General Chaudhry condemned India's attack as a "cowardly act" where the "serenity of the country has been violated".

Daily Blackouts are Killing Whole Families in Yangon

             (Translated staff post from the KHIT THIT MEDIA on 01 May 2025.)

Widespread daily blackouts are causing dreadful incidents in hot and humid Yangon City formerly known as Rangoon. People are forced to sleep without their air conditioners running full on at night. But many families who can afford to buy a small electric generator and spend very expensive petrol fuel are still sleeping with thire airconditioners running blowing full on.

Unfortunately, some ignorant Myanmar people do not really know that the petrol engine’s exhaust gas are full of carbon monoxide (CO). The result of inhaling CO inside an enclosed apartment is surely lethal and so many families are now dying of carbon monoxide poisoning in Yangon City.

Following is the recent stories of two families sadly killed by Carbon monoxide for they ran petrol electric generator in their small apartment so that, they foolishly thought, they would comfortably sleep with aircon on.

Battle For Lay-myet-hnar Town in Irrawaddy Division

           (Translated staff post from the MYANMAR NOWMEDIA on 30 April 2025.)

The victorious Arakan Army (AA) has already liberated 14 townships of Arakan State and one township in Chin State and now is opening massive war-fronts in three administrative division of Pegu, Magway, and Irrawaddy, all divisions geographically adjacent to the Arakan Ranges (the Yakhine Yoma).

After last-year capturing of Gwa town on the border of Irrawaddy Division and Arakan State three war columns of AA supplemented by allied PDF Irrawaddy troops are now marching deep into the Irrawaddy Delta the rice bowl of Myanmar. The first column is now attacking the Myanmar Army positions around the Lay-myet-hnar Town, while the second column is reaching the Ngar-thaing-chaung Town, and the third column is heading towards Thar-baung Town.

The Gwa-NgarThaingChaung Road is the principal route from Arakan to Irrawaddy and it pass-through the Lay-myet-hnar town.  Apparently the rapidly weakening Myanmar Army facing all sorts of enemy all over the country has been withdrawing from the front lines around Lay-myet-hnar as AA and allied PDF troops advanced rapidly towards the town.

John Sydenham Furnivall of British-Burma (1878-1960)

            (Wai Yan Aung’s post from the IRRAWADDY NEWS MEDIA on 07 July 2020.)

The Day a British Benefactor of Burmese Youth and Education Passed Away: On this day in 1960, John Sydenham Furnivall, a pro-Burmese British ex-civil servant who dedicated himself to the educational development of Burmese youth during the colonial period, served as a national planning adviser to independent Burma, and loved to be addressed as “U Gyi” (“uncle” in Burmese), died at the age of 82 in Cambridge, England.

Furnivall was born on 14 February 1878 in Great Bentley, Essex in England. For secondary schooling, he attended the Royal Medical Benevolent College (now Epsom College). He won a scholarship to Trinity Hall, Cambridge University in 1896. Four years later, in 1899, he obtained a degree in natural science.

He arrived in Myanmar (then Burma) in 1902 as a public servant in the Indian Civil Service. He served as the Commissioner of Land Settlement and Records across Myanmar. Furnivall, who married an ethnic Shan woman and could speak Burmese fluently, was upset by the oppression of the Burmese people. He boldly told his government that Burmese people deserved self-rule and later retired from his position.

He founded the Burma Research Society, Burma Book Club, Burma Education Extension Association and the publication The World of Books (Ganda Lawka), which introduced Myanmar youth to the world’s literature and helped broaden their horizons. He also laid the foundation for the establishment of the Burmese Translation Society (now Sarpay Beikman) after independence.

Burma in Limbo - Part 4

 (My post from Australian National University's NEW MANDALA on 14 Oct 2010.)

1947 Interim Government of Burma.

On third December 1946 the Communists were expelled from ruling AFPFL. The expulsion basically laid the foundation for never-ending civil war in Burma.

Just 30 days before on third November 1946 AFPFL (Anti-Fascist Peoples’ Freedom League) the loosely formed coalition of Than Htun’s Communists and Kyaw Nyein’s Socialists and Aung San’s PVO had achieved their aim of forming the Aung San led interim government by pressuring the colonial government by a widely disruptive general strike nationwide. Even the colonial police joined the strike.

When the Governor Sir Hubert Rance invited AFPFL to join the colonial government in a power-sharing deal the Communists appointed their former Secretary-General Thein Phe Myint a minister. Aung San was effectively the PM and Kyaw Nyein was the powerful Home minister with police and internal security portfolios. Other ministers were appointed by the Governor.