Buthidaung Burning: AA’s atrocities against Rohingya?

                    (Lisa Schlein’s article from The VOA NEWS on 25 May 2024.)

GENEVA — Reports are emerging of new atrocity crimes being committed in a concerted campaign of violence and destruction by Myanmar’s military (or Arakan Army) against the largely Muslim Rohingya people in northern Rakhine state.

“We are receiving frightening and disturbing reports from northern Rakhine state in Myanmar of the impacts of the conflict on civilian lives and property,” Liz Throssell, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said Friday in a briefing to journalists in Geneva.

“Some of the most serious allegations concern incidents of killing of Rohingya civilians and the burning of their property,” she said, noting that tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced in recent days by fighting in Buthidaung and Maungdaw townships.

She said that information gathered in testimony from victims, eyewitnesses, satellite images, and online video and pictures over the last week indicate that “Buthidaung town has been largely burned. We have received information indicating that the burning started on 17 May, two days after the military had retreated from the town and the Arakan Army claimed to have taken full control,” she said.

Speaking in Bangkok, James Rodehaver, head of Myanmar Team, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said his team had spoken to many sources on the ground and reviewed numerous materials, many of which “were deemed to be credible.”

Shani Louk: Nude German Girl Paraded by Hamas

              (Staff article from The ALJAZEERA NEWS on 30 October 2024.)

Israel says German-Israeli woman Shani Louk, taken by Hamas, is dead: Israeli foreign ministry confirms the death of 23-year-old Israeli-German woman Shani Louk. Israeli authorities have said that a 23-year-old German-Israeli woman named Shani Louk, abducted by the Palestinian armed group Hamas during an attack on southern Israel, is dead.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a social media post on Monday that it had confirmed the death of Louk, snatched at a music festival where Hamas fighters killed more than 200 people. (Her naked-unconscious body was paraded on the back of pickup-truck by Hamas in Gaza. She was later gang-raped, shot, and beheaded by Hamas Animals.)

“Our hearts are broken,” the social media post reads, adding that Louk had been “paraded” around Gaza. “May her memory be a blessing.” The circumstances of Louk’s death were not immediately clear. Louk’s sister Adi spoke of her “great sorrow” as she shared the news of Shani’s death on Instagram.

Hamas Terrorists Rapist-Murderers’ Confessions

                  (Staff article from The NEW YORK POST on 23 May 2024.)

Abdallah: 18-yrs-old Hamas rapist-murderer.

Father-son Hamas terrorists casually describe taking turns raping Israeli woman, then executing her, in bone-chilling video: Bone-chilling new footage shows a Hamas terrorist and his teenage son casually telling Israeli interrogators how they took turns raping a woman, then executed her during the Oct. 7 terror rampage.

Jamal Hussein Ahmad Radi, 47, and his 18-year-old son, Abdallah, were seized by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip this spring and subsequently questioned about the terror attack, the Daily Mail revealed.

Jamal described finding a woman who was “screaming” and “crying” in a house at Kibbutz Nir Oz, a community near the Israel-Gaza border. Video reportedly obtained by the Daily Mail shows Hamas terrorist Jamal Hussein Ahmad Radi being interrogated by Israeli forces. The father and son detailed their horrifying attacks on an Israeli woman.

China’s Export Surge To The Global South

                    (David Goldman’ article from The ASIA TIMES on 21 May 2024.)

2 words explain China export ‘surge’: Global South: China has had a plan, expressed at a high level in the Belt and Road Initiative, to replicate some aspects of its industrialization in other countries of the Global South.  

Contrary to a meme that’s popular among Western policy analysts, there is no Chinese “export surge.” China’s exports to developed markets have stagnated for years, but have doubled to the Global South.

Not only have China’s exports to the Global South in total risen by an unprecedented margin, but its exports to every region of the Global South – Asia, Latin America, Africa, Middle East/North Africa and Central Asia – have risen in lockstep.

Finding Kareni Commander Bo Marwi in Loikaw

     (Andrew Nachemson’s article-extract from FRONTIER MYANMAR on 17 May 2024.)

Finding Marwi in Loikaw: A Frontier editor reflects on his trip to Karenni State, culminating in a visit to the besieged state capital with one of the country’s most iconic resistance commanders.

“We need to get permission from Marwi to go to Loikaw.” It was late December and I had spent months waiting for permission to visit Karenni State, on Myanmar’s mountainous border with Thailand. Also known as Kayah State, the country’s smallest state or region with a population of under half a million, had emerged as an unexpected site of fierce resistance after the 2021 military coup.

Loikaw, the state capital, had been the site of particularly heavy fighting since anti-junta forces launched an offensive to seize the town on November 11. Likely eager to show off their gains, members of the Karenni Nationalities Defence Force repeatedly told me they would take me to the town, despite my apprehensions.

“Pig-Butchering” Cyber Scammers From Myanmar?

                  (Will Jackson’s article from the ABC NEWS on 16 May 2024.)

KNA-Controlled Shwe-Koke-Ko in Myanmar.

How South-East Asia's pig butchering scammers are using artificial intelligence technology: The video shows a young Asian man with stubbly facial hair and blond tips sitting in a gaming chair in a messy bedroom. Over the next minute his face cycles through more than a dozen different genders and ethnicities.

It's not just another new TikTok filter. The video is advertising a real-time deepfake face-swapping system reportedly being employed by South-East Asian crime syndicates in so-called "pig butchering" cyberscam operations.

Experts say the technology and other new artificial intelligence (AI) tools — such as generative AI chatbots — are increasing the effectiveness of the scams and broadening their reach to new victims. However, some of the scam operations appear to be having less success with the new tech than others.

International Brigade Fighting Myanmar Army?

             (Lorcan Lovett’ article from ALJAZEERA MEDIA on 17 May 2024.)

Western volunteers join the battle against Myanmar’s military regime: Travelling independently to Southeast Asia, they say they were inspired by the bravery of the anti-coup fighters.

Azad, a US national, (left) and an unnamed British fighter (right) with the PDF Zoland. The two men are standing either side of a desk where another fighter is sitting with weapons on display. There is a flag behind them. The men are all masked. Azad, a US national, left, is among the foreigners who have joined the armed resistance in Myanmar.

Bangkok, Thailand – An ex-British soldier and an American fighter are among a small but growing number of foreigners training and fighting alongside anti-coup forces in the war against Myanmar’s military regime.

Lat-Htoke-Taw Village Massacre!

             (Translation of Staff article from MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 14 May 2024.)

Myanmar Army troops burned down a large Burmese village called Lat-Htoke-Taw after slaughtering more than thirty Burmese villagers in cold blood on May-11 just this week. The village is in the Myint-Mu township of Sagaing Division in Middle Burma.

In the early morning of May-11 more than 100 heavily-armed Myanmar Soldiers raided the Burmese Village on the West bank of River Irrawaddy and then entered the Vilage Monastery Hall for they knew very well that frightened villagers had abandoned their homes and taken refuge inside there.

Fearfull for his life a 37-year-old villager named Kan-Gaung immediately crawled underneath a low-bed nearby and tried to hide from the demonic Myanmar soldiers. He then heard the door-opening and saw the legs of Myanmar soldiers, some in army-uniform trousers and others in black jeans, entering the Monastery Hall.

Myanmar Army’s Wet Season Strategy?

                     (Professor Zachary Abuza’s RFA Commentary on 08 May 2024.)

Proffessor Zachary Abuza.

Myanmar’s military on the back foot as the dry season comes to a close: Myanmar’s dry season is ending soon, with the military junta on the back foot after more than six months of reversals and losses to the opposition. This points to an intensification of attacks from the beleaguered regime.

With official forecasts that monsoon rains will start in the second week of June,  the State Administrative Council (SAC), as the junta is formally known, is likely to focus on six priorities before the rains set in, hampering the military’s already weak logistics and troop mobility.

While the military recently retook control over the key Thai border city Myawaddy, they have not retaken much of the territory lost since the Three Brotherhood Alliance’s Operation 1027 began in late October, especially outside of the Bamar heartland. With the rainy season favoring the more flexible opposition, the junta is likely to focus on six strategic priorities in the coming weeks.

Myanmar’s rebels take on the junta from above

                          (Staff article from the Guardian UK on 20 June 2024.)

‘We killed many … drones are our air force’: Myanmar’s rebels take on the junta from above:A rebel drone squadron drawn from engineering students and hobbyists, who gain battlefield training partly through YouTube tutorials, is proving decisive in the struggle against Myanmar’s brutal military government.

As the drones flew silently over western Myanmar’s Chin hills, the junta did not know what was about to hit them. Their operators were hidden a few hundred metres away in the dense forest. As the images on their screens indicated the drone fleet was hovering exactly above the target – a key military base in the town of Lailenpi – they hit the button on their controllers and bombs began to fall.

We had precise hits,” said Noah, 20, one of the specialist drone fighters in the Chin National Army (CNA), one of the ethnic rebel groups who have been fighting Myanmar’s military for almost three years. “It took them by surprise. We killed many, including the second-in-command of the base.” After three days of fighting, the rebels hoisted their tricolour flag over the base and shouted slogans of victory.