What happened to the BURMA Act?

                 (Mike Haack’s article from The FRONTIER MYANMAR on 26 October 2023.)

The United States’ biggest piece of Myanmar legislation in decades may soon begin bearing fruit, but the quirks of the US political system are key to understanding what comes next – and how to influence it.

After Kyaw Kyaw Tun watched the military slaughter his fellow students during the pro-democracy uprising in 1988, he understood nonviolence couldn’t work against the regime. Instead, he thought he could follow the path of independence hero General Aung San – but with a different benefactor.

“He went to Japan for military training. A lot of the Burmese got the same idea,” Kyaw Kyaw Tun told me. “We thought that we would be getting some assistance and training from the US. We heard that there was a US warship in the Indian Ocean. We could go there.”

107 mm Shock Rockets to Kill the Hated-Dictator

                    (David Mathieson’s article from The ASIA TIMES on 12June 2024.)

A revolutionary bridge too far in Myanmar: Resistance plot to assassinate coup leader Min Aung Hlaing at a bridge-opening ceremony raises hard questions about insurgent tactics.

Myanmar’s dictator Senior General Min Aung Hlaing showcased a major infrastructure project on June 8, opening the Thanlyin Bridge 3 across the Bago River, linking the commercial capital Yangon with the Thilawa Special Economic Zone.

Started in 2019 with a 31 billion yen (US$197 million) loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the bridge symbolizes economic progress under the State Administration Council (SAC) junta that is largely at odds with widespread armed conflict and economic decline its coup has caused.

China Playing Both Sides of Myanmar Civil War!

           (Staff article from The JAMES TOWN FOUNDATION on 30 May 2024.)

China has been arming both sides heavily.

Half a Year On, Myanmar’s Junta Appears to Have Survived Threat Posed by ‘Operation 1027’: Executive Summary: Six months after three of Myanmar’s largest anti-junta militias launched a joint operation against the Tatmadaw, they have succeeded in seizing large swathes of territory—albeit at a high price.

These successes have not brought down the ruling regime, however, and Myanmar’s ethnic militias will likely not be ready to launch another large-scale offensive anytime soon, prolonging the conflict further.

China is playing both sides of the civil war, supporting anti-junta ethnic militias in order to extract ever-greater economic and political concessions from the very regime that it supports militarily.

The ethnic militias and the forces of the Western-supported National Unity Government share a common enemy, but disagree over what a final political settlement should look like, particularly over how confederal the country should be if they succeed.

Is China stuck with Bloodied Myanmar Army?

                  (Yun Sun’s article from The NIKEI ASIA REVIEW on 10 June 2024.)

Myanmar Army on the roof, thier last refuge.

China will not give up on Myanmar's military: Fresh elections seen as best way out of stalemated conflict.

After more than three years of post-coup turmoil, Myanmar is gridlocked in a political and military stalemate. Despite the remarkable progress ethnic armed groups and resistance forces have made against the military regime, particularly since October, they still face a difficult, if not impossible, challenge in seeking to push the military out of its urban strongholds.

China looms as the most consequential external party that could affect developments in Myanmar. Many who seek a solution to Myanmar's crisis have urged Beijing to use its influence to curb the military, to support the resistance or, at least, to help the Burmese people.

Rare-Earth Mine Collapse: EVs Killing People?

                (Based on staff posts from The Myanmar Now Media on 06 June 2024.)

On June-4 just last Tueday, the whole mountain-side on top of the largest Chinese Rare Earth Mine illegally operating inide Myanmar right near China-Burma borderline in the Kachin Land of Northern-Burma suddenly collapsed in an enormous landslide, killing at least 24 people and hundreds missing presumed dead.

The large rare-earth mine is located at five-mile-north of Panwar Village in the Chibwe Township of Kachin Land in Northern-Burma. The area is under the tight control of Panwar-People-Militia led by infamous Kachin elder named Za-Khum-Taint-Yein. Formerly a KIA senior officer he now is a lacquey of Myanmar Army.

The mine-land is jointly-and-officially controlled by the Panwar Miitia and Myanmar-Myo-Ko-Ko Mineral Eploration Pte based at Rangoon’s Tamwe Township. The area is internationally well known for a very-large deposite of Rare-Earth minerals. Ther are more than 300 small mines operated by the natives there, but the largest is controlled by Chinese.

Myanmar is Fucked: One US$ is 5,000 Kyats!

              (Based on Burmese posts from The FACEBOOK on 1-4 June 2024.)

In 1984 when I left Burma for Bangkok  one US dollar fetched 40 kyats, but in 1996 when I was doing prawn-export business in Burma that black-market exchange-rate went up to 150 kyats/US$ and now one needs 5,000 kyat to get an American dollar.

According to the NUG’s Finance Minister Tin-Htun-Naing and Dr. Sean Turnell (ASSK’s former Economic Advisor), the main reason for that hyper inflation is the reckless printing of 30 trilion kyat paper money, in just last three years, by the power-mad dictator General Min Aung Hlaing and his followers.

Every salaried man or woman is now getting paid every month with brand new kyat 20,000 notes as these  notes were constantly coming out of warzi cash printing presses. And the inflation in Myanmar is going through fucking roof as both private and government banks are also issuing brand new 20,000 kyat notes.

Myanmar Chose Russia over China For Dawei Port

                    (Bhagya Subhashini’s article from SWARAJYA Mag on 16 May 2024.)

China's Frustration Grows As Myanmar Seeks Russian Partnership For Dawei Strategic Port Project: Dawei Port will link countries in the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, Europe, and Africa, without the need to pass the Malacca Strait.  

China had previously conducted a feasibility study for the Dawei port but redirected its focus to the Kyakphyu deep seaport near the India-built Sittwe port. Myanmar has recently chosen Russia for the construction of the Dawei deep seaport, a decision that has raised tensions with China, which had also shown interest in developing the port.

The port is located in the country's east coast bordering Thailand. The project was initiated in 2008 as a jointly owned bilateral economic cooperation project between the governments of Thailand and Myanmar.