Making Sense of the Mess in Myanmar’s Shan State

          (Bertil Lintner’s post from The IRRAWADDY MEDIA on 9 September 2024.)

The simplistic version of what is happening in northern Shan State is that a united front of Bamar and non-Bamar resistance armies has liberated huge swathes of territory. The Myanmar army is on the defensive after being forced to abandon numerous small as well as major outposts and is about to lose the war.

A more down-to-earth look at the situation, however, reveals a much more complex picture. It is correct that the Brotherhood Alliance, which brings together the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA), has taken over large tracts of land in northern Shan State, including several towns and highways between them.

But the bitter reality is that the resistance forces are not always entirely welcome in the areas they now control. Uniformed men from the TNLA, a Palaung group, patrol Shan-dominated towns like Hsipaw and Kyaukme as well as Kachin-inhabited areas around Namhpakka and Kutkai.

Riss and Rise of TNLA The Mighty Pa-laung Army!

        (Staff article from the International Crisis Group (ICG) on 04 September 2023.)

Treading a Rocky Path: The Ta’ang Army Expands in Myanmar’s Shan State. With Myanmar’s military fighting on other fronts, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army is firming up its foothold in the country’s north. Clashes with other ethnic armed groups are possible. The Ta’ang group should focus on improving governance in its areas, in conjunction with civil society.

What’s new? The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) has used Myanmar’s post-2021 coup crisis to expand its territory in northern Shan State, recruit fighters and strengthen its parallel administration. Although it has quietly supported anti-coup resistance forces, it has clashed with the military only rarely and has met with regime representatives.

Why does it matter? The TNLA’s expansion has created tensions with other ethnic armed groups and non-Ta’ang communities in northern Shan State. The group’s ambiguous political positioning since the coup reflects the complex environment in which ethnic armed groups operate. It also helps explain why building a countrywide anti-regime alliance has proven so difficult.

Gangland Public Execution in Sydney’s Surry Hills?

         (Laurence Karacsony’s post from the SKYNEWS AUS on 24 November 2024.)

Underworld figure Niddal Acherkouk identified as fatal shooting victim in Sydney as more details emerge after grizzly hit: The victim of the fatal Surry Hills shooting has been identified as an underworld figure with links to a notorious bikie gang, as more details emerge after Niddal Acherkouk was shot dead in the middle of a busy Sydney intersection.

New South Wales Police have met with the press to address the fatal overnight shooting taking place in the Sydney suburb Surry Hills. The man who fell prey to an “outrageous” shooting in a busy Surry Hills Street in Sydney has been identified as underworld figure Niddal Acherkouk who had links to a notorious bikie gang and was known to police.

Acherkouk, who was aged in his 30s, was shot multiple times in his car by balaclava-clad assassins at Surry Hills BP before running from his pursuers and collapsing at the busy intersection of Crown and Cleveland streets a short time before 8pm on Friday.

Chinese Troops in Kyauk-Phyu to Protect Xi's Interests

               (Based on Burmese media reports on 22-23 November 2024.)

Very first batch of 5.000 Chinese-Security-Battalion troops out of planned 50,000 Chinese troops accepted by that Motherfucker Dictator Min Aung Hlaing at Kumming Summit recently has already landed at Kyauk-Phyu port on mostly Chinese PLAN landing ships and some long-range troop carrier jets direct from Kumming, Yunan.

Crazy Myanmar Dictator now stuck in the middle Burma like a mad dog trapped in the corner has taken the Xi Jinpeng’s Chinese-Slavery-Package including the one billion Yuan cash (US$ 184 millions) and shamelessly sold his nation to the motherfucking Chinese.

Chinese troops are now guarding the Kyauk-Phyu SEZ as agreed to between Myanmar and China last month. They are now busily installing advanced drone jammers and laying personal land mines all around the SEZ and flying spy drones constantly to monitor the movements of AA the Arakan Army troops.

Myanmar Civil War: New Season, New Breakthroughs?

(Antonio Graceffo’s post from the GEOPOLITICAL MONITOR on 14 November 2024.)

As of late October, pro-democracy resistance fighters in Myanmar had advanced to within a few kilometers of Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city.

This marks a significant shift in the Myanmar civil war, a conflict that has hitherto been concentrated in the jungles and mountains of ethnic states, where groups like the Karen National Liberation Army, Karenni Army, and Kachin Independence Army (KIA) initially focused on reclaiming territory in and around their ancestral homelands.

The scope of the fighting expanded dramatically in October 2023, when several major ethnic armies joined together to recapture sweeping tracts of the Myanmar countryside, gradually narrowing the zone of Tatmadaw control to major urban centers.

The approach on Mandalay represents a new phase of the Myanmar civil war. For one it sends a powerful message to the ruling State Administration Council (SAC) that the rebels remain united and determined to take the fight to the country’s economic and political heartland.

China Has kidnapped Kokang-Army Chief Pheung Daxun!

     (Based on staff article from the MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 18 November 2024.)

Chinese Communist Government has kidnapped MNDAA the Kokang Army Chief Pheung Daxun during his informal visit to China. He was on the trip to meet Deng Xijun the China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs.

The 59-years-old Kokang-General was summarily arrested and placed under house arrest for refusing to withdraw from the Shan-North Capital City Lashio and return the city to fascist Myanmar Army.

He was summoned to Kuming the Yunan State Capital on September-10 and then kept under house arrest at his Likyang house in Yunan, after meeting with China’s Special Envoy for Asian Affairs Deng Xijun and the UWSA leaders on the border. He wasn’t allowed to go out freely but still allowed to communicate with his Kokang Army comrades.

KIA’s Capture of Mines Disrupts Rare-Earth Markets!

               (K. Warner’s article from the METAL TECH NEWS on 12 November 2024.)

Myanmar REE mining halts, prices soar: Half the world's heavy rare earth production grinds to a halt amidst civil war. Myanmar's top exports have long been oil and natural gas, followed by fruits and vegetables, wood, fish, clothing, and rubber. Its main export partnerships are with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Germany, Indonesia and Hong Kong.

Today, this small country has found itself to be an essential source of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs), vital ingredients for the magnets used in electric vehicles and renewable energy wind turbines worldwide.

With countries scouring their own backyards for resources, Myanmar's geological wealth has caught the eye of battery-producing world powers; as much as 50% of the global heavy rare earths supply has come from the small country's mines directly to China, controlling almost 90% of global rare earth processing, backed by 60% of global production.

Pete Hegseth: Trump’s Defense Pick Shocks Pentagon!

              (Leo Shane’s article from the ARMY TIMES on 13 November 2024.)

The Axe-thrower with Jerusalem Cross tattoo.

Trump picks Fox commentator Pete Hegseth as his next Defense Secretary: President-elect Donald Trump announced he will nominate Army veteran and conservative commentator Pete Hegseth (born in 1980: just 44 years old) as his next Secretary of Defense, saying the appointment will help strengthen America’s military.

“With Pete at the helm, America’s enemies are on notice — Our military will be great again, and America will never back down,” Trump wrote in a statement Tuesday evening. “Nobody fights harder for the troops, and Pete will be a courageous and patriotic champion of our ‘peace through strength’ policy.”

Hegseth, 44, has been a FOX News host for eight years and a strong backer of Trump. He previously led the conservative veterans advocacy groups Vets For Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America, pushing for fewer restrictions on using Veterans Affairs funding for private health care.

Mass Deportation USA: Tom Homan The Border Czar!

           (Jennie Taer’s article from the NEW YORK POST on 11 November 2024.)

Trump’s new border czar Tom Homan vows that sanctuary cities will not stop him from deporting migrant criminals: ‘We’re coming’. President-elect Donald Trump’s new “border czar” Tom Homan has a message for New York City and other sanctuary jurisdictions: Nothing will stop us from deporting migrant criminals.

“If we can’t get assistance from New York City, we may have to double the number of agents we send to New York City,” he said on Fox & Friends on Monday. “Because we’re going to do the job with you or without you.”

Homan — whom Trump tasked with both securing the border and carrying out the deportation of millions of migrants who are in the US illegally — told The Post that he wants his boss to put maximum pressure on the leaders of New York and other sanctuary cities that refuse to cooperate with efforts to lock up and deport migrants who commit crimes in the US.

Revolution: Drain The Swamp, Destroy The Deep State?

            (Nick Bryant’s article from the ABC NEWS AUS on 10 November 2024.)

Trump triumphant: How his White House will be different this time. After fours years in the wilderness, Donald Trump’s restoration presidency also threatens to be a retribution presidency. In January 2017, when Donald Trump delivered his first inaugural address, passages read like a declaration of war on Washington.

“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another,” he intoned, as his insurgent presidential campaign reached its triumphant fruition, “we are transferring power from Washington DC and giving it back to you, the American people.” From the outset, however, there was the suspicion that America’s 45th president wanted power to be vested primarily in an American personage: Donald J. Trump. His boast, after all, at the 2016 Republican convention had been: “I alone can fix it.”

In the planning of those inaugural festivities, Trump had revealed a penchant for authoritarian flourishes. “Make it look like North Korea,” he reportedly declared at one of the planning sessions, “tanks and choppers.” Afterwards, he tried to create the false sense that record-breaking crowds had listened to his inaugural address, even though aerial photographs showed Barack Obama had attracted a larger throng.

Elon Musk All-in for Trump’s Election Victory!

                 (Elon Musk’s interview with Tucker Carlson on 6 November 2024.) 

Visit Myanmar (The Juice Media)

 (New Tourism Promotion Video from the Military-controlled Fascist Republic of Myanmar.)