US-China Proxy Drone War in Kyaukphyu of Myanmar?

             (Based partly on staff post from the NARINJARA NEWS on 27 May 2025.)

China is protecting her trillion dollars interest (China’s Indian Ocean Gateway) by fighting together with Myanmar Army defending (but rapidly losing) the Kyaukphyu Town.

Kyaukphyu is the most crucial town for China’s security and economic interest in Myanmar as being the terminus for Trans-Myanmar Crudeoil and Gas Pipelines and also the terminus for future Kunming-Kyaukphyu Railway. Kyaukphyu also has the China-controlled deep seaport allowing enormous crude-oil-tankers to unload and then piped to Kunming.

As AA occupied 14 townships out of all 17 townships in Arakan, China has started sending PLA armed units disguised as mercenaries or private security personnel since February this year after the AA (Arakan Army) started their operation against Kyaukphyu in January this year.

On February-27 a small PLA armed unit of about fifty (mainly snipers) from PLA Southern Division based in Yunan Province was airlifted to Kyaukphyu as AA intensified the offensive on Kyaukphyu. A PLA drone unit of about twenty also arrived at Kyaukphyu.

US-China Tug of War Over Myanmar’s Yakhine State?

             (Fahd Bin Zahed’s post from the JAKARTA POST on 21 May 2025.)

Will US-China tug of war ensue over Rakhine State? Growing US interest in Myanmar’s Rakhine State could prompt China to ramp up its backing for the military junta in Naypidaw.

In mid-April, the arrival in Dhaka of three United States State Department officials, two deputy assistant secretaries and the charge d’affaires in Naypidaw, signaled the first signs of a critical engagement between US officialdom and the Muhmmad Yunus’s interim government since it took charge in August 2024.

Following the August 2024 political transition, Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Yunus appears to have adopted a new geopolitical orientation, seemingly opening the country to Western interests, both political and economic.

Ukraine’s FPV Drones Flying in Burma?

                       (Staff post from the YAHOO MEDIA on 24 May 2025.)

Russian Mi-17 chopper Appears To Have Been Downed By FPV Drone In Myanmar: Myanmar rebels claim they shot down a government Mi-17 helicopter with an FPV drone. A tactic developed by Ukraine to attack helicopters with small drones has apparently found its way to the jungles of the war-torn nation of Myanmar.

Rebels fighting Myanmar’s junta say they used a first-person view (FPV) drone to down an Mi-17 Hip transport helicopter attempting to land with supplies. The government, however, claims the helicopter crashed due to mechanical failure. Regardless, the claimed attack is nothing out of the realm of possibility.

There are rapidly evolving threats to helicopters in combat zones, including from lower-end drones, raising concerns about degradation in their utility on future battlefields. Video emerged on social media showing the video feed of what purports to be an FPV drone operated by the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) careening toward the helicopter, which was hovering just a few feet off the ground at the time.

Myanmar Army Major-General Assassinated in Yangon!

             (Ko Cho’s post from THE MYANMAR NOW MEDIA on 22 May 2025.)

On May-22 Thursday, the Retired Major-General Cho Htun Aung, a former ambassador and the current professor at the National Defense College – NDC, was shot to death right in front of his residence in Yangon by two masked-gunmen from the Golden Valley Warriors from the NUG’s PDF.

Former Myanmar Ambassador to Cambodia and Brunei was shot while he was picking up fallen Mangoes in his front yard and died inside the ambulance on the way to Base Military Hospital (BMH) in Mingaladon. His house is at Shwe-hnin-zee-6 Street of Fifth Ward in Mayangone Township, Yangon.

He graduated from the Fifth Cadet Batch of OTS (Officer Training School) in Hmawbi and served in Myanmar Army for over 30 years. He was the Divisional Commander of Yay-based MOC-19 (Military Operations Command-19) and also served as the ruthless Chairman of Karen State Peace and Development Council during the era of Than-Shwe-Led SPDC (State Peace and Developmnet Council) in the years 1990s and 2000s.

Mi17 Down: KIA .50 Guns Roasted Russian Bird Alive

               (Staff post from the KHIT THIT MEDIA on 20 May 2025.)

Kachin Independence Army (KIA) successfully shot down a Myanmar Air Force Mi17 transport helicopter in their Kachin State. According to the KIA spokesperson Colonel Naw Boo, three Mi17 helicopters were on their way to reinforce the besieged town Bamaw on the eastern bank of Irrawaddy River in Kachin State.

KIA’s 50 cal Machine Gunners shot down two out of three Mi17 choppers but only one crashed into the KIA Fifth Brigade area near the town of Shwe-Gu on the west bank of Irrawaddy River. Other one crash landed at Shwe-Gu town.

The Mi17s were sending Myanmar Army soldiers and supplies to the Bamaw-based 21^st Military Operations Command (MOC-21). The crashed Mi17 was piloted by Myanmar Air Force Captain Myo Htet Aung who was killed along with a Myanmar Army Tactical Commander and all his soldiers onboard.

Myanmar Air Force: Min Aung Hlaing’s Killing Machines

            (Swe Taw’s post from the IRRAWADDY MEDIA on 13 May 2025.)

How Myanmar Junta Uses Air Force to Fight Its Corner: The military junta, which loves to portray itself as the “Standard Army,” has gradually struggled to curb the People’s Defence Forces (PDF) who in the early days of the armed revolt only had rudimentary homemade-hunting rifles.

Today, the junta’s only remaining advantage is its air force, for which the regime has spent substantial public funds. Most countries worldwide have imposed sanctions against the military junta, restricting its ability to purchase aircraft and other military equipment. However, countries like Russia and China continue to supply arms to the regime, enabling it to continue its aerial campaign freely.

During the early days of armed revolt following the coup, the military did not immediately deploy air power, because junta chief Min Aung Hlaing believed his army could easily suppress the resistance forces who were poorly equipped. Even when ground units reported difficulties, they were not granted air support. Troops were pressured to continue fighting without backup.

The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13)

 (The very Prayer taught to humanity through his disciples by our Lord Jesus in AD 30.)

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we also forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil, for thy is the kingdom the power and the glory forever and ever, Amen.

Sean Turnell: Military Ruins Rising Myanmar Economy!

         (Sebastian Strangio’s post from THE DIPLOMAT on 06 May 2025.)

Sean Turnell on Myanmar’s Star-crossed Economic Reforms: “Had the coup not occurred I have no doubt that Myanmar would have made real progress in catching up to its peers and neighbors.”

When Myanmar’s military seized power on February 1, 2021, it forcibly dissolved the government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) and terminated a process of political and economic opening that the government had spearheaded over the past five years.

This had involved ambitious efforts to loosen the military’s grip on the economy, rationalize Myanmar’s institutions, attract foreign investment, and catalyze the long process of catching up with the country’s neighbors.

Throughout the NLD’s term in office, the Australian economist Sean Turnell was a close participant in and observer of the reform process, serving as a “special economic advisor” to NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, an experience that he relates in his recent book “Best Laid Plans: The Inside Story of Reform in Aung San Suu Kyi’s Myanmar.”

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.