Militias armed in garrison town
In another sign of its military distress, the junta on Wednesday supplied weapons to local militias in Mandalay’s garrison town of Pyin Oo Lwin, seat of the regime’s Defense Services Academy for officer training.
The handover ceremony was held at the local military training school, where Pyin Oo Lwin commander Major-General Soe Myat Htut armed around 100 militia fighters.
The town, which is hailed by the regime as the birthplace of “The Triumphant Elite of the Future”, came under attack during the Thingyan New Year Festival on April 14. Anti-regime forces fired homemade rockets at its military training schools, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing’s residence, and the regime office.
Min Aung Hlaing was visiting Pyin Oo Lwin at the time to lead the annual celebrations as military chief. However, he gave the festival a wide berth following the attack and sent his wife Kyu Kyu Hlaw to represent him instead.
The regime imposed mandatory military service in February after suffering months of heavy battlefield losses. Junta officials are currently conducting the third round of conscription to forcibly recruit about another 5,000 civilians.
Last month, junta boss Min Aung Hlaing ordered all military personnel, police and pro-junta militias in eight regional commands into full-time military service on the front line as territory and troop losses mount. The order covered Pyin Oo Lwin, which falls under Central Command.
Murdering the truth again
When it comes to defending and whitewashing junta atrocities, no one is better suited to the task than Major-General Zaw Min Tun. Widely dubbed the regime’s biggest liar, the junta spokesman was in fine form on Wednesday when he portrayed its latest massacre as the incidental deaths of three men.
Regime troops slaughtered 76 civilians and raped women during their raid on Byian Phyu in Rakhine State’s Sittwe Township in late May, according to local residents and survivors of the attack. Their accounts were backed up by the ethnic Rakhine Arakan Army (AA).
International agencies and anti-regime forces inside Myanmar quickly condemned the massacre. Zaw Min Tun finally spoke up Wednesday, insisting that neither a massacre nor mass rape had occurred, but that three male villagers had been killed after attempting to snatch guns from security personnel.
Myanmar’s public shrugged at yet another lie from a man who has become synonymous with brazen fiction.
When the regime lost vast swathes of territory in northern Shan State to the resistance’s Operation 1027 offensive, Zaw Min Tun claimed junta troops had merely made a “tactical withdrawal”. It was at least a change from his frequent denials of the junta’s terror campaigns against its own civilians since the coup.
UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday he “strongly condemns recent attacks by Myanmar’s military that reportedly killed scores of civilians” in western Rakhine State and northern Sagaing Region.
Bank crisis brewing
The junta-controlled Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) is repeatedly telling the public not to worry about their bank savings, promising to protect their deposits fully and urging them to continue using banking services as usual.
The CBM’s statements follow calls on social media to withdraw cash from banks amid rumors of a banking crisis as the kyat plunges against other currencies, triggering hyperinflation and a surge in gold prices. Parroting its usual line, the CBM blamed “media agencies and destructive elements who don’t want to see national development and prosperity” for deliberately destabilizing the country’s financial and monetary situation.
Myanmar people have lost trust in banks since they came under the control of the military regime following its coup in 2021. They have invested instead in gold and property, forcing the regime to prop up the country’s banking sector.
While the coup is the root cause of the financial crisis, the regime sought to shift blame by detaining 39 currency dealers from May 29 to June 4 on charges of currency trade manipulation, freezing their bank accounts.
Russia to the rescue of SEZs?
Four junta ministers attended the 27th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia this week, according to regime media.
Deputy PM and Transport Minister General Mya Tun Oo, Investment and Foreign Economic Relations Minister Kan Zaw, Commerce Minister Tun Ohn and Health Minister Thet Khine Win were invited to the June 5-7 forum by President Putin’s advisor, Anton Kobyakov.
The junta quartet was accompanied on the trip by the president of Myanmar’s largest business lobby, the Union of Myanmar Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and business leaders. Junta media failed to report what the high-level Myanmar delegation discussed at the forum, but it coincided with efforts to attract Russian investment in two stalled Special Economic Zone (SEZ) megaprojects.
In September last year, Transport Minister Mya Tun Oo led a delegation of junta cronies to the Eastern Economic Forum hosted by Russia in Vladivostok.
The regime then opened talks with Moscow on cooperation in the stalled Dawei SEZ and deep seaport in Tanintharyi Region while also hosting Russian businessmen on a visit to the troubled Japan-backed Thilawa SEZ on the outskirts of Yangon.
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