India’s shameful role in sham poll
Less than two weeks after junta boss Min Aung Hlaing promised an election next year, Indian Ambassador to Myanmar Aghay Thakur met Myanmar’s poll chief Ko Ko on Monday to discuss cooperation between the two countries’ election bodies.
While the international and domestic community has condemned the poll plans of military rulers who seized power from a democratically elected government in 2021, the world’s largest democracy has been keen to assist in the sham process.
During Monday’s meeting, the Indian ambassador offered to provide technology and training for the junta’s election commission.
The regime claims it is now “systematically” compiling voter lists with software developed by local experts.
Min Aung Hlaing’s promise of an election looks farfetched, however.
His regime has been ceding large swaths of territory since late last year as ethnic forces make impressive gains in Rakhine and northern Shan State. Meanwhile over 3 million people have been displaced by fighting across the country, according to the UN.
Given current conditions, observers doubt the regime can even compile voter lists.
Conscripts graduate into nightmare conflict
The third batch of civilians conscripted by the junta began military training at 14 regional commands on Tuesday, followed by graduation ceremonies for the first batch at the same venues on Friday. Training for the first batch began in April.
Desperate to replenish troops amid mounting losses to nationwide resistance attacks, the junta has accelerated forcible recruitment in the past four months since enacting the national conscription law in February, drafting around 15,000 people so far.
Normally, fresh recruits are rarely sent straight to the front line. But amid the intense fighting in Rakhine, northern Shan State and Mandalay Region’s Mogoke, there is no guarantee that the first-batch conscripts will not be posted straight into battle.
The conscription law, which allows the military to summon all men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 to serve in the armed forces for at least two years, has sparked an exodus of young people to neighboring countries. Other citizens have joined ethnic forces battling against the regime rather than fight for a military notorious for indiscriminate attacks on civilian populations. The junta said it will penalize conscription evaders with up to five years in prison.
Presiding over an opium boom
The UN says Myanmar produced 1,080 tonnes of opium in 2023, making it the world’s biggest producer of the crop used to make heroin. Read more
Gearing up with Iranian weapons?
Junta Foreign Minister Than Swe held talks with his Iranian counterpart on the sidelines of the ACD ministerial meeting, spotlighting the murky ties between the regimes. Read more
Min Aung Hlaing sends deputy to apologise for abbot’s killing
The junta boss got his deputy to deliver a statement at a Bago monastery after the regime was exposed in the killing of Sayadaw Bhaddanta Munindabhivamsa. Read more
