Published on October 05, 2022
- Political Developments
- The Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), a pro-junta political party, elected Khin Yi as the chairman of the party at the conclusion of its two-day party conference on October 05, 2022. Khin Yi is a retired brigadier general and a close ally of the junta chief.
- Members of the NLD are subjected to long-term prison sentences and acts of violence by the junta. A junta court in Magwe Region sentenced at least 20 NLD members to lengthy prison terms for allegedly violating the counterterrorism law. NLD members have also been killed during the junta’s interrogation and detention.
- On September 29, 2022, a junta court sentenced Sean Turnell, an Australian citizen and former economic adviser to State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to three years in prison for alleged violation of the country’s Official Secrets Act.
- Amnesty International published a report on September 29, 2022, stating that Meta’s algorithms enabled the Rohingya genocide in 2017.
- On September 28, 2022, the military junta sentenced Wai Yan Phyo Moe, a renowned student leader and vice president of ABFSU, to two more years in prison. Currently, he has a total of seven years and two months of prison sentences.
- On September 27, 2022, the military junta added a three-year prison sentence with hard labor to Ma Htet Htet Khine’s list of sentences. She had been arrested and sentenced to three years in prison on incitement charges prior to the most recent charges under the Unlawful Association Act.
- Free Expression Myanmar (FEM) reported that the military junta staged an “information coup” on the people of Burma through disinformation, propaganda, removal of public information, attacks on independent sources of information, and limited access to the internet.
- The junta Ministry of Information announced that all foreign movies and films will have to be approved by the junta censor before they can be broadcasted to the public.
- Ground Situation
- As of October 05, 2022, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Burmese human rights advocacy organization, reported that 2,336 individuals have been killed. AAPP also reported that 15,766 individuals have been arrested and 12,572 individuals are still detained by the Burmese military since the coup.
- As of September 26, 2022, UNOCHA reported that there are more than 1.3 million people displaced in Burma. More than a million of those people are displaced by the clashes and violence since the February 2021 coup. Lack of sufficient funding and humanitarian access are threatening the livelihood of the displaced people as conflicts intensified.
- An investigation by RFA found that nearly 800 civilians were killed in Sagaing and Magwe Regions between September 2021 and September 2022. Internet blackouts usually preceded the junta military offensive campaigns in those regions in an attempt to cut off communication and cover up the violence and destruction.
- Heavy artillery fire and airstrikes continue to kill civilians including children throughout Burma. A four-year-old child and an eight-year-old child in the Rakhine State were killed in the last week of September in separate attacks by the junta. A junta airstrike on Arakan Army (AA) killed two of its own soldiers who were held prisoner in Rakhine State.
- International Responses
- On October 04, 2022, Cambodia, the chair of ASEAN, said they did not invite junta leader Min Aung Hlaing to the upcoming ASEAN summits in Phnom Penh. The junta has repeatedly been denied a representative and is being asked again to send non-political representatives instead.
- On September 30, 2022, activists in Burma, along with the NUG Communications Minister U Htin Lin Aung asked Elon Musk to offer his internet services through his internet firm, Starlink, in Burma. Following Starlink’s operation in Ukraine and recently, Iran, activists have asked Musk to do the same for Burma where the junta continues to block online communications and the internet.
- On September 28, 2022, Human Rights Watch criticized the junta for canceling model Han Lay’s passport and attempting to force Thailand to send her back to Burma. Han Lay, or Thaw Nandar Aung, received the junta’s attention due to her speech pleading for help against the junta at the Miss Grand International Myanmar competition in Thailand back in March 2021.
- On September 27, 2022, the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar (IIMM), created by the United Nations Human Rights Council, said the school attack on Let Yet Kone village that killed 12 people, including several children, may be considered a war crime. The junta’s targetting of the school may violate international laws of war that prohibit targeting civilians.
- Business and Economy
- In mid-September, the junta-controlled Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM) announced that they will delete mobile payment accounts with incomplete personal profiles. Though the CBM cited reasons to prevent financial fraud and scams, the public viewed the announcement as the junta’s attempt at cracking down on monetary donations to the resistance efforts.
- In 2022, Burma had seen its lowest foreign direct investment in four years according to ISP Myanmar. Singapore, China, and South Korea remain the top foreign investors in Burma in the first seven months of 2022. Singapore had invested more than US$ 1 billion and China had invested US$257.5 million.
- NUG’s Ministry of Planning, Finance, and Investment (MOPFI) raised over US$ 9 million from the sale of land seized by the junta in Mandalay.