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AMBASSADOR OUSTED Myanmar Military Take Control of UK Embassy

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AMBASSADOR OUSTED Myanmar Military Take Control of UK Embassy Bloodshed in Bago Subdued Water Festival in Myanmar and Thailand AMBASSADOR OUSTED Myanmar military take control of UK Embassy ISSUE 16, VOL. 10, April 15, 2021 l Issued every Thursday l mizzima.com EDITORIAL WEEKLY Editor In-Chief and Managing Director udging by developments in While Myanmar has long had Soe Myint Myanmar over the last ten days, the death penalty in its penal code, the military junta appears to the country has not carried out an Contributors Jbe stepping up the violence execution in over 30 years, said Phil and the fear in order to attempt to Robertson, deputy director of the Sai Wansai, crush the country’s entrenched Civil Asia division for Human Rights Watch. Andrew Landen, Marc Jacob Disobedience Movement (CDM). He said it indicates the military is prepared to go back to a time when The bloodshed in Bago and the Myanmar was executing people. MIZZIMA MAGAZINE sentencing of 19 people to death, Neither this publication nor any using a military tribunal, demonstrates Trying cases in a military court part of it may be reproduced, a ratcheting up of pressure on the means there can be no appeals, and people of Myanmar. there are no guarantees of a free stored in a retrieval system, and fair trial in any way, shape or or transmitted in any form As we report in this issue of form, he added. The sentences could or by any means, electronic, Mizzima Weekly, the bloodshed be a tactic to force protesters off the mechanical, photocopying, worsened last week, with accounts streets and back to work, he said, as a recording or otherwise without trickling out from Bago of the nationwide boycott has brought much prior permission from Mizzima deaths of over 80 civilians in a brutal of Myanmar's economy to a halt. crackdown bringing heavy weapons to Media Co. Ltd. bear. What is clear, according to Robertson and others, is the junta Photos are by Mizzima As we attempt to keep up with core mission is to use force and Unless otherwise credited. the total death toll, it now more than violence to get everybody off the likely stands at 700 or more in what streets and to break apart the civil © 2015 MIZZIMA All rights is little short of a civil war pitting disobedience movement. Using a reserved armed security forces against a largely combination of violence, intimidation unarmed protest movement. and arrests – the arrests targeted INFORMATION and untargeted – Myanmar’s State Mizzima is owned by Mizzima Last week, an international Administration Council is seeking to Media Group in Yangon, human rights group condemned crush the freedom and democracy Myanmar's junta for sentencing 19 movement and bend the people to Myanmar. people to die, in the first known use their will. of the death penalty since the military Subscriptions and sales in seized power. What is clear is that the military Myanmar junta did not expect the massive State media reported Friday that public pushback when they executed Mizzima Weekly is currently 19 people had been sentenced to their coup back on 1 February. available as a PDF. death for robbery and murder by a military court, with 17 of them tried Now the military is demonstrating Contact: Mizzima Media Group in absentia. They were arrested in the lie that they are there to protect Email: [email protected] Yangon's North Okkalapa township - the people. Their actions street by one of six areas in the commercial hub street, city by city, indicate they are at Phone: +95-9421010100 currently under martial law, meaning war with their people. No PR spin can anybody arrested there is tried by a cover this up. military tribunal. The six townships are home to about two million people - more than a quarter of Yangon's sprawling population. mizzima WEEKLY 16 Astrological stars bring strength to NEWS & INSIGHT women in face of brutality 3 EDITORIAL 18 Myanmar group compiles junta rights abuse dossier 6 IN FOCUS 20 INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE 8 NEWS ROUNDUP US urges UN Security Council action on Myanmar 10 AMBASSADOR OUSTED Myanmar military take control of UK 21 Rights group condemns Myanmar Embassy death sentences 14 Bloodshed in Bago 22 Ambassadors to Myanmar jointly issue strongest statement to date 23 UN envoy to Myanmar still barred 10 from visit during Asia tour 24 Russia warns Myanmar sanctions could spark 'full-blown civil conflict' 25 PEOPLE IN THE NEWS Arrests of Myanmar celebrities continue 26 MEDIA Myanmar youth fight internet outages with underground newsletter 14 4 April 15, 2021 28 Major new criminal syndicate 47 LAST WEEK IN NAY PYI TAW trafficking illegal Myanmar timbers into China BUSINESS 29 UN calls for countries to sign ban on anti-personnel mines 48 Singaporean businesses in Myanmar feel the pinch 32 COVID-19 UPDATE White House rules out a US vaccine 49 Small Thai firms struggle in Myanmar 'passport' 50 Korean unions decry POSCO & KOGAS 32 AstraZeneca UK vaccine trial in investments in Myanmar children paused as clot link probed 51 BUSINESS ALERTS 34 CHINA FOCUS China sentences Uyghur ex- government officials to death for 'separatism' CULTURE & LIFESTYLE 36 CENSORSHIP 52 IN FOCUS YouTube says rule-breaking videos get scant views 54 Subdued Water Festival in Myanmar and Thailand 38 IMF warns more funding needed to safeguard global economy 40 Biodiversity 'hot spots' devastated in 23 warming world 42 'Suddenly we heard people scream: Flood!' - Horror in Indonesia 44 COMMENTARY Guterres highlights power of sport for inclusive, sustainable future 46 ETHNIC NEWS ROUNDUPS Photo of Myanmar Ambassador standing outside the Myanmar Embassy in London by EPA 54 April 15, 2021 5 6 April 15, 2021 On the road in Mandalay rotesters take to the streets last week in Mandalay calling for justice and a return to democracy after Pthe military coup. Photo: EPA April 15, 2021 7 Pope shares solidarity with Myanmar youth as protesters decorate Easter eggs nti-coup demonstrators in On Easter, decorated eggs became current situation to get back to Myanmar decorated boiled the latest emblem of resistance as democracy." eggs, as Pope Francis in his scores of Myanmar protesters painted Easter message expressed political messages on them and left Delivering his Easter message Asolidarity with the country's youth. them on neighbours' doorsteps. at the St. Peter's Basilica on Sunday, Pope Francis singled out Myanmar Myanmar has been gripped Pictures posted on social media youth "committed to supporting by turmoil since a February 1 coup showed eggs adorned with images of democracy and making their voices ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi Suu Kyi and three-finger salutes -- a heard peacefully, in the knowledge and derailed the country's tentative protest gesture -- while others said that hatred can be dispelled only by transition to democracy. "save our people" and "democracy". love". Security forces have sought to "I am Buddhist but I have joined Myanmar's most senior Catholic, quell a mass uprising with lethal this campaign because it is easy to get Cardinal Charles Bo, also shared an force and the death toll reached a hold of eggs. I spent almost one hour Easter message on Twitter: "Jesus has 564 as of late Sunday, according to decorating my eggs," a Yangon-based risen: Hallelujah - Myanmar will rise local monitoring group Assistance protester told AFP. again!" Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). "I am praying for Myanmar's AFP Total to continue gas production in Myanmar rench energy giant Total will not Hundreds have been killed in Total paid around $230 million halt gas production in coup-hit demonstrations since the military to the Myanmar authorities in 2019 Myanmar, its chief said Sunday, ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and $176 million in 2020 in the form despite growing calls for foreign on February 1, prompting widespread of taxes and "production rights", Fcompanies to sever ties with the junta calls for foreign companies to halt according to the company's own as it escalates a brutal crackdown on operations that benefit the junta. financial statements. dissent. Italy's Benetton and Sweden's It has not yet paid any taxes -- Chief executive Patrick Pouyanne H&M have suspended all new orders worth around $4 million per month said Total had a duty to stay the course from the country and French energy -- to the military since the putsch, because gas it produces supplies giant EDF suspended its activities, because the banking system in the electricity to millions in Yangon as well including a $1.5-billion project to build country has ceased to operate, as western Thailand. a hydroelectric dam. Pouyanne said. "Can a company like Total decide Demonstrations against the He said Total had decided not to to cut off the electricity supply to coup -- supported by a widespread put the taxes into an escrow account millions of people -- and in so doing, strike by civil servants -- have crippled saying it could put local managers at disrupt the operation of hospitals, Myanmar's economy, leaving gas risk of being arrested and imprisoned. businesses?" he said in an interview exports as one of the junta's main with the Journal du Dimanche. sources of revenue. Total would donate the "equivalent" of the taxes it will Pouyanne said he was "outraged The military-controlled owe the Myanmar government to by the repression" in Myanmar but Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise organisations working on human would refuse to "act to the detriment has partnerships with Total and US rights in the country, Pouyanne added. of our local employees and the rival Chevron and generates annual Burmese population who are already revenues of around $1.0 billion from AFP suffering so much." the sale of natural gas.
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