PEACE Info (February 23, 2021)

PEACE Info (February 23, 2021) − New UEC invites political parties to attend coordination meeting − Junta scrambles to form ethnic alliances amid nationwide dissent − Why the coup will fail, and what the Tatmadaw can do about it − Committee of Ousted Myanmar Lawmakers Appoints International Envoys − Myanmar Coup Leader Resorts to Threats With Medics Still On Strike − Myanmar Junta Leader Warns Media Against Using ‘Junta’ or ‘Regime’ − Nearly 200 Anti-Military Regime Protesters Detained in Myanmar Capital − ‘We thought it would just be one day’: Netizens urge ISPs to push back against internet blackouts − A Mon leader resigns from MUP over collusion with the new military regime − After Embassy Protest, Indonesia Denies Backing Myanmar Regime’s Election Plan − India’s Muted Response to Myanmar Military Coup Seen as a Strategic Move − U.S. imposes sanctions against two more Myanmar military officials − G7 Nations Condemn Myanmar Coup as Some Detained Protesters Are Released − Over 700 fruit trucks bound for China stranded, face damage at border gates in Muse − Burma Army Attack KIO/A In Muse District − စစ��က�င�စ� ဖ��စည��ထ��သည�� UEC က ��င�ငံ�ရ�ပ�တ�မ��င�� တ��ဆ�ံရန� ဖ�တ��က�� − UEC အသစ�န�� င�ငံ�ရ�ပ�တ�တ�� တ��ဆ�ံပ��က�� တက��ရ�က�မ�� မဟ�တ�ဘ��လ�� NLD ��ပ� − UEC �တ��ဆ�ံပ�� KySDP တက�မည�မဟ�တ� − �က��မရ�င� အသစ� �တ��ဆ�ံပ�� MUP တက��ရ�က�မည� − စစ�အ�ဏ�ရ�င�စနစ� ကန��က�က�ဆ��ပသ��တ� �မ ��နယ�အသ��သ��မ�� ဆက�ရ��န − CDM လ�ပ�တ��ဝန�ထမ��တ� တစ��ယ�က�ခ�င�� ဖ�န��ဆက�ဖ�အ��ပ�ခံ�နရ − "��စ�" င��လ�ံ��န� �န�ပည��တ��မ�� ဖမ��ခံရသ�မ�� ပန�လည�လ�တ��မ�က� − �န�ပည��တ�� စ�င��လ�ံ� ဆ��ပပ�� ခ�က��ယ�က�က�� ဆက�လက�ဖမ��ဆ��ထ�� − �မန�မ��ရ��က�က�ပ��သစ� �ထ�က�ခံ�ခင��မဟ�တ� အင�ဒ��ပန�ရ�င�� − မ� ��လ�ပစ�ခတ�မ�တ�င� ��ဟင�ဂ�� မ�နင��သ� တပ�မ�� ပ�ဝင�ဟ� UN ��ပ� − အ�ဏ�သ�မ�� စစ��က�င�စ� အဖ��ဝင� ဗ��လ�ခ��ပ��စ�ဦ�က�� အ�မရ�ကန� ဒဏ�ခတ�အ�ရ�ယ� − �မန�မ�တပ�မ�တ��က ဆ��ပသ�မ��အ�� တ��က�ခ��က�ခ��မ�က�� G-7 က အ�ပင��အထန��တ�ခ� − �မန�မ�စစ��က�င�စ�အ�ပ� ��င�ငံတက�ဖ�အ��ပ�မ� တ��လ� − ဥ�ရ�ပသမဂ�၌ �မန�မ��င�� ရ��က�� ပ�တ�ဆ��မ�မ�� ခ�မ�တ��ရ�အတ�က� သ�ဘ�တ�ည�မ� ရရ�� -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 1 of 48 New UEC invites political parties to attend coordination meeting Published 23 February 2021 YANGON---The new Union Election Commission (UEC) yesterday invited political parties to attend a coordination meeting to be held in Nay Pyi Taw on February 26th. The invitation letter of the new UEC told parties concerned to reply whether they would attend by February 24th. The State Administration Council had formed the new Union Election Commission led by Chairman Thein Soe. “In my opinion, the new UEC is recognized to be their Legitimacy from the political parties,” said Sai Leik, General Secretary of Shan Nationalities League for Democracy (SNLD). He also said that SNLD would reply to the new UEC whether or not to attend the meeting on February 24th after holding CEC members’ meeting. Joint General Secretary Hnin Hnin Hmwe from Democratic Party for New Society also said that they received the invitation letter for a meeting. But, they would decide whether they attend or not after holding the meeting. EMG asked the unidentified Amyotha Hluttaw representative from National League for Democracy (NLD) whether NLD received the invitation letter for a meeting or not. The NLD’s representative replied that he didn’t know. After the military seized power, they arrested most NLD leaders from States and Regions. The New Democratic Force (NDF) will attend the first coordination meeting to be hosted by the new UEC. “I think the new UEC will be explaining alleged frauds in the voters list. Moreover, they will discuss our party’s requirements,” said Aung Zin, NDF’s general secretary. Some political parties which already received the invitation letter said that there was a lack of detailed information in the invitation letter. “It is very difficult to say. In my opinion, they[new UEC] will pledge to hold the election within one year in accordance with the announcement of military-coup council,” said SNLD’s general secretary Sai Leik. https://elevenmyanmar.com/news/new-uec-invites-political-parties-to-attend- coordination-meeting ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 2 of 48 Junta scrambles to form ethnic alliances amid nationwide dissent February 23, 2021 | By LAWI WENG | FRONTIER The military’s attempts to co-opt ethnic leaders have had only patchy success, but the NLD’s troubled relationship with ethnic parties has hindered a broader alliance against the coup. Protests have swept many towns in the ethnic states, including the Kachin State capital Myitkyina (pictured here on February 8), but ethnic parties have not played a major part in them. (AFP) The new military junta, facing massive resistance on the streets of major towns and in the government offices it now controls, is hoping to shore up its power by allying with ethnic minority leaders. The regime is banking on these leaders’ disillusionment with the ousted NLD government, which was regularly accused of disregarding minority grievances and failing to advance the peace process. However, this strategy has so far met with only patchy success. Since the February 1 coup d’état, most ethnic parties have rejected the military’s offers of seats on its ruling administrative council or other government berths. Meanwhile, those who have accepted positions are facing revolts – either from within their own parties or their wider ethnic communities. Some of the successful appointments have been relatively inconsequential. Although the Kayin People’s Party chair Saw Tun Aung Myint agreed to become the new Union-level ethnic affairs minister, and failed KPP electoral candidate Mahn Nyein Maung accepted a position on the national State Administration Council, the party won only one seat in the November 8 election, in the Kayin State Hluttaw. Although Mahn Nyein Maung is a former central executive member of the Karen National Union, the armed group has since distanced itself from the former revolutionary and condemned the coup. Other nominations seem to have directly backfired. When Kayah State Democratic Party vice chair Saw Daniel joined the SAC, his party issued a statement on February 4 condemning the appointment and saying he was no longer a party member. Yet, some junta appointments will have significant implications for ethnic politics. The most powerful party to have chosen collaboration is the Arakan National Party, which won the largest number of seats in Rakhine State in the November election – even though voting was cancelled, ostensibly for security reasons, in most of the party’s strongholds, and despite two factions having broken away to form separate Rakhine parties. ANP leaders have defended party spokesperson and former vice chair Daw Aye Nu Sein’s acceptance on February 3 of a seat on the national SAC, arguing that NLD rule merely Page 3 of 48 represented another form of Bamar-centric “dictatorship”. However, nearly 50 Rakhine civil society groups condemned the move, youth members of the ANP quit the party in protest, and some more established party members expressed their dissatisfaction on social media. ANP’s central executive committee met on February 12-14 to discuss the matter but did not publish any new decisions. (Read Frontier’s recent story for more on the controversy.) Former Karen revolutionary and failed election candidate Mahn Nyein Maung has been appointed to the ruling State Administration Council. (Steve Tickner | Frontier) Another relatively successful ethnic party to have agreed to work with the junta is the Mon Unity Party, which won a total of 12 seats in the November election, mostly in Mon State, making it the fourth largest party nationally. However, the decision revealed a divided party: of the MUP’s 28 central executive committee members, 18 supported joining the military government and the rest were opposed during a CEC meeting on February 8. On February 21, a junta statement revealed that MUP joint-secretary Nai Leyi Tama had been appointed to the Mon State SAC. Leyi Tama, who is also the party’s spokesperson and won the Mon State Hluttaw seat of Thanbyuzayat-2 in November, told Frontier that the party’s decision to collaborate with the junta was aimed at furthering the collective right of the Mon people for greater autonomy. He added that past experience had taught them that the Mon had little to gain, and much to lose, from allying with the NLD and the Bamar-led democracy struggle, and their status as a minority group made them especially vulnerable to reprisals. He said Mon people had sacrificed their lives when they joined protests in 1988 and 2007 “but got nothing” for their efforts. “We are worried that our people might become victims of bloodshed again, so we have chosen this road,” he said, adding that cooperating with the junta “offers a way to get our rights”. Several in the MUP leadership are known to favour an accommodating line with the Tatmadaw. It’s an attitude that has disappointed many of the party’s own supporters in the Mon community amid the nationwide protests against the coup, which have also swept major towns in Mon State. They include Nai Ko Thu, a human rights activist and NLD supporter, who praised the MUP executive members who opposed the decision.

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