PEACE Info (March 16, 2021) − BURMA’S TWO CORE ISSUES: Constitutional Crisis and Rights of Self-Defense − Myanmar Crackdown on Protesters Kills 25 as Junta Imposes 24-Hour Mobile Internet Shutdown − Continuing Brutality by Myanmar Military Junta Pushes Death Toll to 193 − Eleven killed in anti-coup demonstrations after Myanmar’s deadliest day − Myanmar’s Military Regime Hands Down Prison Sentences to Striking Civil Servants − Under Martial Law, Myanmar Military Commanders Empowered to Issue Death Penalty − Residents flee violence, martial law in Yangon factory district − Youth Detained in Military Camps Across Chin State − A Return to the Comfort Zone is Not Enough: We Must Fight for Truly Inclusive Freedom − Policemen, firemen among over 400 Myanmar nationals seeking shelter in India − Myanmar Regime Seizes Bank Accounts of Soros' Open Society Foundation − Protests Force Myanmar’s Ethnic Chinese to Distinguish Themselves From China − India Must Break its ‘Silence’ on Myanmar Coup to Avoid Global Embarrassment − UN: Killings of Peaceful Protesters by Myanmar Junta Soaring − UN Chief Calls Intl’ Community to Help End Military Repression in Myanmar − Myanmar Crisis Could Reset Toxic US-China Ties − Quad leaders issue statement on Myanmar crisis − Global alarm grows as 20 more protesters killed in Myanmar crackdown − Kachin Villagers Flee Fighting Between Myanmar’s Military and KIA − Fighting Between Burma Army and KIO/A Breaks Out Across Kachin State − Arakan Army sides with the coup regime while conflict rages across the nation − စစ�အ�ဏ�သ�မ��မ�အ�ပ�� �သဆ�ံ�သ� ၁၈၀ �က����ပ� − ဆ���ပမ�မ���အတ�င�� �သဆ�ံ�သ� အနည��ဆ�ံ� ၁၈၃ ဦ�ရ���ပ� − ���င�ငံအ��ံ� ဆ���ပပ���တ� အရ��န�အဟ�န�မပ�က� ဆက��ပ��ပ�က��န − �ဒ�က�တ�ဆ�ဆ�က�� ���င�ငံ�တ��သစ���ဖ�က�လ��� စစ��က�င�စ�စ�ပ�စ�� − ခ�င���ပည�နယ�က�န အ����ယနယ�စပ�ခ��လ�ံသ� ၅၀၀ န��ပ��ရ��လ� − စစ�အ�ဏ�ရ�င�ကန��က�က�တ�� �ကံခင��က ရ���စ�ဦ� �ထ�င�တစ���စ�က� − သတ��ဖတ��နတ��တ�က�� ခ�က�ခ�င��ရပ�ဖ��� စစ��က�င�စ�က�� ခ���လ�စ��မ�င�ဘ����ပ� − �မန�မ����င�ငံတ�င�� ပ�ဂ�လ�ကသတင��စ�အ��လ�ံ� ရပ�ဆ��င�� − မ��လ�ဘ��င�� အင�တ�နက� ဆက�သ�ယ�မ� စစ��က�င�စ� �ဖတ��တ�က� − စစ�အ�ပ�ခ��ပ��ရ� �မ ���နယ�မ���တ�င� တရ���ရ� စ�ရင����င�သည�� အခ�က�မ��� ထ�တ��ပန� − တ��တ�ဖ�အ����က�င�� စစ�အ�ပ�ခ��ပ��ရ� ��ကည�တ�လ��� �လ�လ�သ��တ� သ�ံ�သပ� − �ဂ���ဆ����ရ��စ�၏ Open Society Foundation မ�တဆင�� Open Society Myanmar သ��� �င���က�စ��ဆင��မ�မ���က�� စတင�ထ�န��ခ��ပ���က�င�� သတင��ထ�တ��ပန� − စစ�တပ�၏ ဖ����ပ�မ�မ��� အဆ�ံ�သတ��ရ� လ�ပ��ဆ�င��ကရန� UN အတ�င���ရ�မ��ခ��ပ� တ��က�တ�န�� − ဆ���ပသ��တ�သတ��ဖတ�မ�ရပ�ဖ��� က�လတ��က�တ�န�� − စစ�အ�ဏ�သ�မ�� ဆန��က�င�ဆ���ပပ���တ�မ�� အမ����သမ���တ�န�� မ�န��က�လ�ငယ��တ��သဆ�ံ�တ��အထ� အင�အ��သ�ံ�ဖ����ပ�မ� လက�ခံ���င�စရ�မရ�� (UNFPA) − စစ�အ�ပ�စ� �ဖ ��ခ�င��မ�မ�� �သဆ�ံ�ဆ���ပသ� ပ��မ���လ�တ���က�င�� ကမ ���အသ��င��အဝ��င�� စ���ရ�မ�ထ�တ�လန�� − စစ�တပ���င�� KIA တ��� တ��က�ပ����က�င�� �ဒသခံ၂၀၀ �က��� �နရပ�စ�န��ခ�� − �ပန�လည�ထ�က���ပ�လ�သည�� ကခ�င� စစ��ရ��င�မ��� မ�လ စစ��ရ��င�စခန��မ���သ��� သ���ခ�င��မရ − နမ�တ��မ ���နယ� အတ�င��ရ�� စစ��ရ��င� (၅၀၀)�က����နရပ�မ�ပန����င��သ� --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 1 of 67 BURMA’S TWO CORE ISSUES: Constitutional Crisis and Rights of Self-Defense By Sai Wansai - March 16, 2021 It isn’t easy to pinpoint core issues in the midst of the coup-maker junta’s merciless crackdown on the public demonstrating against its illegal rule, where some 140 have been killed and over 2000 in detention, plus townships in Yangon declared martial law, to be able to control the situation. crph.official.mm As of March 15, a total of (2175) people have been arrested, charged or sentenced in relation to the attempted military coup on February 1. Of them, (3) were convicted; (2) to two years imprisonment, (1) to three months. (73) have been charged with a warrant and are evading arrest, (319) were released. A total of (1856) are still under detention or have outstanding charges/evading arrest, including the (3) sentenced, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). On March 13, the much awaited state of nation speech of Acting Vice-President Mahn Win Khaing Than, the former House of Nationalities or Ahmyotha Hluttaw speaker, was made public on the Facebook of Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which is Assembly of the Union made up of House of Representatives and House of Nationalities. He said that despite differences now is the time for all stakeholders to hold hands and end the dictatorship for good. “Beloved and respected brothers, sisters and all citizens now is the darkest hours of our country and as well a dawning moment (of freedom) is nearing. This is a testing time for our people on how much endurance we have (to withstand the pressure),” he said. https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=44183825 3590175 In his speech he earnestly promised saying: “In order to establish federal democratic union, hand-in-hand cooperation with all concerned organizations, individuals and abolition of 2008 constitution to (pave way for) the emergence of federal democratic Constitution will utmostly be tried to implement.” Regarding the indiscriminate, merciless crackdown of the protesters by the junta he said: “In order for the people to employ self-defense (with clear conscience) CRPH will try to draft Page 2 of 67 and promulgate (necessary) law. Concerning civil administration issues implementation through transitional civil administration organizations will be made.” On March 14, five-point CRPH Declaration 13/2021 outlined its position regarding the issue of self-defense, which said that it is the people’s government; has already denounced the unlawful military coup council as a terrorist group; armed forces and individuals, loyal to the terrorist group have lost their status as civil servants; according to the provisions on rights of self-defense of Chapter 4 criminal procedures the people have the full right to defend themselves; and it declared that the responses by means of self-defense according to the law by anyone either individuals or ward/village community groups or groups according to the areas or townships, shall not be considered as criminal acts. On the same day, in what now is fast becoming to be known as “Black Sunday”, some 70 civilians protesting against the military coup were slaughtered by the junta’s police and military forces in and around Yangon, which happened in Hlaing Thar Yar, Thingangyun, South Okkalapa, North Dagon, Kyeemyindaing, Tamwe, North Okkalapa, South Dagon, Shwe Pyi Thar, and Insein townships. Recent Facebook footage showed there that there were resistance by the protesters, with sling shots, Molotov cocktail bombs, knives and so on, unlike in the past where they were mere sitting ducks. It may well be due to the CRPH announcement position of self-defense and that retaliation is in order and not considered criminal. On March 14 and 15, the junta declared martial law in Yangon townships of Hlaing Thar Yar and neighboring Shwepyitha, followed by North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa. Federal Constitution According to Zin Mar Aung the acting foreign minister, in order to form a national unity government an all accepted federal constitution is utmost necessary. The ethnic political parties (EPPs) and ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) all have been demanding that the 2008 military-drafted Constitution be abolished and federal Constitution speedily adopted. So far The Constitution of Federal Republic of the Union of Burma (Second Draft), drafted by Federal Constitution Drafting and Coordinating Committee, adopted on 12 February 2008, seems to be the only available one, although Zin Mar Aung said there are others also which have to be taken into consideration. In this conjuncture let us look at the federal constitution’s Article 49, which writes: Member States of the Federal Union and Federal Territories (A) The Member States of the Federal Union: The National States and Nationalities States are; Page 3 of 67 1. Kachin National State 2. Karen National State 3. Karenni National State 4. Chin National State 5. Bama National State 6. Mon National State 7. Tennasarim Nationalities State 8. Arakan National State 9. Shan National State 10. Irrawaddy Nationalities State 11. ……. 12. ……. But in order to understand why the 2008 federal constitution was drafted that way can be traced to Federal Amendment Proposal of 1961, drafted by all ethnic nationalities, in Taunggyi, Shan State. To amend the 1947 constitution, a key part of the federal proposal reads: The provisions for equal rights and opportunities between the various states and nationalities are not adequately prescribed in the present Constitution of the Union of Burma. The Steering Committee has therefore unanimously decided that to ensure equal rights and opportunities for all, the Constitution should be revised in accordance with the principles of a truly federal constitution. The Steering Committee hereby resolves that in redrafting the Constitution, in accordance with genuine federal principles, the following basic requirements for ensuring equality shall be included: 1.