Myanmar military seizes power, detains elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi

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'LAST CHANCE, BAD SIGN': York prof's emails to student based in Myanmar draw criticism
Math Prof. Emanoil Theodorescu refused request for deferral, dismissed coup remarks

Author of the article:Bryan Passifiume
Publishing date:Mar 19, 2021 • 4 hours ago • 2 minute read • comment bubble16 Comments
York University sign on Keele south of Steeles.
York University sign on Keele south of Steeles. Toronto Sun files
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Email exchanges between a York University professor and a student studying remotely in the midst of civil war have drawn ire online and prompted administration to take action.

First posted to social media on Thursday, screen captures from the exchange between mathematics professor Emanoil Theodorescu and the Myanmar-based statistics student show dismissive responses to requests to defer a midterm exam out of fears the now month-and-half-long conflict in the country would disrupt Internet service.


“There is no deferral, it’s transferred to the final exam. Last chance, bad sign,” Theodorescu replied to the student on Wednesday.

“Even the Internet came down with COVID-19?”

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On Feb. 1, Myanmar’s military overthrew the southeast Asian nation’s democratically elected government, detaining officials and enacting a year-long state of emergency.

It triggered weeks of violent clashes between the military and pro-democracy protesters, leading to Internet and communications blackouts, and civilians facing arrests, beatings and even death at the hands of both police and soldiers.


The student replied that the coup, and not the novel coronavirus, was responsible for the spotty web service, explaining that “almost 200 protesters had been shot” in the clashes that have seen civilians summarily executed in the streets. The student asked if he needs to be sorry about missing Thursday’s exam, which would make the course’s final exam count towards 60% of their final mark.

“Of course you should,” Theodorescu replied.

“The next time you miss something, it’s over.”

Theodorescu then dismissed the student’s remarks on the Myanmar coup, bringing into question their “understanding of reality.”

“People don’t get shot for just protesting, but for a lot of deeper reasons,” the professor wrote.

The Sun has reached out to both the student and Theodorescu.


A statement from York University spokesperson Barb Joy sent to the Sun on Thursday night said Theodorescu’s comments don’t align with the school’s “respect, equity, diversion and inclusion” values.

“While employment matters are confidential, we can confirm that appropriate actions were immediately initiated upon learning of the exchange,” she said.

Joy added senior faculty members had made contact with the student to offer their support, and that “all necessary accommodations would be granted.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @bryanpassifiume

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1372621837797101569

'LAST CHANCE, BAD SIGN': York prof's emails to student based in Myanmar draw criticism

The exchange between mathematics professor Emanoil Theodorescu and the Myanmar-based statistics student show dismissive responses.

torontosun.com

 

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Myanmar security forces kill over 100 in 'horrifying' day of bloodshed
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Mar 27, 2021 • 7 hours ago • 4 minute read • Join the conversation
This handout photo taken and released by Dawei Watch on March 27, 2021 shows protesters making the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military coup in Dawei.
This handout photo taken and released by Dawei Watch on March 27, 2021 shows protesters making the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military coup in Dawei. PHOTO BY HANDOUT /AFP via Getty Images
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Myanmar security forces killed 114 people, including some children, in a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Saturday, the bloodiest day of violence since last month’s military coup, news reports and witnesses said.

The killings, which took place on Armed Forces Day, drew strong renewed criticism from Western countries. British Ambassador Dan Chugg said the security forces had “disgraced themselves” and the U.S. envoy called the violence horrifying.


Military jets also launched air strikes on a village in territory controlled by an armed group from the Karen ethnic minority and at least two people were killed, a civil society group said.

Earlier, the Karen National Union said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people – including a lieutenant colonel – and losing one of its own fighters as tensions with the military surged after years of relative peace.

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Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade to mark Armed Forces Day that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy.

Demonstrators turned out on Saturday in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns, as they have done almost daily since the Feb. 1 coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Myanmar Now news portal said 114 people were killed across the country in crackdowns on the protests.

At least 40 people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed in Mandalay, and at least 27 people were killed in Yangon, Myanmar Now said. A boy as young as five was earlier reported among the dead in Mandalay but there were conflicting reports later that he may have survived. Another 13-year-old was among the dead in the central Sagaing region.

“Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” Dr. Sasa, a spokesman for CRPH, an anti-junta group set up by deposed lawmakers, told an online forum.


A military spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment on the killings by security forces, the air strikes or the insurgent attack on its post.

“They are killing us like birds or chickens, even in our homes,” said Thu Ya Zaw in the central town of Myingyan, where at least two protesters were killed. “We will keep protesting regardless… We must fight until the junta falls.”

The deaths on Saturday would take the number of civilians reported killed since the coup to over 440.

‘TERROR AND DISHONOUR’

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda said on social media: “This bloodshed is horrifying,” adding “Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule.”


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British foreign minister Dominic Raab said the killing of unarmed civilians and children marked a new low, while the EU delegation to Myanmar said Saturday would “forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour.”

News reports said there were deaths in Sagaing, Lashio in the east, in the Bago region, near Yangon, and elsewhere. A one-year-old baby was hit in the eye with a rubber bullet.

Min Aung Hlaing, speaking at the parade in the capital Naypyitaw, reiterated a promise to hold elections, without giving any time-frame.

“The army seeks to join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy,” he said in a live broadcast on state television. “Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate.”

The military has said it took power because November elections won by Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the country’s election commission. Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody.

RUSSIA ‘A TRUE FRIEND’

New U.S. and European sanctions this week increased external pressure on the junta, but the condemnation is not universal.

Russia’s deputy defense minister Alexander Fomin attended the parade in Naypyitaw, having met senior junta leaders a day earlier.

“Russia is a true friend,” Min Aung Hlaing said.

Diplomats said eight countries – Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand – sent representatives, but Russia was the only one to send a minister to the parade on Armed Forces Day, which commemorates the start of the resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945.

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Support from Russia and China, which has also refrained from criticism, is important for the junta as those two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and can block potential UN actions.

In a warning on Friday evening, state television said protesters were “in danger of getting shot to the head and back.” It did not specifically say security forces had been given shoot-to-kill orders and the junta has previously suggested some fatal shootings have come from within the crowds.

Gunshots hit the U.S. cultural centre in Yangon on Saturday, but nobody was hurt and the incident was being investigated, U.S. Embassy spokesperson Aryani Manring said.

Author and historian Thant Myint-U wrote on Twitter: “Even after weeks of appalling violence, today’s killing of civilians is shocking both in nature and scale, with again children amongst the dead, and deserves the world’s concerted attention and help.”

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1375791495316393987

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1375785253525024768

Myanmar security forces kill over 100 in 'horrifying' day of bloodshed

Myanmar security forces killed 114 people, including some children, in a brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters on Saturday, the bloodiest day of…

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Troops fire at funeral as Myanmar mourns bloodiest day since coup
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Mar 28, 2021 • 3 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Anti-coup protesters use slingshots and pelt stones towards approaching security forces on March 28, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar.
Anti-coup protesters use slingshots and pelt stones towards approaching security forces on March 28, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar. PHOTO BY STRINGER /Getty Images
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Myanmar security forces opened fire at a funeral on Sunday, witnesses said, as people across the country gathered to mourn 114 people killed the previous day in the worst crackdown on protests since the military coup on Feb. 1.

Mourners fled the shooting at a service for 20-year-old student Thae Maung Maung in Bago near the commercial capital Yangon and there were no immediate reports of casualties, three people in the town told Reuters.


“While we are singing the revolution song for him, security forces just arrived and shot at us,” a woman called Aye who was at the service said. “People, including us, run away as they opened fire.”

Another 12 people were recorded dead in incidents elsewhere in Myanmar by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group on Sunday, taking its total toll of civilians killed since the coup to 459.

Thousands of villagers in a border area fled to Thailand after army air strikes on one of several ethnic militias that have stepped up attacks since the coup, witnesses and local media said.

There were no reports of large-scale protests in Yangon or Mandalay, which bore the brunt of the casualties on Saturday, Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day. But people in Mandalay surrounded a police station late in the evening, accusing the security forces of arson after five houses burned down, residents said.

Reuters could not reach police there for comment.

At least six children between the ages of 10 and 16 were among those killed on Saturday, according to news reports and witnesses. Protesters call the victims “Fallen Stars.”

ISOLATION CALL

The bloodshed drew renewed Western condemnation. The UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar said the army was carrying out “mass murder” and called on the world to isolate the junta and halt its access to weapons.

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Foreign criticism and sanctions imposed by some Western nations have failed so far to sway the military leaders, as have almost daily protests around the country since the junta took power and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

“We salute our heroes who sacrificed lives during this revolution and We Must Win This REVOLUTION,” one of the main protest groups, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN), posted on Facebook.

Heavy fighting also erupted between the army and some of the two dozen ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country.


About 3,000 people fled to neighboring Thailand after military jets bombed areas controlled by the Karen National Union (KNU) militia near the border, an activist group and local media said.

In an air attack by the military on Saturday, at least three civilians were killed in a village controlled by the KNU, a civil society group said. The militia earlier said it had overrun an army post near the border, killing 10 people.

Fighting also erupted on Sunday between another armed group, the Kachin Independence Army, and the military in the jade-mining area of Hpakant in the north. The Kachin forces attacked a police station and the military responded with an aerial assault, Kachinwaves media reported.

There were no reports of casualties.

A junta spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment on the killings or the fighting.

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade to mark Armed Forces Day that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy.

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‘RINGING HOLLOW’

Countries including the United States, Britain, Germany and the European Union strongly condemned the violence.

Britain’s Foreign Office advised all Britons to leave Myanmar as soon as possible, saying it had changed its travel advice as a result of the violence on Saturday.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Twitter: “We will not tolerate the military’s brutal course of action against the people of Myanmar.”

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said the junta should be cut off from funding, such as oil and gas revenues, and from access to weapons.

“Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them,” he said in a statement.

The top military officer from the United States and nearly a dozen of his counterparts said a professional military must follow international standards for conduct “and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves.”

The Myanmar military took power saying that November elections won by Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the country’s election commission. Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1375854043411714053

Troops fire at funeral as Myanmar mourns bloodiest day since coup

Myanmar security forces opened fire at a funeral on Sunday, witnesses said, as people across the country gathered to mourn 114 people killed the previous day…

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Myanmar death toll tops 500 as protesters stage 'garbage strike'
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Mar 29, 2021 • 1 day ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
A relative cries during the funeral of a protester, who died amid a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup, in Taunggyi in Myanmar's Shan state on March 29, 2021.
A relative cries during the funeral of a protester, who died amid a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup, in Taunggyi in Myanmar's Shan state on March 29, 2021. PHOTO BY STRINGER /AFP via Getty Images
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Myanmar protesters held overnight candle-lit vigils after an advocacy group said security forced had now killed over 500 people since a Feb. 1 coup, and as activists on Tuesday launched a new civil disobedience campaign to hurl garbage onto streets.

Out of 14 civilians killed in Myanmar on Monday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said at least eight were in the South Dagon district of Yangon.


Security forces in the area fired a much heavier-caliber weapon than usual on Monday to clear a barricade of sand bags, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what type of weapon was used.

State television said security forces used “riot weapons” to disperse a crowd of “violent terrorist people” who were destroying a pavement and one man was wounded.

A South Dagon resident on Tuesday said more gunfire could be heard in the area overnight raising concerns of more casualties.

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Police and a junta spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar’s generals to stop the killings and repression of demonstrations.

In a new tactic, protesters sought to step up a civil disobedience campaign on Tuesday by asking residents to throw garbage onto streets on key road intersections.

“This garbage strike is a strike to oppose the junta,” read a poster on social media.

The move comes in defiance of calls issued via loudspeakers in some neighborhoods of Yangon on Monday urging residents to dispose of garbage properly.

At least 510 civilians had been killed in nearly two months of efforts to stop protests, advocacy group AAPP said.

The total killed on Saturday, the bloodiest day so far, had risen to 141, its figures showed.


One of the main groups behind the protests, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, called on Monday in an open letter for ethnic minority forces to help those standing up to the “unfair oppression” of the military.

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In a sign that the call may be gaining more traction, three groups in a joint letter on Tuesday called on the military to stop killing peaceful protesters and resolve political issues.

The groups – which include the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army and Ta’ang National Liberation Army – warned if the military did not do this they “will cooperate with all nationalities who are joining Myanmar’s spring revolution in terms of self defense.”

Insurgents from different ethnic groups have battled the central government for decades for greater autonomy. Though many groups have agreed to ceasefires, fighting has flared in recent days between the army and forces in both the east and north.

Heavy clashes erupted on the weekend near the Thai border between the army and fighters from Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority force, the Karen National Union (KNU).


About 3,000 villagers fled to Thailand when military jets bombed a KNU area after a KNU force overran an army outpost and killed 10 soldiers, an activist group and media said.

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Thai authorities denied accounts by activist groups that more than 2,000 refugees had been forced back, but a Thai official said it was government policy for the army to block them at the border and deny access to outside aid groups.

Myanmar’s military has for decades justified its grip on power by saying it is the only institution capable of preserving national unity. It seized power saying that November elections won by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the election commission.

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the United States was suspending all trade engagement with Myanmar until the return of a democratically elected government.

But foreign criticism and Western sanctions have failed to sway the generals and Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody.

Myanmar death toll tops 500 as protesters stage 'garbage strike'

Myanmar protesters held overnight candle-lit vigils after an advocacy group said security forced had now killed over 500 people since a Feb. 1 coup, and as…

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Myanmar protesters urge 'guerrilla strikes' as internet blackout widens
Author of the article:Reuters
Reuters
Publishing date:Apr 01, 2021 • 22 hours ago • 3 minute read • Join the conversation
Copies of the 2008 constitution are burnt during a demonstration by protesters against the military coup in Yangon's South Okkalapa township on April 1, 2021.
Copies of the 2008 constitution are burnt during a demonstration by protesters against the military coup in Yangon's South Okkalapa township on April 1, 2021. PHOTO BY STRINGER /AFP via Getty Images
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Myanmar activists held candle-lit protests overnight and scrambled to find workarounds for a new internet shutdown on Friday, as opponents to the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent vowed no letup in efforts to unseat the ruling generals.

Anti-coup groups shared radio frequencies, offline internet resources and providers of text message news alerts to try to circumvent new curbs on the internet, which now limit Web access to fixed-line services only.


The military did not announce or explain its order to telecom firms to cut wireless broadband, which adds to a ban on mobile data through which a nationwide movement has mobilized on social media and spread images of the junta’s lethal suppression of mostly youth-led protests.

Late on Thursday, protesters spread a call for a “flower strike” at bus stops where demonstrators killed by security forces had departed on their last journeys.

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“We will leave flowers at bus stops tomorrow … That’s what I want to tell you guys before the internet is down,” Khin Sadar, a protest leader, posted on Facebook.


“In the following days, there were street protests. Do as many guerrilla strikes as you can. Please join.”

“Let’s listen to the radio again. Let’s make phone calls to each other too.”

The former British colony has been in chaos for two months following the military’s overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected administration, which has sparked anger across towns and cities and reignited hostilities between the armed forces and ethnic minority insurgents in several different regions.

New charges of violating the official secrets act were filed against the Nobel laureate, her chief lawyer said on Thursday, the most serious so far, on top of two comparatively minor offenses. Breaches of the colonial-era law are punishable by 14 years in prison.

The charges were filed against three of Suu Kyi’s deposed cabinet ministers and her Australian economic adviser Sean Turnell, who are among hundreds detained in the military’s sweeping crackdown on opponents since it took power, alleging fraud in an election swept by Suu Kyi’s party.

Lawyer Min Min Soe said Suu Kyi looked in good health during a video hearing on Thursday, but was unable to tell whether the ousted leader, the figurehead of Myanmar’s decades-long fight for democracy, was aware of the situation in her country.

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Protesters were in the streets in several urban centers day and night on Thursday, where some burned copies of the military-drafted 2008 constitution. Media reported two people were killed, including an 18-year-old man, as police opened fire to quell gatherings.

Khit Thit Media reported shots were fired at a protest during the night, where 400 troops were present. The report could not immediately be verified.

Some 543 people have been killed in the uprising, according to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, which is tracking casualties and detentions. The military has repeatedly said those killed had instigated violence.

A video shared widely on social media late on Thursday showed an unconscious man being kicked and beaten by a group of seven helmeted, uniformed men with rifles, who dragged him face down along a road before carrying him away.

Another image shared widely showed an overhead view of hundreds of candles arranged on a road in the darkness, forming the words “we will never surrender.”

Britain on Thursday sanctioned one of the military’s biggest conglomerates, following a similar move by several Western countries. Britain’s Next became the latest high-street brand to suspend orders from Myanmar’s factories.

“The Myanmar military has sunk to a new low with the wanton killing of innocent people, including children,” British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said. The UK move was welcomed by his U.S. counterpart Antony Blinken.

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Myanmar’s Asian neighbors, which it relies on for trade, have not imposed any embargoes, but some have moved beyond measured language after the military killed 141 people as it marked Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

Neighbor Thailand on Thursday said it was “gravely troubled.” Stronger positions on Myanmar have been taken by the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, the top diplomats of which are meeting separately this week with Chinese State Councillor Wang Yi in Beijing.

In a transcript of an interview made available late Thursday, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan expressed dismay at the bloodshed.

“We are alarmed and appalled at the escalating violence,” he said, adding China’s Wang Yi also hoped for an end to violence and for dialog.

Myanmar protesters urge 'guerrilla strikes' as internet blackout widens

Myanmar activists held candle-lit protests overnight and scrambled to find workarounds for a new internet shutdown on Friday, as opponents to the military’s…

torontosun.com