Burmese protest at Myanmar embassy in Bangkok after coup
The Burmese army has come under strong pressure from the West following a coup d’état on February 1. However, Reuters reported on February 6 that the Burmese government had hired a former Israeli military intelligence officer as a lobbyist to make overtures to the U.S. and other Western countries, claiming that the Burmese army believed the elected government’s substantive leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was too pro-China and wanted to distance herself from the Chinese Communist Party.
According to the report, the Tatmadaw hired Israeli-Canadian lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe, a former Israeli military intelligence officer who lobbied on behalf of the late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and the Sudanese military government.
In a telephone interview with Reuters, Menashe revealed that he and his political lobbying firm, Dickens & Madson Canada, have been hired by the Burmese military to assist the Tatmadaw in communicating with Western countries such as the United States, which “misunderstands” them. He said the Tatmadaw believes that after Aung San Suu Kyi took power in 2016, her country has become too close to the Chinese Communist Party, but Myanmar wants to be closer to the U.S. and the West, not to Beijing, and they do not want to be a puppet of the Chinese (Communist Party).
In addition, Menashe stressed that the Burmese military is eager to withdraw from the political scene after the coup, and hoped that he could help contact Middle Eastern countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to convince them to sponsor Burma and send the Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh back to Burma.
However, the UN report noted that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled between 2016 and 2017 as the Tatmadaw raped Rohingya women indiscriminately and even set fire to their homes.
Myanmar’s bloody crackdown surprised by tear gas in simplified Chinese
On the 2nd, a witness complained that during the street protests in Yangon’s Sanchaung Township, he picked up a tear gas canister fired by the government army and found the words in simplified Chinese on the canister, which had not yet melted. In response, Burmese posted angry criticism that “this is the seafood that China (Communist Party) gave to the military government? The Chinese government has been in the midst of a series of protests against the Chinese government.
Burma’s military and police shoot at homes and arrest civilians
According to the human rights group Fortify Rights, at least 61 people have died in the conflict since the military’s coup in early February.
As the military imposed a curfew from 8 p.m. to 4 a.m. each night following the coup, protesters mostly took to the streets during the day to confront the military and police, only to disperse and return Home after dark.
However, even if they stay at home, they may be attacked by the military police. According to videos on Twitter and Facebook, the military police opened fire at many places in Yangon during the night of the 6th, and even arrested people everywhere.
The video posted on Facebook by “Fortify Rights” shows military police shooting at people’s homes and arresting people on the road. “According to Fortify Rights, the military police have targeted 1,500 people for arrest. However, the civil disobedience movement will not stop, demanding that the military government must immediately stop attacking civilians.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoner also said in a statement that the military police entered homes on the 6th in an attempt to arrest more protesters, and that the military police opened fire on homes, damaging many of them. Many of those arrested were beaten with batons, kicked with military boots, and dragged into police vehicles.
According to the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, as of March 6, 1,700 people had been arrested.
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