Delayed Tazaungdaing hot-air balloon festival takes flight
The Southern Shan State Traditional Hot-Air Balloon Professionals Association blamed poor weather conditions for the delay of the 2024 Tazaungdaing Festival, which takes place annually in the Shan State capital Taunggyi. The festival begins today and will end on Nov. 17 despite originally being scheduled Nov. 9-15. Organizers added that more than 200 hot-air balloons are expected to take flight.
“The festival was organized by the regime so we don’t want people to come. Visitors may be injured or even lose their lives due to the poor management. [Officials] collected 5,000 kyat per household from [residents] to host the festival. They also tightened up security around the city,” a Taunggyi resident told DVB.
Tourism officials in Taunggyi told DVB that hotels have been fully booked until Nov. 17. Tazaungdaing draws a large number of domestic tourists for the festival’s lights and balloons. Taunggyi residents claimed that regime officials have urged residents, including people who’ve fled their homes due to fighting and now live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, to attend the festival despite security threats.
Shelling in southern Shan State kills four and injures six
Four civilians, including a 10-year-old girl, were killed and six others were injured by artillery shelling in two villages of Moebye Township, located 94 miles (151 km) south of Taunggyi and 10 miles (16 km) north of the Karenni State capital Loikaw, on Friday. An unknown number of homes were destroyed.
“There is no ongoing fighting in Moebye but the military is trying to recapture the town of Loikaw by conducting an offensive and attacking towns along the Moebye-Loikaw Road. This causes civilian casualties and deaths,” the spokesperson of a humanitarian aid group called Jobs for Kayah told DVB.
It added that more than 500 pro-military Pa-O National Organization (PNO) and Burma Army troops are stationed inside the Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) 422 in Moebye. Residents claimed that the military has sent reinforcement of over 4,000 infantry troops to the area since October. Resistance forces have urged residents to evacuate their homes due to the threat of artillery and airstrikes.
Another NLD member dies after medical amnesty
A funeral for Win Khaing, the National League for Democracy (NLD) Minister of Electricity and Energy ousted in the 2021 military coup, was held Saturday in Mandalay. The 74-year-old died on Friday at Mandalay Hospital after he was released from Obo Prison on medical grounds Oct. 28.
“His lungs were inflamed and his heart was failing, which led to breathing difficulties and his eventual passing. The military and police came to investigate and collect information,” a source at Mandalay Hospital told DVB on condition of anonymity.
Win Khaing was sentenced under the Anti-Corruption Law to 28 years in prison on Dec. 8, 2021, for allegedly misusing six billion kyat ($129 million USD) of state funds. Former Mandalay Chief Minister and NLD Vice Chair Zaw Myint Maung died at Mandalay Hospital on Oct. 6. Over 123 elderly political prisoners, including 39 NLD party members, have not received adequate healthcare in prison since the 2021 coup, stated the NLD.
News by Region
ARAKAN—The AA transferred 20 Bangladeshi fishermen, who had been detained, to the Bangladesh Border Guard on Nov. 7, The Territorial News (TTN) agency in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh reported. The 20 fishermen were detained Nov. 5 and their 15 boats were seized by the AA on an estuary of the Naf River along the Burma-Bangladesh border. The AA claimed that the fishermen were “illegally fishing” off the coast of Arakan State.
NAYPYIDAW—DVB data collected up to Nov. 6 states that the regime has sold $1.5 billion USD, 156 million Chinese yuan, and 4.5 billion Thai baht to combat the depreciation of the kyat. It sold the currencies through online foreign exchange trading platforms. The USD exchange rate reached a high of 7,000 kyat in August, and has now fallen to 4,500 kyat.
“We heard that they received advance payments of about $400 million [USD] for two years of gas pipeline transit fees after Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s visit,” Aung Thu Nyein, the director of communications at the Institute of Strategy and Policy (ISP-Myanmar), told DVB. The price of basic commodities have been on the rise since Chinese authorities closed most border gates in Shan and Kachin states. The military regime sold $74 million in 2023, $295 million in 2022, and $445 million USD in 2021.
SHAN—Pekon Township residents told DVB that two civilians were killed and 10 were injured during a bombing in Karla village, located 104 miles (167 km) south of Taunggyi and 21 miles north (33 km) of Loikaw, on Nov. 8. Several homes were reportedly damaged.
“There was no fighting in the area. The military intentionally carried out the bombing while people were asleep,” a Pekon resident told DVB. The two killed had fled to Karla from nearby Naungthein village. On Oct. 31, three residents of Panglong Township, located 150 miles (241 km) north of Pekon, were killed during a military drone attack on a vehicle.
YANGON—Overseas employment agencies told DVB that businesses in Laos are offering to pay the fees of migrant workers from Burma due to labor shortages. The regime Ministry of Labor signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the government of Laos in order to recruit migrant workers to work in their respective countries last month.
“Some are implementing ‘zero cost’ recruitment based on their standards, with employers covering the expenses. We are increasingly seeing this trend,” an employment agency owner told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Migrant workers typically pay $100 USD to employment agencies to find work in Laos. The migrant workers receive an average monthly salary of around $250 USD.
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