Naypyidaw hosted the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Navy Chief’s Meeting on Oct. 10. (Credit: Regime media)
The regime in Naypyidaw hosted the 18th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Navy Chief’s Meeting on Thursday. Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing met with the navy chiefs of ASEAN members – which includes Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, and the Philippines – ahead of the meeting.
“ASEAN navies should exchange expertise in rescue, relief, and rehabilitation for natural disaster response, enhancing cooperation and mutual support to address loss and damage during crises,” said Min Aung Hlaing.
He added that ASEAN navies should cooperate during natural disasters, as Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam continue to be affected by floods and landslides caused by record rains since Typhoon Yagi made landfall in the region last month.
Min Aung Hlaing claimed that his regime seeks to maintain “friendly relations” with all members of ASEAN and will follow the regional bloc’s charter. Singapore was the only ASEAN member that did not send a delegation to Naypyidaw.
Regime officials and ASEAN representatives later met at a hotel in Naypyidaw for the Navy Chief’s Meeting. The Myanmar military’s Chief of General Staff Maung Maung Aye said that ASEAN must ensure “non-interference from external factors” in order to achieve “peace, stability, security and prosperity.”
The gathering in Naypyidaw comes as foreign ministers and delegates from ASEAN gathered in Vientiane, Laos this week to discuss Myanmar’s crisis, as well as other regional issues. The regime sent its Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Aung Kyaw Moe to the summit. The 17th ASEAN Navy Chief’s Meeting was held in Manila, Philippines in May 2023. A regime official attended online.
DVB English News Weekly Briefing for Oct. 11, 2024. Regional bloc discusses Myanmar crisis at summit; Former Thai diplomat calls for ASEAN engagement with the National Unity Government (NUG); U.N. Ambassador’s mandate is deferred for another year by credentials committee; Plus, a report on how record flooding in Chiang Mai, Thailand impacted the Myanmar community.
DVB Peacock Film Festival is Dec. 8-10 in Chiang Mai. Thailand.
We’re proud to announce the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024, an event dedicated to showcasing the high-quality work of Myanmar’s documentary filmmakers. It will shine a spotlight on under-reported stories in Myanmar since the 2021 military coup. It will amplify the voices of the people of Myanmar who stand up to the military regime and share their stories of survival.
“We warmly welcome you to join our first-ever DVB Peacock Film Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a great honor to screen these films from storytellers, journalists and filmmakers from inside Myanmar and from exile, where many have had to seek sanctuary from the military, which suppresses freedom of expression and stories about life inside Myanmar since 2021,” said DVB Chief Editor Aye Chan Naing.
“These courageous filmmakers deserve to have their stories shared with an international audience, given that they’ve risked their own lives to document life under a brutal military regime, which wages war against the people in an attempt to spread fear and terror,” he added.
The DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024 seeks to bring global attention to Myanmar’s crisis since the 2021 coup, documenting the resilience, bravery, and unwavering spirit of its people through a wide array of films. The festival will feature screenings of DVB Short Docs (DSDC), Citizen Journalist (CJ) Shorts, and special news feature documentaries, along with other critically acclaimed films.
Key Details of the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024:
Dates: December 8, 9, and 10, 2024
Location: Chiang Mai University Faculty of Mass Comms – Communication Innovation Center (CIC) https://g.co/kgs/dpLnueU
Categories:
Special Screening
DVB Short Docs (DSDC)
Citizen Journalist (CJ) Shorts
Feature News Documentaries post-2021 coup
Activities:
Food Court featuring local and international cuisine
Film Workshops hosted by industry professionals
Panel Discussion on filmmaking amidst a crisis
This year’s festival is not just about film screenings; it is a call to action. By bringing Myanmar’s stories into the spotlight, the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024 seeks to empower professional journalists, aspiring filmmakers, and media enthusiasts alike to push the boundaries of storytelling during turbulent times.
Stay Updated:
We encourage all interested participants to follow DVB TV News and DVB English News official Facebook pages, where real-time updates about the festival, ticketing, and special announcements will be posted.
Together, let’s make Myanmar’s voice heard loud and clear across the globe.
For media inquiries, interviews, and more information, please contact: Email :[email protected], [email protected] Instagram : @dvb_peacock_filmfestival Facebook : @dvbpeacockfilmfestival
Nine civilians were injured during airstrikes on homes in Manna village of Lashio Township, northern Shan State on Sept. 30. (Credit: Lashio Reconstruction)
UN Special Rapporteur calls for emergency summit on Myanmar
Tom Andrews, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights in Burma, said that the international community should hold an emergency summit to discuss the violence gripping the country since the 2021 military coup. He called on countries in the Asia-Pacific region, during a visit to Australia, to cut off the flow of weapons and money to the regime in Naypyidaw.
“The international response to this crisis is clearly not working,” said Andrews. “I’m worried that the deepening crisis in Myanmar has become invisible to much of the world.” He urged Australia, and other countries, to refer Burma to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and prosecute regime leaders for war crimes and genocide.
Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. also called on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to adopt new strategies to end the post-coup violence in Burma. The 44th ASEAN Summit discussed the crisis during a meeting in Vientiane this week. The regime sent its Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Aung Kyaw Moe to Laos.
Resistance group attacks Air Force base
A resistance group calling itself the Civilian Military-Sagaing Region Defense Force told DVB that it and another group fired rockets at the Hmawbi Air Force Base and claimed to have hit the hangar, located in Hmawbi Township of Yangon Region on Wednesday.
“They searched the whole compound after the rocket hit and fired back with artillery,” a spokesperson from the group told DVB. It added that the attack was in retaliation for the death of Zaw Myint Maung, who died at Mandalay hospital – one day after his release from prison on medical grounds – and for other political prisoners who’ve died due to an alleged lack of medical care in prison.
Hmawbi residents told DVB that they heard the sounds of explosions and gunfire coming from inside the Air Force Base. Regime media has yet to report on the attacks and the number of casualties, or the extent of the damage. The Burma Air Force has intensified airstrikes on areas controlled by resistance groups since September.
Announcing the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024
We’re proud to announce the launch of the DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024, an event dedicated to showcasing the high-quality work of Burma’s documentary filmmakers. DVB Peacock Film Festival will take place December 8-10. It will shine a spotlight on under-reported stories in Myanmar since the 2021 coup.
“We warmly welcome you to join our first-ever DVB Peacock Film Festival in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It is a great honor to screen these films from storytellers, journalists and filmmakers from inside Myanmar and from exile, where many have had to seek sanctuary from the military regime, which suppresses freedom of expression and stories about life inside Myanmar since 2021,” said DVB Chief Editor Aye Chan Naing.
The DVB Peacock Film Festival 2024 seeks to bring global attention to Burma’s crisis over the last three years, documenting the resilience, bravery, and unwavering spirit of its people through a wide array of films. The festival willfeature screenings of DVB Short Docs (DSDC), Citizen Journalist (CJ) Shorts, and special news feature documentaries, along with other critically-acclaimed films.
News by Region
ARAKAN—Nearly 700 people, including political prisoners, were transferred from Sittwe Prison in the Arakan State capital to an unknown location by boat on Tuesday. “I don’t know where they were taken. They were moved with their heads covered,” a Sittwe resident told DVB.
Fighting between the Arakan Army (AA) and the military has been escalating near Sittwe since September. Around 500 prisoners were secretly transferred from Sittwe Prison in September. The AA launched its latest offensive against the military on Nov. 13.
SHAN—Telecommunication services, including Starlink, have been unavailable in Lashio, northern Shan State since Wednesday. Lashio residents claimed that the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) has shut down Starlink services due to its use by alleged military informants.
“Only two or three places have a signal, so we have to go there to make phone calls,” a Lashio resident told DVB. The MNDAA stated that 31 civilians were killed and more than 90 others were injured by airstrikes on residential areas in Laukkai, Hsenwi, Kutkai and Lashio from July to September. Around 30 people were arrested by the MNDAA, accused of sharing information used to determine targets for regime airstrikes.
Two civilians were killed and six more were injured during an airstrike carried out by the Air Force on the Thandaung Oo sugar mill in Shandaw village of Mongyai Township, located around 58 miles (93 km) south of Lashio, on Wednesday.
“Three bombs landed that day. The victims were factory workers,” a resident told DVB. The People’s Spring news agency reported that Chinese nationals were inside the factory’s compound during the airstrike. Pro-regime social media channels claim that the MNDAA was storing food at the factory.
YANGON—Paing Phyo Min (aka De Yay), the leader of an anti-military group called the Anti-Junta Alliance of Yangon, was arrested on Wednesday – as fellow AJAY member Shine Wai Aung was also detained. The two were apprehended by regime troops in Yangon.
Paing Phyo Min’s home was reportedly raided during a household list inspection. “He is a target of the regime. As you know, the military uses inhumane tactics when arresting protest leaders. We are extremely worried for him,” Nan Lin, the co-founder of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, told DVB. Read more here.
A man looks on at homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, near Laiza, Kachin State, on Oct. 10, 2023. (Credit: AP)
Oliver Windridge for The Sentry and Yadanar Maung from Justice for Myanmar
Enforcement of U.S. sanctions is needed to cut off jet fuel powering the junta’s war on civilians.
As resistance to the junta in Myanmar expands and intensifies, the response has been to unleash its air force in a bloody and indiscriminate terror campaign from the skies. Last August, the U.S. expanded its Burma (Myanmar) sanctions program to allow for sanctions on any individual or entity involved with the supply of jet fuel to the junta. A year later, the bloodbath continues, due to a lack of enforcement of those sanctions.
To effectively curtail the Myanmar military’s ability to conduct these airstrikes, the U.S. must now enforce jet fuel sanctions all along the supply chain of international enablers, while its likeminded partners need to adopt and enforce similar jet fuel sanctions. Immediate targets should include a Chinese-flagged oil tanker, HUITONG78, that has made repeated jet fuel deliveries to Myanmar, as well as the Vietnamese company Hai Linh Co. Ltd., which operates a large petroleum terminal in Southern Vietnam that has been used to tranship jet fuel and obscure its real destination.
Adding these and other junta enablers to the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list would expose every bank, insurance firm, and port that transacts with these parties to legal and reputational risks, as well as potential civil and criminal penalties. Sanctions targeting the linchpin operators in the transnational supply chain would signal U.S. resolve to mobilize even more administrative resources and political capital, further upping the risk for those profiteers. The chilling effect of serious enforcement across the entire logistical and financial bloodstained jet fuel supply would be rapid and devastating to the junta’s ability to continue the aerial bombardment of schools, medical centers, and whole communities.
The players in this deadly pipeline are not a mystery, and enforcement can begin without delay. Amnesty International, in collaboration with Justice For Myanmar, has documented numerous war crimes carried out from the air since the coup that are enabled by a global jet fuel supply chain.
The necessary sanctions regimes are multilateral, far-reaching, and already in the books. Canada, the U.K., the E.U., the U.S., and Australia have all adopted sanctions against key Myanmar individuals and companies identified as junta facilitators. Sanctions by the U.S. and the U.K. have also listed entities in Singapore that were part of the junta’s jet fuel network.
In August 2023, OFAC issued a determination that “allows sanctions to be imposed on any foreign individual or entity that operates in the jet fuel sector of the Burmese economy,” targeting “activities related to the importation, exportation, reexportation, sale, supply, or transport, directly or indirectly, of jet fuel in or involving Burma.” In short, OFAC can sanction anyone, from anywhere, playing any role in enabling the junta’s access to jet fuel.
Decisive enforcement now on the known enablers and profiteers will dismantle the pipeline of jet fuel to the junta, halt the widening air war that is indiscriminately targeting civilians, enhance the U.S.’s regional credibility, and demonstrate clearly and immediately a strong multinational stand against the forces of corruption, oppression, and mass murder.
Oliver Windridgeis Director of Illicit Finance Policy at The Sentry; Yadanar Maungis Spokesperson for Justice For Myanmar.
DVB publishes a diversity of opinions that does not reflect DVB editorial policy. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our stories: [email protected]
Paing Phyo Min outside of the Dagon University Department of Geology in an undated photo. He was arrested in Yangon on Oct. 9. (Credit: Private)
Paing Phyo Min (aka De Yay), the leader of an anti-military group called the Anti-Junta Alliance of Yangon, was arrested on Wednesday – as fellow AJAY member Shine Wai Aung was also detained. The two were apprehended by regime troops in Yangon.
Paing Phyo Min’s home was reportedly raided during a household list inspection. “He is a target of the regime. As you know, the military uses inhumane tactics when arresting protest leaders. We are extremely worried for him,” Nan Lin, the co-founder of the University Students’ Union Alumni Force, told DVB.
Paing Phyo Min, 27, was released from prison in an amnesty in 2021. He was sentenced to six years for his role in the Peacock Generation, a group that performed traditional Myanmar thangyat – a type of satirical street theater critical of the military held during the Thingyan New Year festival – prior to the 2021 military coup.
As a student union member, Paing Phyo Min advocated for educational reform in Myanmar and was first arrested for reading a satirical poem that criticized the military during its power-sharing government with Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party in 2019.
Four members of other anti-military protest groups – Zaw Lin Htut (also known as Pho Thar), Aung Min Khine (also known as Mae Kyi), Mya Minzu, and Hinn Ei Khin — were arrested in Yangon on Sept. 19.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) documents that a total of 5,795 people, including pro-democracy activists and civilians, have been killed by the regime and pro-military groups since 2021. At least 27,525 people have been arrested for political reasons since 2021 with 21,028 remaining in detention, added the AAPP.
Remaining members of AJAY called on the international community, and anti-coup resistance groups, to pressure the regime in Naypyidaw to protect the lives of all protestors held in detention, including Paing Phyo Min.
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