The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn welcomes delegates to the Foreign Ministers' Meeting in the Laos capital Vientiane on Oct. 8. (Credit: Reuters)
Foreign ministers and delegates from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Vientiane, Laos on Tuesday. Laos’ top diplomat highlighted that a ‘concerted effort’ is needed among the 10-member nation regional bloc, which includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
“Our meeting is held when the region and the world continue to face with a rapidly changing and complex geopolitical and geo-economic landscape that presents both opportunity and challenges,” said Saleumxay Kommasith, the Laos Foreign Affairs Minister, in his opening remarks at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting on Oct. 8. The meeting is a part of the 44th ASEAN Summit Oct. 6-11.
Myanmar has sent regime Ministry of Foreign Affairs Permanent Secretary Aung Kyaw Moe to the meeting despite regime leader Min Aung Hlaing being banned from ASEAN for not adhering to its Five-Point Consensus, which calls for an end to all violence, the release of political prisoners – including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint – as well as dialogue between the military and anti-coup resistance forces.
Burma’s Permanent Representative to the UN Kyaw Moe Tun addresses a rally organized by supporters in New York City on Sept. 21. (Credit: DVB)
UN Ambassador mandate deferred for another year
Burma’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Kyaw Moe Tun will remain in his post for at least another year following a deferral by the credentials committee. The regime in Naypyidaw wants to replace Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun, who represents the civilian-led National Unity Government (NUG), with someone who can help it gain legitimacy for its elections tentatively scheduled for November 2025.
“We all need to oppose this sham election organized by the military at this time,” said Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun. “We, the people of Myanmar, are very resolute. We will definitely oppose this sham election until the end. We appeal to the international community to do [the same].”
More than one million people living in 70 townships in 10 states and regions have been impacted by flooding since the remnants of Typhoon Yagi arrived in Burma on Sept. 9. The NUG confirmed that Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps in Saw Township of Magway Region were hit by flash floods on Sept. 25.
“More than 600 fatalities have been reported, with a substantial amount of farmland destroyed. Floodwaters have also inundated several IDP camps, destroying many temporary shelters and leaving vulnerable populations in need of critical assistance,” added the NUG Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management in its flood situation report on Sunday.
The NUG is providing humanitarian aid and relief to Bago, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway and Tanintharyi regions, as well as Karenni, Karen, Mon, Arakan and southern Shan states. The military is reportedly preventing aid from reaching areas under the control of armed resistance groups.
Zaw Myint Maung, the National League for Democracy (NLD) Mandalay Region Chief Minister and vice-chair of the party, in the capital Naypyidaw. (Credit: Pyidaungsu Hluttaw 2020)
Jailed Mandalay chief minister Zaw Myint Maung dies after release
Zaw Myint Maung, the jailed Mandalay Chief Minister and vice-chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, died of leukemia at Mandalay General Hospital on Monday – one day after the regime granted him an amnesty on medical grounds.
“We won’t see you anymore when we get to Mandalay, but no one will forget that the city experienced a bright time under your governance. I believe that you defied injustice with a confident smile until the end,” Zin Mar Aung, the NUG Minister of Foreign of Affairs, posted on social media.
Zaw Myint Maung, 73, died while receiving treatment in the Mandalay Hospital’s intensive care unit. The NLD Central Working Committee member Kyaw Htway told DVB that his body was moved from the hospital to his home in Mandalay in preparation for the funeral. The BBC reported that a funeral will take place today. Read more here.
News by Region
MAGWAY—Six civilians were killed and an unknown number were injured by airstrikes conducted by the Burma Air Force in Htilin, Gangaw and Saw townships of northwest Magway Region on Saturday. Most of the townships are controlled by the People’s Defense Force (PDF) and Chinland Defense Force (CDF).
“They are using new weapons and firing artillery shells toward civilian homes in PDF [controlled areas],” an unnamed Magway politician told DVB. Htilin, Gangaw and Saw are vital transportation hubs between Sagaing and Magway regions, as well as to Chinland. The military launched an offensive in Sagaing and Magway regions in September.
NAYPYIDAW—The Seven Ethnic Armed Organization (EAO) Alliance, the military regime, and political parties, will meet in Naypyidaw to discuss the peace process on Oct. 15. The meeting will take place after a ceremony to commemorate the ninth anniversary of the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement (NCA).
“It will be more like a workshop and we will discuss how to proceed with the current peace process in Burma,” Saw Kyaw Nyunt, the Seven EAO Alliance spokesperson, told DVB. The Seven EAO Alliance is composed of NCA signatories that have mostly declined to fight against the military since the 2021 coup.
SAGAING—The PDF released a video on Sunday showing three military personnel, including a captain, confessing to killing civilians and burning down around 20 homes during a raid on a village in Butalin Township, located around 23 miles (37 km) north of the Sagaing Region capital Monywa.
They were among 43 soldiers that the PDF detained during an attack on a military column in Butalin on Sept. 30. “They confessed after we questioned them,” a PDF spokesperson told DVB. Some officers of the Northwest Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters are being interrogated over the attack on the column, according to a source close to the RMC.
YANGON—Yangon residents said census workers are collecting data on the number of people that reside in each household, as well as their occupations and incomes. “Census data was collected from only one room in our building. They did not visit every room and only asked a few questions,” a Kamayut Township resident told DVB.
A resident from Hlaing Township said that census workers have not visited his home despite data being collected from other households in his neighborhood. The nationwide census began on Oct. 1 and will conclude on Oct. 15. It reportedly includes a list of 68 questions.
Zaw Myint Maung, the former Mandalay Chief Minister and vice-chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, in the capital Naypyidaw in 2020. (Credit: Pyidaungsu Hluttaw)
Zaw Myint Maung, the former Mandalay Chief Minister and vice-chair of the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, died of leukemia at Mandalay General Hospital on Monday – one day after the regime granted him an amnesty on medical grounds.
“We won’t see you anymore when we get to Mandalay, but no one will forget that the city experienced a bright time under your governance. I believe that you defied injustice with a confident smile until the end,” Zin Mar Aung, the Minister of Foreign of Affairs for Myanmar’s civilian-led National Unity Government (NUG), posted on social media.
Zaw Myint Maung, 73, died while receiving treatment in the Mandalay Hospital’s intensive care unit. The NLD Central Working Committee member Kyaw Htway told DVB that his body was moved from the hospital to his home in Mandalay in preparation for the funeral. The BBC reported that a funeral will take place on Oct. 8.
Zaw Myint Maung was detained at Mandalay’s Obo Prison and was later sentenced to a total of 29 years in prison on nine charges, including corruption and for violating the Natural Disaster Management Law. He was hospitalized last month after his health rapidly deteriorated.
Mandalay residents said that military personnel, dressed in plain clothes, are stationed outside his home to prevent any public gatherings, or expressions of sympathy, to honor the ousted chief minister’s life.
Former prisoners at Obo Prison, who were jailed alongside Zaw Myint Maung, told DVB on the condition of anonymity that he was not provided with adequate medical care during his detention. “The military regime bears responsibility for everything that has happened to him,” Kyaw Zaw, the NUG spokesperson, told DVB.
Zaw Myint Maung first rose to political prominence after he won a parliamentary seat for the NLD party during the 1990 general elections, but was unable to take his post when the military overturned the results.
He was imprisoned for his pro-democracy activism from 1990 to 2009. But Zaw Myint Maung was finally allowed to take a seat in parliament representing Kyaukpadaung Township of Mandalay Region after winning the constituency in the 2012 by-elections.
He later won a seat for Amarapura Township of Mandalay Region during the 2015 elections. The NLD government appointed him as Mandalay Region Chief Minister in 2016.
'Ek Khaale' is a Rohingya visual restoration and storytelling project started by Greg Constantine in 2020. (Credit: Ek Khaale)
The Ek Khaale visual restoration project was started by documentary photographer Greg Constantine and the Rohingya community in 2020. Ek Khaale means “Once Upon a Time” in the Rohingya language. It was launched in collaboration with Rohingya living inside Burma, as well as in the Bangladesh refugee camps, and the diaspora living in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Malaysia and Europe.
“It took a year of basically sifting through, analyzing, deconstructing this huge, massive block of raw materials that had been collected through and contributed by the Rohingya and that I had found in archives. Then [I tried] to chisel away at it to try to tell a narrative. And that’s how these nine chapters of the project were constructed to show different slices of time. And using the different visual materials that we had found,” he told DVB.
The Ek Khaale Rohingya visual restoration project was on display at the Rohingya Cultural Night held by the Rohingya Maiyafuinor Collaborative Network women’s group in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Sept. 8.
A building in Thantlang Township of Chinland was destroyed by an airstrike on Oct. 4. (Credit: CDF)
The fight over control of Thantlang in Chinland continues
Three Chinland Defense Force (CDF) members and an unknown number of military personnel were killed during fighting in Thantlang Township, located 22 miles (35 km) west of the Chinland capital Hakha, on Friday. A CDF spokesperson claimed that the Burma Air Force has carried out nearly 70 airstrikes on Thantlang since Oct. 4.
“Many soldiers were killed when we attacked their [military] deployments in the town on Friday. Fighting intensified for the whole day and their aircrafts helped them firing rounds,” a CDF spokesperson told DVB. Salai Htet Ni, the Chin National Army (CNA) spokesperson, said that over 150 military personnel remain left in the town.
The CNA-led Chin resistance forces launched “Tilim Operation 4’ against military targets in Thantlang on July 22. Three military outposts, as well as camps along the Thantlang-Hakha Road and Lai Villa guest house, were seized by the Chin forces. Thantlang was abandoned by residents in October 2021 when the military launched indiscriminate airstrikes and arson attacks.
Talks on Myanmar’s crisis held in Indonesia
Diplomatic talks about Burma’s crisis, which has engulfed the country since the 2021 military coup, were held in Jakarta on Friday and Saturday. Officials from unnamed resistance groups, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Indonesia, the E.U., and the U.N., attended the talks, a senior diplomat in Indonesia told AFP.
The military regime is not expected to participate in the meeting. It is taking place ahead of the ASEAN summit that will be held in Laos, the current chair of ASEAN, from Oct. 6-11. The crisis in Burma is expected to be discussed at the summit.
Naypyidaw discusses flood relief with UN officials
Hai Kyung Jun, the director of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau Office, discussed flood relief with the regime’s Minister of International Cooperation Ko Ko Hlaing in Naypyidaw on Thursday.
Regime media reported that they discussed the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas of the country that have been impacted by floodwaters and landslides since the remnants of Typhoon Yagi arrived in Burma on Sept. 9. Heavy rains are expected to cause more flooding in the country this weekend.
At least 433 people have been killed by flooding and landslides in the past month, according to the regime. The military has reportedly prevented humanitarian aid from reaching areas impacted by floods and landslides in areas under the control of armed resistance forces.
Residents of Chiang Mai, Thailand evacuate their homes as the Ping River rises to its highest levels recorded in 50 years on Oct. 5. (Credit: DVB)
News by Region
AYEYARWADY—More than 140 homes in 15 townships have been sealed off by the regime since January for allegedly belonging to residents connected to the People’s Defense Force (PDF). The regime has labeled the PDF and the civilian-led National Unity Government (NUG) as ‘terrorist’ groups.
“Most of the homes belonged to civilians,” said a source close to the regime in Ayeyarwady. Many of the home’s former owners have been either accused or jailed for violating the Counter-Terrorism Law, the Unlawful Associations Act, as well as treason and sedition. Some of the owners have fled to avoid arrest.
“A boy, two women and a man were killed instantly,” a Taungup resident from Kintaung Sanpya village told DVB. The number of civilian casualties has mounted since airstrikes have been carried out on Taungup and Thandwe, which is under the control of the Arakan Army (AA), since Oct. 1.
BAGO—A resistance group calling itself Brave Warriors for Myanmar claimed that five military personnel were killed and four officers were injured after it launched an attack on the Southern Regional Military Command (RMC) headquarters in Taungoo on Saturday.
“We heard four or five explosions inside the headquarters. The electricity has been cut off since,” a Taungoo resident told DVB. The group said that it had fired four rounds of rockets, damaging the security gate and parts of the RMC compound. It warned residents to stay away from military targets.
SHAN—An unknown number of Lashio residents have fled their homes for a second time as the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) anticipates more attacks from the Burma Air Force.
“We have no choice but to abandon our home again as we never know when a bomb will land on our home,” a Lashio resident told DVB. Several families, including those with elderly members, have departed Lashio to towns in southern Shan and Yangon. The MNDAA stated that more than 100 civilians have been injured in airstrikes since fighting over control of the Northeast RMC in Lashio began on July 3. Lashio was seized by the MNDAA on Aug. 3
'Ek Khaale' is a Rohingya visual restoration and storytelling project started by Greg Constantine in 2020. (Credit: Ek Khaale)
The Ek Khaale visual restoration project was started by documentary photographer Greg Constantine and the Rohingya community in 2020. Ek Khaale means “Once Upon a Time” in the Rohingya language. It was launched in collaboration with Rohingya living inside Burma, as well as in the Bangladesh refugee camps, and the diaspora living in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Malaysia and Europe. Read more about it here.
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