James Rodehaver is the chief of Myanmar team at the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). He sits down with the DVB Newsroom to discuss how the U.N. documents human rights violations and crimes committed by the military in Myanmar.
UN Human Rights Myanmar Chief James Rodehaver
James Rodehaver is head of the Myanmar team at the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). He sits down with the DVB Newsroom to discuss how the U.N. documents human rights violations and crimes committed by the military in Myanmar.
Thailand to press for broader international engagement with Myanmar regime
Thailand will advocate for more international engagement with Myanmar at next week’s Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit May 25-27, the Thai foreign minister told media. This move is a part of the 10-member regional bloc’s push for international cooperation to end the Myanmar crisis.
Myanmar has been in the midst of an expanding conflict since its military ousted an elected civilian-led government in 2021, with fighting between the regime and a network of resistance forces that has displaced more than 3.5 million people and decimated what was once a promising frontier market economy.
A 2021 ASEAN peace plan called the “Five Point Consensus” had until recently made no progress but ASEAN’s chair, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, has made a renewed push for dialogue.
This included separate talks held in Bangkok, Thailand, last month with regime leader Min Aung Hlaing and his regime’s opposition, which includes elected members of parliament ousted in the 2021 coup, the National Unity Government.
Thailand’s Foreign Minister Maris Sangiampongsa in an interview backed Anwar’s efforts, which focused initially on trying to secure a ceasefire extension to facilitate humanitarian assistance following a devastating earthquake on March 28 that killed more than 3,800 people.
“A ceasefire is an important first step, but it cannot be one-sided,” Maris told Reuters. “We need to be able to bring various issues to the table for constructive dialogue and doing so without putting pressure on things.”
But since Anwar’s meetings last month, the Myanmar military has continued its campaign against resistance forces, including in areas where the quake struck, with multiple airstrikes and artillery assaults, as reported by Reuters.
Maris said clear steps on the peace initiative needed to be mapped out at meetings in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, starting this weekend.
‘Change negative thinking’
Myanmar’s crisis has also exacerbated transnational crime, including the proliferation of scam compounds that the U.N. says have ensnared hundreds of thousands of people in illegal online operations that generate billions of dollars annually.
Maris said broad international cooperation in tackling that would help the peace initiative since it would bring all sides to the table, including ethnic armed groups.
“If there is no resolution to the conflict in Myanmar then transnational crime could not be addressed, the two issues are linked,” he added.
Myanmar’s generals, including Min Aung Hlaing, have been hit by sanctions and ostracized by Western powers over the coup and allegations of systematic atrocities against the civilian population, which they deny.
The regime’s international engagement has been limited to Russia and its neighbours, including China.
Maris said Thailand would provide more long-term assistance to Myanmar, including in education and healthcare, while using international platforms to promote engagement with the country.
“We are looking at this not only in helping to address short-term needs but also long term,” he said, adding engagement, would help foster dialogue that could lead to peace.
“We want to change negative thinking that is not productive.”
REUTERS
Bangkok to hold talks with Naypyidaw over pollution; Union leaders in Yangon face ‘dismissal’ over wage demands
Bangkok to hold talks with Naypyidaw over pollution
Thai government spokesperson Jirayu Huangsap announced on Tuesday that Thailand will hold a bilateral meeting with regime officials in Kengtung, Shan State, June 17-20 to address concerns over toxic contamination of the Kok and Sai rivers, which flow from eastern Shan into northern Thailand’s Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai provinces.
Burma’s embassy in the Thai capital Bangkok has been officially invited to participate in the meeting, which follows the detection of toxic substances in the two rivers by Thai officials and environmental experts. The contamination is caused by wastewater discharged by Chinese-operated mining sites in eastern Shan, according to environmentalists.
On May 15, the Shan Human Rights Foundation (SHRF) released a report highlighting the rapid expansion of rare earth mining activities in territory controlled by the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Mong Hsat Township. The UWSA has not responded to these allegations and it is unclear whether its officials will attend the meeting next month.
Union leaders in Yangon face ‘dismissal’ over wage demands
Labour activists told DVB that an unknown number of union leaders in Yangon Region have been threatened with dismissal for demanding a salary increase. Workers from at least five Yangon factories have demanded an increase in wages following an agreement from the Myanmar Xiang He shoe factory to raise its daily wage to 12,000 MMK ($2.60 USD) on May 20 — after a week-long strike by its 6,000 workers.
“A [regime] administrator took photos of our union leader at the military’s request. I believe it was an indirect form of pressure meant to instill fear,” an employee at the True Green plastic resin factory in Shwepyitha Township told DVB on the condition of anonymity. Four union leaders at the True Green factory were initially fired but later reinstated following pressure from workers, the employee added.
Sources told DVB that the regime began paying an additional 2,000 MMK ($0.40 USD) as an allowance on top of the daily wage last year. But it is not officially included in workers’ wages and they do not receive it during holidays. The ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) government set the daily minimum wage to 4,800 MMK ($1 USD) in May 2018. It has not changed since then.
ASEAN summit to hold two meetings on Myanmar crisis
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn told Reuters that the regional bloc will hold two meetings to address the crisis in Burma as a way to advance its faltering Five Point Consensus peace plan during the 46th summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, May 25-27.
“It will be presumptuous for any party to expect a quick fix to this issue. For us, we stay engaged…But it may take time. You see, the thing is that we all are too impatient. And as long as we bring down, you know, large-scale fighting to a smaller one, as long as we can bring people to the table, that’s progress,” Kao Kim Hourn told Reuters.
The Five Point Consensus calls for an immediate halt to violence, dialogue, and the release of political prisoners – such as jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint – held since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021. Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing agreed to the ASEAN peace plan in April 2021 but did not implement it upon his return to Burma. Read more.
News by Region
ARAKAN/CHINLAND—A merchant from Burma in India told DVB that cross-border trade has unofficially resumed into Arakan, via Paletwa Township in southern Chinland, five days after Mizoram State halted it. The regime has blocked all trade routes into Arakan since last year due to its counteroffensive against the Arakan Army (AA).
“We received permission to bring back goods into [Burma from India],” he told DVB, adding that representatives from Mizoram’s Lawngtlai District Land Revenue and Settlement Department reached an “understanding” without disclosing any further details.
KAREN—Frontline sources told DVB that over 200 residents of Hlaingbwe Township fled across the border into Thailand after the Karen National Liberation Army (KNLA) captured the regime Maw Phoe Kay outpost on May 19. The outpost is located 182 meters from the Thaungyin (Moei) River on the Burma-Thailand border.
The Karen Women’s Organization (KWO) told DVB that the refugees fled fighting between KNLA and regime forces in Hlaingbwe. Thai media reported that humanitarian assistance is being provided to the refugees in Tak Province by the Thai Army. Hlaingbwe is located 23 miles (37 km) northeast of the state capital Hpa-An.
SAGAING—Fighting between the People’s Defence Force (PDF) and regime forces was reported in Hmwarpi village of Kalay Township on Wednesday. Residents told DVB that a counteroffensive launched by the regime Regional Operations Command headquarters has displaced over 1,000 people from their homes since May 18.
“They’re marching towards [Chinland],” Salai Thang Chawn Phe from the Chin Brotherhood told DVB. Kalay is located 144 miles (231 km) northwest of the region’s capital Monywa, and 76 miles (122 km) northeast of Falam Township in northern Chinland, which came under resistance control on April 8.
(Exchange rate: $1 USD = 4,430 MMK)
Retired ambassador and former brigadier general shot in Yangon
Residents in Yangon’s Mayangone Township told DVB that Cho Tun Aung, a retired ambassador and former Brigadier General, was shot outside his home on Tuesday.
“We don’t know if he survived. The military transported him to the hospital in an ambulance and are now conducting a search of the area,” a Mayangone resident told DVB on the condition of anonymity.
A resistance group based in Yangon calling itself the Golden Valley Warriors claimed responsibility for the attack, stating that it was in retaliation for Cho Tun Aung’s continued involvement in supporting the regime since the 2021 coup, despite his retirement from the military.
“We have monitored his activities closely,” the group shared on social media. “Even in retirement, he remains complicit in the regime’s daily inhumane operations by continuing to provide military training and strategic advice,” the statement added.
Cho Tun Aung previously served as Myanmar’s Ambassador to Cambodia during the administration of President Thein Sein from 2012 to 2014. In 2022, he was awarded the honorary “Wunna Kyaw Htin” title for his “exceptional contributions” to Myanmar by the regime in Naypyidaw.
The group claimed that Cho Tun Aung has been working as a lecturer at the regime’s National Defence College (NDC) in Naypyidaw and a state-level senior adviser for the Reserve Military Forces Law enforced in February 2024.
Regime media has not reported on the assassination attempt. In October 2023, Nyan Lwin Aung was killed in Yangon’s Latha Township for his alleged involvement in arms procurement for the regime.
Time ripe for talks between Myanmar regime and ousted government, Malaysia’s Anwar says
Separate talks with Myanmar’s regime leader and his key rivals have borne fruit, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said, setting the stage for the first direct contact between the two sides embroiled in a protracted and devastating civil war.
Regime leader Min Aung Hlaing flew into the Thai capital Bangkok for a closed-door meeting with Anwar last month and, a day later, the Malaysian leader held online talks with the National Unity Government (NUG).
The NUG includes remnants of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi deposed in the 2021 coup orchestrated by Min Aung Hlaing.
Both sides were aware of the engagement, two sources with direct knowledge said, underscoring the willingness of Min Aung Hlaing to engage in peace efforts despite branding the government-in-exile as “terrorist.”
“We do engage separately, but I think it’s time for them to talk,” Anwar told reporters in Malaysia’s administrative capital Putrajaya on Wednesday. “I mean, the people in Myanmar have to decide for themselves.”
A regime spokesperson did not respond to calls from Reuters seeking comment.
Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for the NUG, said the shadow government would be open to talks with the military if it agreed to six conditions.
These include forming a new federal democratic union under a new constitution with no role for the military in politics and the creation of a transitional justice framework.
“If Myanmar’s military agrees to that, we will have a dialogue with military authorities regarding the termination of the coup and peaceful transition of power,” he told Reuters.
It’s unlikely that Myanmar’s military, which has ruled the country for most of its post-independence history, will accept those conditions.
But Anwar’s initiative, launched as this year’s chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), marks the first time the military regime appears amenable to a dialogue since Myanmar was plunged into turmoil by the February 2021 coup.
The violence has killed thousands, displaced over 3.5 million people and decimated the economy of the Southeast Asian nation.
An armed opposition, comprising established ethnic armies and new resistance groups formed since the coup, has wrested chunks of territory from the regime, driving it out of border areas and increasingly hemming the territory it controls into the central lowlands.
Malaysian officials have begun outreach to some armed groups in Myanmar, a diplomatic source said, without providing further details.
Groundwork for peace process
In Bangkok, Anwar publicly focused on securing a ceasefire extension to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid following a March 28 earthquake that killed more than 3,800 people, mostly in central Myanmar.
But the leader also utilized the opening to attempt to lay the groundwork for a broader peace process, according to four people aware of the discussions.
His initiative is slated to dominate the 46th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur next week, with dedicated talks among the regional bloc members focused on the conflict ahead of the gathering.
Anwar described his push as “the first serious attempt at engagement” by ASEAN. “We have to move beyond that,” he said on Wednesday.
ASEAN has been calling for a cessation of violence since the 2021 coup, pushing a peace plan known as the “Five Point Consensus,” which has made little progress and barred Myanmar’s ruling generals from the bloc’s summits.
Backroom work for the Bangkok talks had started before the earthquake, three sources said, but the disaster provided an opportunity for Anwar to directly engage on humanitarian issues with Min Aung Hlaing, who has been shunned for nearly four years by successive ASEAN chairs.
“The humanitarian exercise is important in itself, but to achieve it, we need a ceasefire. And a temporary ceasefire will in turn open up possible future pathways towards peace and reconciliation,” George Yeo, a former Singaporean foreign minister who is currently an adviser to Anwar, told Reuters.
Election plans
The NUG had initially opposed the Anwar-Min Aung Hlaing talks in Bangkok, urging “utmost caution” for any unilateral engagement with the regime.
Since the Bangkok talks, Naypyidaw has announced extensions to a ceasefire initially agreed upon to support humanitarian relief following the quake – but it still kept up a deadly military campaign, including in areas devastated by the earthquake.
ASEAN Secretary-General Kao Kim Hourn this week declined to comment on the military’s continued offensive, saying it was unclear who had violated the ceasefire.
In the short term, the regional bloc needs to push the warring sides in Myanmar to respect the ceasefire.
“If everyone respects the ceasefire and sees the vital importance of humanitarian assistance, it could be a beginning point to bring the various sides for talks,” commented veteran diplomat and former Thai vice minister for foreign affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
The renewed move to intensify dialogue in Myanmar also comes amid a regime plan to hold a general election in December, an exercise derided by its critic as a sham to keep the generals in power through proxies.
ASEAN had earlier said that the regime should prioritize making peace, instead of holding an election.
“Dialogue is important for the election, without it there is no legitimacy,” Sihasak said. “We have to be realistic enough to see that an election is not the end of the conflict.”
REUTERS
