People rebuilding temporary homes near a destroyed building following fighting between Myanmar’s military and the Arakan Army.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An alliance of Myanmar ethnic armed groups have accused the junta of repeatedly violating a China-brokered ceasefire in the north of the country this month and causing civilian casualties.

Beijing brokered a truce between the junta and the so-called “Three Brotherhood Alliance” in January after months of fighting that displaced more than half a million people near China’s southern border.

The ceasefire allowed the alliance— made up of the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), and the Arakan Army (AA) to hold swathes of territory it had seized in northern Shan state.

Junta troops on June 19 launched an air strike on territory the TNLA holds near the ruby and gem-mining hub of Mogok, the group said.

“In this incident, one civilian was killed and 3 wounded including a 10-year-old child,” the TNLA said in a statement posted to the alliance’s Telegram channel on June 19.

On June 18 junta troops had launched a drone attack that had killed one TNLA member and seriously wounded four others, the TNLA added.

It said the attacks were the latest violation this month by the junta, which it said had shelled TNLA positions and cut roads and restricted the flow of goods to TNLA-controlled towns.

AFP was unable to reach a junta spokesman for comment.

In October last year, the alliance launched a surprise offensive across northern Myanmar, seizing several towns and lucrative border hubs that are vital for trade with China, dealing a blow to the cash-strapped and isolated junta.

Border trade with China during April-May was down by almost a third compared to the same period last year, junta-controlled media reported last week.

Last month China hosted follow-up peace talks between the military and the alliance in the city of Kunming.

A source close to the MNDAA told AFP that no substantial progress had been made, and the two sides would meet again in the future.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to a plethora of ethnic armed groups, many of whom have battled the military since independence from Britain in 1948 over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

While fighting in Shan state has calmed, the AA has launched its own offensive in western Rakhine state, where it says it is fighting for more autonomy for the ethnic Rakhine population.

Its fighters have seized territory along the border with India and Bangladesh, piling further pressure on the junta as it battles opponents elsewhere across the Southeast Asian country.

Imphal:

The Assam Rifles in a statement on Tuesday refuted allegations by a tribal group that said refugees from war-torn Myanmar have been found allegedly building houses in Manipur’s Tengnoupal district without informing the state authorities.

The alleged illegal settlement was found between pillar number 82 and 89 near the border with Myanmar by volunteers, the Maring tribe group said.

The Assam Rifles, however, denied the existence of such “illegal settlements”.

Some refugees have indeed taken shelter in that area due to the war-like situation in Myanmar; however, they are immediately repatriated as the security situation improves across the Indo-Myanmar border, the Assam Rifles said in the statement shared with local media.

In fact, the accommodation arrangements for the refugees consist of self-help, bare essential thatched huts with polythene covers, the Assam Rifles said, adding the state administration is fully aware of the presence of refugees in the area and has also collected their biometric data.

The Rilram Area Maring Organisation, or RAMO, had said it sent out volunteers to check their villages near border pillar numbers 82 to 89, following reports of a significant number of Myanmar refugees pouring into Maring tribe’s areas in Tengnoupal district.

RAMO said they told the authorities they found a considerable presence of Myanmar refugees building houses and other structures. The areas RAMO volunteers visited were Chanringphai, Choktong, N Satang, and Sangtong villages under Lamlong Khunou circle.

Village chiefs in the area have complained they were no longer able to manage the influx of refugees from Myanmar, the RAMO volunteers said.

Manipur has been caught in an ethnic strife since May 2023 between the Kuki tribes and the Meiteis.

The NSCN(I-M) is one of the oldest and most powerful of about 30 rebel groups in northeast India. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) on Wednesday accused the Indian security forces of helping the Kuki militant groups to wage war against the Meitei revolutionary groups in Myanmar.

The statement comes a day after The Hindu reported a charge sheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) where the central agency alleged that the “China-Myanmar module” of NSCN-IM, the Naga outfit that signed a framework agreement with the Union government in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015, helped two banned Meitei outfits to infiltrate Manipur to fuel ethnic violence and destabilise the State.

At least 221 people have been killed in the ethnic violence between the tribal Kuki-Zo people and the majority Meitei community that erupted in the State on May 3, 2023.

NSCN said that “it is sensitive to the propaganda war waged by the Government of India against NSCN who had signed ceasefire with GoI and engaged in political talks for the last 27 years.”

It alleged that “Indian Security Forces were extending logistics and material support to KNA(B) (Kuki National Army-Bangladesh) to wage war against the Meitei revolutionary groups stationed in Myanmar.”

It further alleged that the security forces even allowed “the Kuki militant groups operating in Tengnoupal district, Manipur, to enter Myanmar and fight with the Meitei revolutionary groups. Nothing is left to doubt about the dubious role of Indian Security Forces, as they use the Kukis as frontal forces to engage in bloody discord against the Nagas, giving all logistics support to the Kuki militant groups.”

This handout photo taken and released October 28, 2023 by the Kokang Information Network shows members of the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army walking past a Myanmar military base after seizing it during clashes near Laukkaing township in Myanmar’s northern Shan state.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Heavy fighting between rebels and the Myanmar military stretched into a second day near the country’s northern border with China, armed groups said on Saturday.

Myanmar’s junta seized power in a February 2021 coup that sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state.

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups launched coordinated attacks on military positions across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army said Saturday it had seized three military outposts — two located close to Mongko near the border with China.

The rebels also ambushed a group of soldiers coming from Hopang and seized military equipment.

The group did not provide details of fatalities.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army said Saturday it had so far seized three military outposts at Namhkam and 18 soldiers were killed.

The group also said it had taken two military outposts at Lashio and netted a haul of military equipment.

The military deployed a fighter jet and helicopter gunship to Lashio, the TNLA statement said.

Overnight, there was heavy shelling for seven hours near Lashio, a local rescue worker said, adding the fighting had died down on Saturday.

Junta spokesperson Zaw Min Tun told local media on Friday that rebels had attacked military positions in the Chinshwehaw, Laukkai, and Kunlong areas and some outposts were lost.

“We tried to maintain peace and stability in north Shan, but insurgents tried to destroy stability,” he said.

China’s Foreign Ministry said on Friday it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

Shan state has been earmarked for a proposed billion-dollar rail link under China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

This handout photo taken and released on October 27, 2023, by the Kokang Information Network shows Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army Major General Peng Deqi (centre right) commanding operations against Myanmar’s military near Lashio township in Myanmar’s northern Shan State.
| Photo Credit: AFP

An alliance of ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar launched coordinated attacks on the military across the country’s north on Friday, posing a fresh challenge to the junta as it struggles to quell resistance to its rule.

The military’s 2021 putsch sparked renewed fighting with powerful ethnic rebel groups in northern Shan state, home to a planned billion-dollar rail link, part of China’s Belt and Road global infrastructure project.

The Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), the Arakan Army (AA) and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA) launched a “military operation”, they said in a statement.

Pro-military Telegram channels said the rebels were attacking 12 towns or settlements across a swathe of Shan state around 100 kilometres (62 miles) across.

The three rebel groups — which analysts say can call on at least 15,000 fighters between them — did not immediately provide details on casualties or whether they had taken territory.

A junta spokesman did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.

The MNDAA said its fighters had closed the roads from the trade hub of Lashio to Chinshwehaw and Muse on the China border ahead of a “major offensive”.

Footage shared on its media channel showed fighters in what appeared to be an abandoned camp, with weapons and boxes of ammunition scattered across the ground. It did not say where the footage was taken.

Fighting around Lashio — home to the military’s northeast command — and near the towns of Muse, Chinshwehaw and Laukkai was ongoing, local media and residents said.

Laukkai is about five kilometres from the border with China.

“All shops are closed and no one is going out,” a resident of Hopang township, around 10 kilometres from Chinshwehaw, told AFP.

“We can hear the sounds of aircraft and gunfire constantly,” they said, requesting anonymity for security reasons.

A Muse resident told AFP that locals were staying indoors as soldiers patrolled the streets and that the road from the town to the city of Mandalay — a major trade route — had been closed.

A rescue worker in Lashio who requested anonymity for safety reasons told AFP that rebels had begun shelling the military base near the town from 4:00 am (2130 GMT Thursday) and that the military had responded with artillery fire.

All flights to and from Lashio airport had been cancelled on Friday “because of the situation”, an airline ticketing agency told AFP.

China’s foreign affairs ministry said it was “closely following” the fighting and called on all sides to prevent the situation from escalating.

In 2017, months of fighting between Myanmar’s army and ethnic insurgents in the Kokang border region claimed dozens of lives and sent thousands fleeing from their homes — many to China.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to more than a dozen ethnic rebel groups, some of which have fought the military for decades over autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Some have trained and equipped newer “People’s Defence Forces” that have sprung up since the 2021 coup and the military’s bloody crackdown on dissent.

Earlier this month nearly 30 people were killed and dozens wounded in a strike on a camp for displaced people in neighbouring Kachin state.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA), an ethnic rebel group that controls the area, blamed the junta for the attack.

Last week the junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover outposts it had lost in subsequent fighting with the KIA, the military and rebels said.

A KIA spokesman told AFP he was not sure if its fighters had joined Friday’s attacks.

Homes destroyed after air and artillery strikes in Mung Lai Hkyet displacement camp, in Laiza, Myanmar, on October 10, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Myanmar’s ruling junta ordered air strikes and troop reinforcements as it tried to recover lost outposts near the Chinese border from rebels, the military said.

The toppling of Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government in a 2021 coup sparked a huge backlash and the military junta is now battling opponents across swaths of the country.

The Kachin Independence Army (KIA) attacked Myanmar military positions around Muse district in northern Shan state on Thursday and near the remote town of Laiza in Kachin state on Friday.

The military was forced to retreat on Friday afternoon and ordered air strikes, as well as artillery and troop reinforcements, the junta said in a statement shortly before midnight Friday.

The KIA said Saturday that the military had counter-attacked with air strikes and ground artillery.

It added that the junta had suffered some fatalities in the latest clashes this week but did not provide a death toll.

“We seized a lot of guns and other equipment from the military,” KIA Colonel Naw Bu told AFP.

The KIA controls large parts of the Christian-majority Kachin state and has clashed with Myanmar’s military for decades.

The region has seen intense fighting since the coup, and the junta accuses the KIA of training People’s Defence Forces that have sprung up in resistance.

Muse lies on the path of a proposed $8.9 billion high-speed rail link from China’s landlocked Yunnan province to Myanmar’s west coast, a key part of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

The junta has been accused of carrying out multiple bloody attacks on civilians as it struggles to crush resistance to its 2021 coup.

Nearly 30 people were killed and dozens were wounded this month after a military strike on a camp for displaced people near Laiza.

Amnesty International said the deadly attack on the camp was likely the result of the Myanmar military using a large unguided aerial-delivered bomb, while the junta blamed the explosion on a store of rebel bombs.

Myanmar will offer visas on arrival to Chinese and Indian tourists, state media reported, as the ruling junta seeks to lure back foreign visitors and their cash.

A start date for the one-year trial scheme “will be announced soon”, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported, citing the junta’s immigration ministry.

Holders of the visas will be “allowed to visit all sites apart from restricted areas for security concerns”, said the report in Thursday’s newspaper.

Currently citizens of both countries must apply for a tourist visa online, or at a Myanmar embassy.

The military is struggling to crush opposition to its 2021 coup and has admitted there are swathes of the country it does not fully control.

Countries such as the United States and Australia advise against all travel to Myanmar, due to the ongoing conflict.

China and India, which both share long and porous borders with Myanmar, have maintained ties with the isolated generals since the coup.

The junta’s tourism ministry is also working to attract travellers from Russia, another major ally and arms supplier.

Earlier this month the national carrier began direct flights to Russia’s Novosibirsk, and the junta has said it is working to allow the use of Russia’s Mir cards for direct payments.

Myanmar opened up to tourists in 2011 following decades of military rule, becoming popular with travellers.

It closed its borders during the coronavirus pandemic and the military’s coup and subsequent bloody crackdown on dissent have kept visitors away.

The economy has slumped, with the local kyat currency plunging against the dollar and rolling power outages roiling major cities, where access to ATMs and foreign exchange counters is patchy.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends the ASEAN-U.N. Summit as part of the 43rd Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Summit in Jakarta, Indonesia on September 7, 2023.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hopes of a return to democracy in junta-ruled Myanmar are being crushed by “systematic repression”, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on September 7 at a summit in Indonesia with the United States, China and regional leaders.

Myanmar has been ravaged by deadly violence since a 2021 military coup ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, unleashing a bloody crackdown on dissent.

“Brutal violence, worsening poverty, and systematic repression are crushing hopes for a return to democracy,” Mr. Guterres said before a meeting with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member.

“The situation is untenable.”

The junta was not in attendance after being barred from attending ASEAN summits until it implements a five-point peace plan agreed two years ago.

Mr. Guterres said the crisis has “further deteriorated” in the past year and said in an earlier speech the world was witnessing an “enormous tragedy”.

Before his meeting with ASEAN leaders, he repeated a call for Myanmar’s military authorities to free detained leaders and political prisoners and return to democratic rule.

Deposed civilian leader Ms. Suu Kyi is among those still in detention.

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Mr. Guterres also said the conditions for the safe return of Rohingya refugees who fled Myanmar in 2017, many of them to neighbouring Bangladesh, during a brutal military crackdown “are not yet in sight”.

Myanmar is facing genocide accusations at the United Nations’ top court following the mass exodus.

Leaders at the ASEAN summit on Tuesday called on Myanmar’s military rulers to “de-escalate violence and stop targeted attacks on civilians”, a statement the junta condemned as “one-sided”.

Myanmar has also been replaced as ASEAN’s rotating chair in 2026 by the Philippines.

An Indonesian official, who declined to be identified, said “they are still isolated, ASEAN does not trust them”.

Mr. Guterres welcomed efforts to resolve the crisis under the five-point peace plan but the junta has largely ignored it.

In a wide-ranging speech earlier at the summit, he called on world leaders to “turn up the heat” on action to solve the global climate crisis.

It came a day after he said “climate breakdown has begun” after the EU monitoring body said 2023 was likely to be the hottest year in human history.

Pedestrians and shoppers walk past a branch of fashion retailer H&M. The brand is investigating cases of labour abuse at its factories in Myanmar
| Photo Credit: Reuters

H&M is following up on 20 alleged instances of labour abuse at Myanmar garment factories that supply the world’s second-largest fashion retailer, just weeks after top rival Zara owner Inditex said it is phasing out purchases from the Southeast Asian country.

A U.K.-based human rights advocacy group tracked 156 cases of alleged worker abuses in Myanmar garment factories from February 2022 to February 2023, up from 56 in the previous year, indicating a deterioration of workers’ rights since a military coup in February 2021.

ALSO READ | Myanmar arrests nearly 150 fleeing Rohingya

Wage reduction and wage theft were the most frequently reported allegations, followed by unfair dismissal, inhumane work rates, and forced overtime, according to a report by the NGO, the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC) seen by Reuters and set to be published on Wednesday.

“All the cases raised in the report by BHRRC are being followed-up and where needed remediated through our local team on the ground and in close cooperation with relevant stakeholders,” H&M said in a statement.

“We are deeply concerned by the latest developments in Myanmar, and we see increased challenges to conduct our operations according to our standards and requirements,” the Swedish retailer said.

The BHRRC has been tracking allegations of workers’ rights abuses in garment factories since the military junta took power in Myanmar, plunging it into political and humanitarian crisis. The tracker includes abuse cases at 124 separate factories.

The BHRRC said it tracks cases of alleged abuses through sources including union leaders, international media, and local media such as Myanmar Labour News, and seeks to verify reports by checking with brands and interviewing workers. Reuters did not independently verify its findings.

There have been 21 cases of alleged abuses linked to Inditex suppliers, according to the report. Inditex declined to comment on the report.

A spokesperson for Myanmar’s military government did not reply to a request for comment on the findings. The Myanmar Garment Manufacturing Association did not reply to a request for comment.

Made in Myanmar

Spanish group Inditex was the latest brand to say it would cut ties with Myanmar suppliers, after Primark and Marks & Spencer last year, in a trend that some say could ultimately leave garment workers worse off.

Some brands have instead ramped up monitoring of suppliers in Myanmar, the survey conducted by the BHRRC found. Field offices in the country, for example, enable brands to conduct their own inspections instead of relying on external audits.

Dublin-based Primark has doubled its number of Yangon-based staff even after announcing last September it would stop sourcing from Myanmar, the survey found, while Danish fashion company Bestseller increased its number of staff on the ground from three to 11 since the coup.

H&M and Bestseller are among 18 brands that are part of the European Union-funded MADE project aimed at improving labour conditions in Myanmar’s garment factories.

More than 500 fatories

The EU’s stance is that companies should continue sourcing garments from Myanmar, where the industry is a key employer, with more than 500 factories producing clothes and shoes for big brands.

“By engaging as a company in discussions with local labour rights groups and trade unions on wages and labour conditions you can have leverage,” said Karina Ufert, CEO at the European Chamber of Commerce in Myanmar.

“By leaving the country, it is difficult to see how you can have an influence on local conditions.”

Vicky Bowman, former UK ambassador to Myanmar and director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business, said the international brands under pressure to stop buying from Myanmar are also the most likely to provide stable jobs and take additional steps to guard against rights abuses.

“If they leave, either the jobs disappear entirely, or factories scrabble to receive orders from footloose buying agents who care only about cheap labour and do not worry about factory conditions,” Bowman told Reuters.