The Manila Times

Myanmar leader: Crackdown to go on

NAYPYITAW: Myanmar’s junta leader on Monday vowed no letup in his government’s crackdown on opponents and said elections would be held, weeks after the military conceded it did not control enough territory to allow a vote.

Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government more than two years ago after making unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud.

The putsch sparked renewed fighting with ethnic rebels and birthed dozens of antijunta “People’s Defense Forces” (PDFs), with swaths of the Southeast Asian country now ravaged by fighting and the economy in tatters.

The military will take “decisive action” against its opponents and the ethnic rebels supporting them, Min Aung Hlaing told an audience of about 8,000 service members attending the 78th Armed Forces Day parade in the capital Naypyitaw.

“The terror acts of the NUG and its lackey so-called PDFs need to be tackled for good and all,” he said, referring to the National Unity Government, a body dominated by ousted lawmakers working to reverse the coup.

The junta would then hold “free and fair elections” once the state of emergency is finished, its chief added.

The military announced last month a six-month extension of a two-year state of emergency and postponed elections it had promised to hold by August because it did not control enough of the country for a vote to take place.

“Serenity and stability are vital” before any election could go ahead, Min Aung Hlaing told the parade.

Armed Forces Day commemorates the start of resistance to Japanese occupation during World War 2. It usually features a military parade attended by foreign officers and diplomats.

Workers made last-minute inspections of the parade ground early on Monday, the hulking statues of three of Myanmar’s empire-building kings looming out of the dark.

Planes later trailed smoke in the yellow, red and green of the national flag as Russian-made Yak and Sukoi Su-30 jets made several flyovers.

Marching bands played bagpipes and brass, at times dueling with each other, and state media images showed women lining the streets to garland marching soldiers with flowers.

Min Aung Hlaing was inspecting the parade two years ago when troops launched a countrywide crackdown on those protesting against the coup that had ousted the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner’s government.

About 160 protesters were killed in the violence, according to a local monitoring group, sparking widespread international condemnation.

Rights groups and opponents have since accused the military of torching villages and using air and artillery strikes as collective punishment for opponents.

Min Aung Hlaing slammed the “criticism and condemnation” leveled at the junta, accusing some countries of supporting terrorists.

Officials from major junta allies and arms suppliers Russia and China attended, and India also sent a representative.

New Delhi has defended its ties with the junta, saying India cannot avoid dealing with its neighbor because of cross-border issues, such as organized crime.

The United States last Friday announced new sanctions targeting the supply of jet fuel to the junta.

The situation in Myanmar is a “festering catastrophe” two years after the coup, United Nations human rights chief Volker Turk said this month, adding that the military was operating with “complete impunity.”

Diplomatic efforts to defuse the bloody crisis, led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, have made little progress.

A Myanmar official said seven countries from the 10-nation bloc sent representatives to the parade, including Malaysia and Indonesia, who are among the group’s most vocal critics of the junta.

More than 3,100 people have been killed in the military’s crackdown on dissent since the coup, according to a local monitoring group.

More than a million people have been displaced by fighting, according to the United Nations.

The junta wrapped up a series of closed-court trials of Suu Kyi last December, jailing her for a total of 33 years in a process rights groups have condemned as a sham.

Asia And Oceania

en-ph

2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-28T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://digitaledition.manilatimes.net/article/282054806286856

The Manila Times