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burmaassociatedpress · 2 years

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BAP’ Week In Review

Turmoil continues to roil Myanmar on multiple fronts as the military continues to struggle to gain control of the country. Burma Associated Press brings you a roundup of news highlights over the past week.

Kyat slides against US dollar, other currencies

The Central Bank of Myanmar announced on Wednesday that it would inject US$200 million into the foreign exchange market in an attempt to bolster the weakening kyat.

The announcement came after the local currency continued its slide in August. It has weakened 40% since the beginning of the month, reaching K4,000 per US dollar Wednesday.

On Thursday, the kyat rallied to around K3,500 per US dollar following the central bank’s announcement. It also weakened against the Singapore dollar, Thai baht, Chinese renminbi.

The kyat’s weakness has caused prices of food and fuel to rise sharply. The prices of imported gasoline and cooking oil have roughly tripled since the military seized power in February last year.

Even the price of locally grown rice, which is not normally exposed to currency fluctuations, has increased sharply due to the higher cost of transportation and fertilisers.

More imprisonments

The UK's former ambassador to Myanmar and her husband have each been sentenced to one year in prison by the country's military authorities on Friday.

Vicky Bowman and Htein Lin, a former political prisoner, were charged with breaching immigration laws after being arrested in their home in Yangon last week.

Bowman and her husband were detained when they returned to the city from a home they have in Shan State. Military authorities charged them both with failing to register her as living at a different address.

Meanwhile, another military-controlled court in Naypyidaw sentenced Myanmar’s detained leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi to another jail sentence of three years in the latest in a series of trials many view as shams by the military to sideline her and deprive the opposition of a central figure.

The ruling on Friday, where she was found guilty of electoral fraud in the 2020 general election, now means she faces 20 years of imprisonment.

President U Win Myint and Union Minister U Min Thu of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s ousted National League for Democracy government were also sentenced to three years under the same charges.

People facing increasing hardships

Ordinary people in Myanmar continue to face increasing trouble surviving in post-coup Myanmar due a severely weakened economy.

Reports of people suspected of taking their own lives due to financial problems are on the rise.

Reports of such incidents this week include a mother and her three-year-old child jumping off the Nawaday Bridge in Bago Region, a teacher in Tamu Township, Sagaing Region attempting suicide, a man jumping off a pedestrian bridge in Yangon, and another man jumping into Yangon’s Inya Lake.

Reports of such incidents appear to be rising the most in Myanmar’s urban areas.

Countryside in ashes

Even as the whole country reels from economic hardship, certain parts of the country face additional suffering due to the military’s brutal actions.

According to monitoring group Data for Myanmar, large swathes of Sagaing Region has been reduced to ash as a result of junta forces setting fire to villages while trying to subdue resistance forces.

Data for Myanmar says that Sagaing Region has the highest number of homes destroyed by the military. The group says that between February 1, 2021 and August 25 of this year, 20,153 homes were burned by the military in Yin Mar Bin, Salingyu, Ye-U, Myaung, Myinmu, Mawlaik, Chaung-U, Kyunhla, Tigyaing, Katha, Kawlin, Monywa, Tamu, Banmauk, Pinlebu, and Indaw.

In Rakhine State meanwhile, fighting has flared again after an uneasy ceasefire that had been in place since 2020 ended recently.

Clashes began occurring early in August, and more intense fighting broke out between the Arakan Army (AA) armed ethnic group and the military this week.

Reports emerged on Friday of the junta launching airstrikes near the border with Bangladesh after the AA took over a police outpost in Maungdaw Township on the Bangladeshi border in northern Rakhine State.

Local news reports say that the AA seized the police outpost on Wednesday, killing 19 policemen and seizing equipment, including firearms, in the process.

In other parts of the state, clashes have taken place around Maungdaw, Rathedaung, Mrauk-U, and Paletwa in neighbouring Chin State. Reports say the military has been firing artillery indiscriminately, hitting two monasteries and killing a five-year-old child and two adults.

Junta forces in Mrauk-U are reported to have fired on the villages of Kinseik, Lakka, Buyet Mahnyoe, Outthakan, Kato, Waithali, and Chaungna.

Elsewhere, Kayin State is reported to have seen the highest number of clashes in the country between junta troops and resistance forces.

The think tank Institute for Strategy and Policy Myanmar says in a report that Kayin State has seen at least 3,993 clashes since the military seized power in Myanmar.

Parallel education system gains recognition

An educational institution set up for people who do not wish to participate in the junta-controlled school system has gained recognition in the US.

Free Online Educational Institution Myanmar or FOEIM was initially set up to provide schooling for students after the formal education system in Myanmar shut down due the first the COVID pandemic and the military takeover.

FOEIM offers classes online for primary and secondary school students and is now calling for students to enrol for the 2022-2023 academic year, which begins this month.

Initially offering classes for free, the institution is expected to charge fees under the guidelines of the National Unity Government.

Burma Associated Press

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