Burmese Army Research Articles

Behavior Logic of Burmese Army Taking over Power in 2021——Based on Cost-Benefit Analysis

Since Myanmar started the process of transforming its political system, the country has progressively developed a political structure of dual power centers (Diarchy), with the NLD and the military taking turns holding the reins of power. Both sides are engaged in what might be described as a a military-political game, and fight without breaking. However, on February 1, 2021, when the new federal parliament of Myanmar conducted its first meeting, the Myanmar military decided to take over the rule, and the country entered a one-year state of emergency, known as the "February 1" Incident. As a result of this action by Myanmar’s military, a political environment that was stable has been disrupted. The causes are discussed in academic circles. There are objective reasons that the development and changes of political environment at home and abroad have greatly reduced the political space of the Burmese army, and there are subjective reasons that Min Onlai’s personal political ambition or his fear of war crimes trial after retirement should not be underestimated. This instance of political power seizure has been researched by scholars. there is no dearth of explanatory power, yet there are still some flaws. Therefore, this paper based on a cost-benefit analysis conducted from the viewpoint of the Burmese military, that the cost of taking over the regime is less than its benefit. Therefore, when the net income is positive, there is a high probability of taking over the regime.

‘Politicide’ and the Myanmar coup

Can the 2021 Myanmar coup be understood as part of a broader campaign by the Burmese army to commit ‘politicide’? The recent wave of violent raids, detentions and extrajudicial killings taking place across Myanmar is part of a long‐standing pattern of systematic violence perpetrated against political groups and social movements that challenge military control and dominance. The author reviews the history of persecution directed at the National League for Democracy (NLD), the 88 Generation, All Burma Federation of Student Unions (ABFSU) and others who took part in the Burmese democracy movement. The author also reports findings from a multi‐year ethnography she conducted with a community of activists and former political prisoners. She observes that, like ethnic and religious groups, this political community possesses stable, characteristic features, which are transmitted intergenerationally. She advocates for use of the term ‘politicide’ to understand both the recent coup and the history of violence perpetrated against the NLD, 88 Generation ABSFU and other groups inside Myanmar.

Generations of Stateless People: Many Years of The Rohingya’s Personal Security at Risk and the Support of the EU

The Rohingya is an ethnic-religious Muslim minority that has struggled with serious human rights violations for decades. Indian migration to Burma, stimulated by British colonial rule, is pointed to as the main cause of the Muslim-Buddhist conflict. Although Indians in Burma currently constitute a fraction of the population (2.3%), resentment remained. The aim of the article is to analyze the threats to many aspects of the personal security of the Rohingya population. It is one of the most populous groups of stateless persons in the world; moreover, since the 1960s, this ethnic group has experienced oppression on a huge scale: from restrictions related to work and movement as well as difficult access to health care and education, through deprivation of civil rights , to physical violence and even death. All this is happening in the 21st century in front of the world. In order to better understand the Rohingya conflict with the Burmese army, the historical context and the course of the conflict were presented. The assistance activities of the European Union and possible solutions to this humanitarian crisis were also indicated.

THE ROHINGYA GENOCIDE AND THE CONSEQUENT INFLUX OF REFUGEES INTO BANGLADESH AND FIND WAYS TO SOLVE ITS PROBLEMS

Rohingya is the name of a persecuted and oppressed nation of the world. Ethnic genocide against the Rohingya is not a new issue, the planned attack by the Burmese army on the Rohingya dates back to the 1960s. As a result of a new level of attack on August 25, 2017, about seven to eight lakh Rohingya refugees have been forced to flee in Bangladesh. Rohingyas have also been subjected to genocide, rape, torture and attacks from a section of Buddhist society in Myanmar. The main purposes of this study are to find out the causes of Rohingya genocide and the consequent influx of refugees into Bangladesh. The present study is based on intensive analysis of secondary data. The sources of secondary data are books, journals etc. It focuses on the Rohingya citizenship issue in Myanmar, its root causes, the persecution of the Rohingya and their socio-economic conditions. Reviewing all aspects of the problem, several solutions have been mentioned in the present paper.

Ethnic Persecution

The world has praised Burma for certain social, economic and political reforms taking place in central Burma since 2011 and the present administration continues to assure the world that the process of democratization and liberalization in the country is irreversible. However, the Christian Kachin in the northern corner of Burma continue to face greater oppression, persecution and brutalization which has been terribly but freely perpetrated and perpetuated by the Burmese army since June 2011. The main thesis of this article is that the church in Burma is entrusted with the divine mandate, authority and obligation to responsibly show their firm solidarity with their Kachin brothers and sisters persecuted by the Burmese military. It is the mission of the church to defend the oppressed against injustice, oppression and violence and to encourage an active and prophetic stance toward creating justice and equality between ethnic groups in the country.

Twenty Litres of Tears - the Karen journey from Burma to Ireland

The journey of the Karen community from Burma to Ireland highlights an extraordinary story of survival, courage and the depths of human endurance in the face of adversity. Forced to flee their deeply divided and war- torn homeland, ninety seven Karen people arrived in Ireland in 2007 to begin a new life, only to be faced with the new challenges of adjusting into a modern, western society. This paper wishes to explore their transition and integration experiences on this difficult journey while also highlighting the nature of conflict faced by Karen people in their native Burma. In order to gain insight into the Karen experience, both primary and secondary research is presented, highlighting common themes around the immigrant perspective. The findings of this paper reveal the unique lived experiences of these individuals. A violent homeland is depicted with many living in fear of the Burmese army. The participants escape to Refugee camps on the Thai Burma border is referred to, highlighting the difficult choices forced upon these individuals. Their triumph over adversity is discussed in their journey to freedom and a new life in Ireland. However new challenges are faced in Ireland such as language barriers, education and for some, discrimination. Attempts to face these new challenges are addressed with reference to the support structures available to the Karen in Ireland.

Sacred spaces of Karen Refugees and humanitarian aid across the Thailand-Burma Border

In this article, I demonstrate that the Karen National Union (KNU) was able to manipulate and politicise humanitarian aid in the Thailand-Burma borderland. I contend that in the context of the civil war in eastern Burma, Protestant Christianity provides a crucial vehicle for political mobilisation. The article shows that refugee camps in the Thai borderland become centres of proselytisation, andthat Protestant evangelical and missionary networks open up passages across the Thai-Burmese border. The article thus considers a case where a homeland is constructed in the liminal space between two nations. Illegal emergency aid that doubles as missionary project reinforces the image of a helpless victim being vandalized by evil Burmese army.

From Gold Leaf to Buddhist Hagiographies: Contact with Regions to the East Seen in Late Burmese Murals

In 1767 the Burmese army sacked the Thai city of Ayutthaya, and multitudes of people were captured and relocated to the Burmese central zone, including artists and theatrical performers. This event has been considered seminal in the emergence of Thai influences on Burmese art, including mural painting. Yet, Burmese deportations of people from the Thai, Lan Na, Sipsong Panna, and Shan States regions occurred on a number of occasions prior to the late eighteenth century attack. And, trade networks and religious exchanges between monasteries formed alternative routes of communication between Burma, Ayutthaya, Lan Na, Sipsong Panna, and the Shan States. Unsurprisingly, such variant interactions had an impact on artistic production in Burma prior to the destruction of Ayutthaya and the relocation of artists to the Ava region. The information utilized in Burmese murals ranges from central Thai elements of style and dress to the narratives and methods of religious practice found particularly in Tai regions. This paper explores these aspects in Burmese mural paintings from the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries in order to suggest the extent and nature of this impact, as well as the various means – social, religious, political – by which it came about. The murals ultimately present a view of Burma readily absorbing external material due in part to shared religious beliefs and fluid political relationships in the region.

Bamboo People (review)

Reviewed by: Bamboo People Elizabeth Bush Perkins, Mitali . Bamboo People. Charlesbridge, 2010. 272p. ISBN 978-1-58089-328-2 $16.95 Ad Gr. 5-7. The career dreams of fifteen-year-old Chiko seem to be over when a group registration session for prospective teachers turns out to be an ambush for abducting new recruits into the Burmese army. The genteelly raised doctor's son is ill prepared to deal with the rigors of army life, and he quickly becomes a target for a sadistic officer. With the aid of Tai, an orphaned street boy who wants only to escape and protect his young sister, Chiko and his group of recruits toughen up and cleverly accomplish all of "Captain Evil's" nearly impossible assignments. Chiko, in turn, [End Page 88] teaches Tai to read and write, a skill which ultimately separates the two young men; Tai is sent back to the city as a clerk, while Chiko is sent, unarmed, on a mission to wipe out a nest of rebelling Karenni, an ethnic group putting up fierce resistance to the ruling Burmese. Chiko steps on a land mine, and as he blacks out, the narration shifts to Tu Reh, a sixteen-year-old Karenni on a mission with his father to resupply rebels hiding in the jungle. They come upon critically wounded Chiko, and Tu Reh, charged by his father to decide how to handle the young prisoner, resists his initial impulse to shoot the enemy. Bringing Chiko back to the refugee camp for treatment, however, calls Tu Reh's loyalties into question among some of the Karenni. Political background is occasionally forced ("Father used to tell me about people like the . . . Karenni. The government is trying to get rid of them and take their land, but they have a right to be a part of our country. After all, they've lived here for centuries"). Tu Reh's narration sometimes takes on the tone of a B-movie: "It's time to act—time to grow up and become a man. A man for the Karenni." Most problematic, though, is the improbable tidying of loose ends, in which all outcomes are far too rosy for even the most optimistic readers to expect in a war story. Still, the political struggles of Myanmar (Perkins explains in an appended note her decision to use the term "Burma") are worth examining, and readers not ready for the harsher detail of boy soldiers in Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone (BCCB 5/07) will find Chiko and Tu Reh's adventures intriguing. Copyright © 2010 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois

Higher Education for Displaced Persons on the Thai-Burmese Border Areas

The internationalization of education has been promoted as a method to prepare students for working and living in a world where national borders are becoming increasingly porous. Being prepared to work and live internationally is especially important for refugee students who do not at present have the option to return to their land of birth. Currently there are approximately 150,000 refugees who are living in closed camps communities along the Thai-Burmese border. Scenarios and recommendations concerning refugees attending international university programs in Thailand, bringing distance education programs into the camps, allowing refugees to attend Thai institutions of higher education in the vicinity of the camps, and upgrading existing educational programs are presented. It is felt that it is possible to provide quality higher education to motivated students currently living in a refugee situation if the international community and international educational community provide the expertise and funding to make this objective a reality. L’objectif principal de l’internalisation de l’éducation est de préparer les étudiants à travailler et à vivre dans un monde où les frontières nationales deviennent de plus en plus poreuses. Ce talent international est d’autant plus important pour les étudiants réfugiés qui ne peuvent pas, pour l’instant, rentrer dans leurs pays d’origine. À ce jour, il existe environ 150.000 réfugiés qui vivent dans des camps communautaires tout au long de la frontière thaïlandaise et birmane. Cet article décrit des scénarios et des recommandations de réfugiés qui participent à des programmes universitaires internationaux dans des institutions thaïlandaises. Ces universités offrent des programmes à distance dans les camps et donnent ainsi la possibilité à d’autres réfugiés d’étudier ou de revaloriser leurs diplômes et leurs connaissances. Il paraît être tout à fait possible d’offrir une éducation universitaire de qualité afin de motiver des étudiants qui doivent vivre dans des situations de réfugiés si la communauté internationale, ainsi que la communauté éducative internationale fournissent l’expertise et les financements adéquats afin de rendre ce projet réel.

Lawrence E. Mitchell, Corporate Irresponsibility–America’s Newest Export

Why is corporate irresponsibility “America’s newest export?” Of the world’s 100 largest multinational corporations, forty-seven are headquartered within the European Union. Forty-six are headquartered in the United States. Is Professor Mitchell telling us that the Anglo-Dutch Unilever is more responsible than, say, Procter & Gamble? Is Total-Fina, the French petroleum giant, more responsible than Chevron-Texaco or Exxon-Mobil? After all, it is Total, and not the U.S.-based Unocal, that is the operator of the Myanmar pipeline with which Mitchell opens his book, as an example of corporate irresponsibility. International human rights organizations are suing on behalf of Myanmar citizens brutalized when Total and Unocal used the Burmese army as a subcontractor to provide security on the pipeline project.

La robe et le fusil : le bouddhisme et la dictature militaire en Birmanie

Since 1962, the Burmese army has imposed a dictatorship justified as the Burmese Way to Socialism till 1988, and then inclined towards a market economy and based on traditional Buddhist values. Laden with honors and prebends, the Buddhist Sangha hierarchy overlooks deteriorating religious ethics and supports the junta's policy of exploiting the country's natural and human ressources. The population, imbued as it is with religious values, is caught between the traditional moral order preached by the monks and the political order imposed by the military. Religion is a fundamental factor in legitimating the junta's power. It inhibits yearnings for democracy and helps perpetuate the country's social and economic underdevelopment.

Power, territoriality and cross‐border insecurity: Regime security as an aspect of Burma's refugee crisis

At the time of writing there are approximately 120,000 refugees from Burma along the border with Thailand, mostly on the Thai side. In addition there are an unknown number of escapees and unforced migrants who are working in Thailand and elsewhere. Along the Burma‐Bangladesh border there was an even larger transboundary movement of Rohingyas during the early 1990s. The total number of Rohingya refugees was over 250,000 at its peak. We focus on some of the critical security issues underlying the refugee crisis, particularly in relation to the on‐going state‐societal and ethno‐territorial conflicts. Central to an understanding of the recent refugee problems is a consideration of how the Burmese military regimes security concerns have territorial and ethnic dimensions. Certainly the coercive territoriality employed by the Burmese army has transformed the political geography of several borderlands areas in recent years. In turn the very existence of a significant transborder refugee population raises many questions relating to inter‐state relations, the intemationalisation of ethnic conflicts, regional security concerns and the role of international bodies, non‐governmental organisations and transnational corporations in relation to Burma's security dilemmas.

Destruction of Democracy: The Tragic Case of Burma

P erhaps the world has seen too much in recent years. Massacre and repression in China, war in the Middle East, the breakup of the communist empire in Europe, and the end of the cold war have been striking events that have riveted the world's attention. In the process, however, the world has overlooked the abuses conducted against its people by Burma's military government for almost five years.' In 1988, large popular pro-democracy demonstrations by millions of Burmese galvanized the country's people with hopes for change after decades of economically disastrous and politically repressive military rule by General Ne Win. Their hopes for democracy were dashed that September after the Burmese army crushed the demonstrations with bloody force that killed and wounded thousands of unarmed civilians, and a new version of military dictatorship was installed. Since then, harsh military rule has stamped out most vestiges of pro-democracy political opposition and terrified the population into submission. Elections in May 1990 resulted in a landslide victory for the political opposition. However, the military government ignored the election results and has proceeded at its own pace to reorganize the national government and political structure. The Burmese military junta was dismayed by the award of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize to opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. The award cited him for representing all those peoples of the world who strive peacefully to bring democracy and freedom through nonviolent change. How did all of this happen? Why did the Burmese military leadership miscalculate? Are there any prospects for democracy in Burma? A review of

Myanmar in 1990: The Unconsummated Election

After the Burmese army (Tatmadaw) seized direct power from its faltering civilian cohorts in a coup in September 1988, it produced as Declaration No. 1 of the newly established State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) a unilateral political compact. It vowed that the military did not wish to cling to State power for long, and the council chairman, Senior General Saw Maung, enumerated the de facto government's four tasks: (1) maintain law and order; (2) provide secure and smooth transportation; (3) strive for better conditions of food, clothing, and shelter for the people and render necessary assistance to the private sector and the cooperatives to do so, and after these are accomplished; (4) hold multiparty democratic general elections. The general noted that the Tatmadaw continue to carry out . .. national defense ... and the maintenance of law and order after handing over power to the government that emerges after the free and fair general elections, but long-term improvements in health, education, and other social activities would be carried out by that elected government.' The four-task formula was often repeated during the 20 months leading up to the election of May 27, 1990. It was questionable whether the election was free as the major opposition leaders were successively arrested and campaigning was severely restricted in both form and content, but it was a substantially fair poll in that the leading opposition party, the National League for Democracy, was able to win over 80% of the seats contested against 2% for the parties

Economic and Political Explanations of Human Rights Violations

G OVERNMENTS organize police forces and armies to protect their citizens, build schools and hospitals to educate and care for them, and provide financial assistance for the old and unemployed. But governments also kill, torture, and imprison their citizens. This dark side of government knows no geographic, economic, ideological, or political boundary. In the Middle East, for example, Iraq has morbidly placed a welcome doormat at the entrance to its torture chamber-a place where are burned with cigarettes and electric hot plates, where electric shocks are administered to them, and where they are hanged from the ceiling. In Central America, the government of Guatemala tolerates the torture and killing of three church workers who were assisting refugees. In Africa, the Cameroons allows eight to die of malnutrition; South Africa, through its policy of apartheid, systematically violates the rights of its nonwhite citizens. In Asia, Burmese army units operating in Karen state use local civilians as minesweepers. In Eastern Europe, the Soviet Union confines dissenters to psychiatric hospitals. In Western Europe, the residents of Northern Ireland are subjected to trials that fail to conform to international standards, and civilians are shot by the security forces.' The list goes on. Unfortunately, this type of governmental behavior is-even in the late 20th century-a dismal characteristic of contemporary politics. Most of the world's countries hold some prisoners of conscience or detain po-

Burma in 1976: The Beginnings of Change?

THE GOVERNMENT OF Burma has long been accustomed to the onslaughts of a large variety of insurgent forces, but in 1976 ominous signs of opposition to President Ne Win's leadership appeared within the Burmese army itself. There were also indications of strain within the Burma Socialist Programme Party (BSPP), the country's sole legal political party. Economic issues appeared to be at the root of the tensions within the army and the party. In the case of the army, officers who attempted a coup in July are said to have denounced the economic system,' while in the case of the BSPP, doctrinaire socialist elements may prevent implementation, if not the adoption, of measures essential to the revival of the seriously ailing Burmese economy. On September 10 began the trial of a group of young Burmese army officers accused of plotting to assassinate the President and stage a coup, allegedly the first such attempt by members of the army since Ne Win himself came to power by a military coup in March 1962. General San Yu, Secretary of the BSPP and of the State Council, and Colonel Tin Oo, Director General of the National Intelligence Board, were also alleged to have been targets for assassination. Two officers were accused of high treason and five others of encouraging them to commit acts of treason. All were accused of having sought to ruin the BSPP, thus violating the Vanguard Party Safeguarding Law. What gave this assassination and coup trial particular importance was the alleged role of former Defense Minister and Army Chief of Staff, General Tin U. who appeared in the dock along with the accused coup plotters. He was charged with misprision of treason, i.e., of knowing about the plotters' acts of treason but failing to report

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 3)

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 3)

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 2)

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 2)

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 1)

A History of the Burmese Army (Part 1)