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Junta Watch
Min Aung Hlaing at a non secular ceremony for the Maravijaya Buddha Statue on January 27. / MWD
By The Irrawaddy 8 July 2023
Weapons trump welfare
Junta boss Min Aung Hlaing repeatedly instructed his regime’s ministries to tighten their belts at a June 30 cupboard assembly on ‘boosting the nationwide financial system’, regardless that he has spent the most important proportion of nationwide finances on navy expenditures to retain his grip on energy.
Min Aung Hlaing urged his ministers to cut back expenditure out of ‘love for the motherland’. Each the junta chief and his deputy, Soe Win, usually preach financial abstinence at cupboard conferences.
It’s not clear how the ministries have managed to cut back their expenditures so that cash will be diverted to the junta’s battle on civilian and armed opponents. However the US-sanctioned former Nationwide League for Democracy (NLD) lawmaker Daw Thet Thet Khine, who serves as regime’s social welfare minister, has reduce the state pension by half from 120,000 kyats (round US$ 50) per yr to 60,000 kyats.
Launched in 2017-18 underneath the NLD authorities, the pension scheme covers aged residents aged 85 and above.
Min Aung Hlaing is little question cheering Thet Thet Khine for the reduce because it harms the initiative launched underneath the ousted civilian authorities whereas additionally liberating up further navy finances for the regime.
Regime spurned by SE Asian govt
The junta’s international ministry summoned East Timor’s chargé d’affaires to Naypyitaw on Wednesday after the man Southeast Asian nation invited Myanmar’s civilian Nationwide Unity Authorities to the swearing-in of its new authorities on July 1.
U Chan Aye, everlasting secretary of the junta’s international ministry, advised the Timorese diplomat that the NUG is a terrorist group, and invitation to or communication with NUG representatives “abets terrorism and encourages violence within the nation, and infringes worldwide agreements associated to combating terrorism.”
He known as on the East Timor authorities to chorus from making any type of contact with such ‘terrorist teams’ and their representatives.
Regime anger over the East Timor authorities’s invitation got here as no shock.
On June 23, director-general Zaw Phyo Win, the son-in-law of former navy dictator Than Shwe, signed the condolence guide on the East Timor Embassy in Yangon following the demise of the Timorese prime minister’s spouse.
However when the brand new East Timor authorities was sworn in per week later, a Myanmar regime determined for diplomatic recognition was spurned and the NUG invited as an alternative. NUG international minister Daw Zin Mar Aung attended the swearing-in and met with the president of East Timor, who even accepted a portrait of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from her.
Defending the indefensible
Because the United Nations Human Rights Council convened in Geneva to debate human rights violations by Myanmar’s navy regime, junta-appointed international minister Than Swe gave a diplomatic briefing on latest nationwide developments in Yangon on Thursday.
Army graduate Than Swe, who was Myanmar’s ambassador to the US underneath U Thein Sein’s quasi-civilian authorities, repeated what he mentioned at Thai-sponsored casual talks held in June, defending the navy regime, blaming the Folks’s Protection Drive, and insisting the Myanmar navy doesn’t use disproportionate drive however strictly follows Vienna Conference guidelines of engagement.
Nonetheless, his assertion coincided with a junta warplane dropping bombs on a camp for internally displaced folks in Kayah State’s Hpruso, its artillery strike in Sagaing Area’s Wetlet Township that left seven civilians lifeless, and routine arson assaults on villages in the identical area’s Khin-U Township. Meantime, the regime additionally threatened to bomb an impartial faculty in Kachin State’s Hpakant, accusing it of being run by the civilian Nationwide Unity Authorities.
Junta blames financial disaster on ousted govt
The Nationwide League for Democracy’s successes had been a mirage and the financial system is getting higher underneath his rule, the junta boss claims.Learn extra:
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