On the 1st, six months after the Myanmar military coup broke out, residents of Kalai, Sagaing Province, hold a street demonstration demanding democracy. Myanmar Now Capture
Myanmar’s military coup d’état recently urgently amended the anti-terrorism law to stop the democratization movement that has rekindled the war. They are threatening to sentence them to seven years in prison just for asking them to participate in the democratization struggle, which they call ‘act of terrorism’. The military also remained silent about the Myanmar special envoy of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), who was appointed after more than three months. The intention is to delay diplomatic intervention as much as possible by ‘taking time’ and to further dominate the state of fear.
According to local media such as Irrawaddy on the 4th, Supreme Commander Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the military, said on the 2nd, “A person who solicited, persuaded, propaganda or solicited persons to participate in a terrorist group or activity was sentenced to 7 years in prison. I finally signed the amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act.” This is an increase of four years from the previous three-year prison sentence. Terrorist groups include the National Unity Government (NUG), the center of local democratic forces, and civil resistance groups across the country. In particular, the revised law is being opposed by the democratic camp in that prosecution is highly likely to lead to a severe sentence. This is because the revised law is a structure in which the accused, who is a non-legal, must directly prove his innocence against the court, rather than the method in which the court convicts if the prosecution substantiates the charges against the object of indictment.
Locals are looking for the reason for the sudden revision of the anti-terrorism law in the sense of crisis of the military. It is said that the military drew a hard card to block the movement of the NUG and the militia since the 1st, six months after the outbreak of the coup. In fact, if the amendment to the Anti-Terrorism Act is invoked, it is highly likely that those who want to join the NUG and the militia will have trouble understanding the situation through the media and social networking services (SNS). Some analysts also suggest that the fact that the NUG recently sent a message to the militia in all parts of the country, “Let’s start an armed uprising at a specific time at the same time” has accelerated the military’s decision.
Eriwan Yusov, 2nd Foreign Minister of Brunei, appointed as ASEAN Special Envoy to Myanmar. Wikimedia capture
The military does not seem to give much importance to the appointment of an ASEAN special envoy to resolve the Myanmar crisis. In a joint statement on the same day, ASEAN foreign ministers appointed Brunei’s second foreign minister, Eriwan Yusov (the first foreign minister concurrently held a post by the King of Brunei) as special envoy. The power struggle in ASEAN over the friendly relations with the Myanmar military was eventually compromised by the card of ‘the foreign minister of the presiding country’.
A local source said, “The military preferred Wirasakdi Putrakul, a former deputy foreign minister of Thailand, who is close to them, as a special envoy,” said a local source. In relation to this, Commander Hlaing briefly mentioned in a speech to the public on the 6th month of the coup d’etat on the 1st that “ASEAN recently made a new proposal for a special envoy candidate, and discussions have stopped.”
Hanoi= Jaeho Jung correspondent next88@hankookilbo.com
Jakarta = Go Chanyu correspondent jutdae@hankookilbo.com
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