As the Burmese military coup leaders escalated repression against the democracy uprising in the country this week, two Burmese union federations this week called for international pressure on their government. The Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM) is asking for international sanctions against the regime.

U.S. President Biden’s executive order freezing U.S. $1 billion of Central Bank of Myanmar foreign currency reserves at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb. 10 was a first step to keep cash out of the hands of the military that requires other countries to follow up, activists said.

With further reserves estimated at U.S. $5.7 billion stored in other countries, activists campaigning for justice and accountability for the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar say other countries should follow the Fed and stop the junta from using state funds to blunt the impact of economic sanctions.

U.S. President Biden’s executive order freezing U.S. $1 billion of Central Bank of Myanmar foreign currency reserves at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York on Feb. 10 was a first step to keep cash out of the hands of the military that requires other countries to follow up, activists said.

With further reserves estimated at U.S. $5.7 billion stored in other countries, activists campaigning for justice and accountability for the Feb. 1 coup in Myanmar say other countries should follow the Fed and stop the junta from using state funds to blunt the impact of economic sanctions.

“The military now has control over the Central Bank and the Treasury, and they can repurpose the legitimate revenues of the government for their own use,” said Paul Donowitz, Global Witness’s campaign leader for Myanmar. He noted that soon after the coup, the army detained the Central Bank governor and replaced the bank leadership with their own people.

“The question for the international banks and banking regulators is how they can ensure that Myanmar’s state revenues held in the account of the State cannot be misappropriated by the military,” he added.

A Washington-based trade and commerce expert told RFA that Biden’s executive order cleared the way to target the bank following an attempt to access the $1 billion on Feb. 4 that was blocked by Fed safeguards after triggering a red flag. 

“They made it a point to clarify that entities within the government of Myanmar after the coup d’etat include the Central Bank. That was a very deliberate addition,” the source added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Reuters news agency cited two sources familiar with the transaction in a report on Thursday that said Biden’s executive order was designed to grant the New York Fed the legal authority to hold the $1 billion of Myanmar reserves indefinitely.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimated the country’s gross reserves at $6.7 billion in January.

The Washington banking expert said three Singaporean banks hold the Central Bank of Myanmar’s remaining foreign reserves.

“The Central Bank of Myanmar manages its foreign reserves through its reserve accounts in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the three main commercial banks of Singapore, namely DBS [Development Bank of Singapore], UOB [United Overseas Bank], and OCBC [Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation],” said the expert.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in a Feb. 23 statement said that its “regular surveillance of the banking system has not found significant funds from Myanmar companies and individuals in banks in Singapore.”

“MAS expects financial institutions to remain vigilant to any transactions that could pose risks to the institution, including dealings with companies and individuals subject to financial sanctions by foreign jurisdictions,” MAS said.

RFA sought further comment from the MAS on the three banks, but received no reply.

RFA’s expert called the statement by MAS “evasive” – saying it covers only “Myanmar companies and individuals” and not Myanmar government funds or the Central Bank, which is a government entity whose independence and integrity were compromised by the coup and military appointments.

“If Singapore’s monetary authorities and banks are seeing suspicious transactions, they should definitely take action to prevent the looting of the State resources from Myanmar. They should respond to these suspicious transactions by flagging them, freezing the account, and investigating them,” said Donowitz.

Yadanar Maung—a spokesperson for the rights group Justice For Myanmar—said “Without an immediate response now, the military will continue to commit atrocities against the people and transfer assets into their private hands.”

“The international community and the banking industry must support the people’s struggle by taking immediate action,” she said.

Attempts to contact the newly appointed officials of Central Bank of Myanmar for comment were unsuccessful.

Reported and translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung for RFA’s Myanmar Service. Written in English by Richard Finney.

UNICEF-supported polio vaccinators go door-to-door in Pakistan, protecting children from deadly disease. (and are sometimes murdered for their work by fundamentalists)

UNICEF-supported polio vaccinators go door-to-door in Pakistan, protecting children from deadly disease.

A teenager was shot dead after taunting soldiers and at least six anti-junta protesters were injured Tuesday when security forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and gunfire to break up demonstrations across Myanmar.

More than a month after a military coup deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, defiant anti-coup protesters marched through the streets of cities across Myanmar, despite the use of lethal force by police and soldiers that killed an estimated 18 people on Sunday.

A teenager was shot dead after taunting soldiers and at least six anti-junta protesters were injured Tuesday when security forces used tear gas, stun grenades, and gunfire to break up demonstrations across Myanmar.

More than a month after a military coup deposed the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, defiant anti-coup protesters marched through the streets of cities across Myanmar, despite the use of lethal force by police and soldiers that killed an estimated 18 people on Sunday.

In the central region of Magway, 16-year-old Thiha Zaw was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of three military trucks after boys he was with shouted anti-junta slogans and flashed a three-finger salute of defiance at the troops, a witness told RFA. The soldiers then loaded Thiha Zaw’s body onto their truck and left the scene, and the army later informed villagers to retrieve his body.

RFA has confirmed 24 deaths across Myanmar since the military takeover on Feb. 1.

In Yangon, police and soldiers fired shots into the air to scare off protesters in the morning, but resorted to using excess force to break up the rallies in the afternoon.

Violent crackdowns occurred at the city’s Hledan and Myae Ni Gone junctions, popular protest sites where two demonstrators were arrested. Police and soldiers used rubber bullets, smoke bombs, and slingshots to disperse protesters on Kamayut Station Road on the outskirts of the city.

In Kalemyo, in northwestern Myanmar’s Sagaing region, four people were injured in a crackdown, with two of them in critical condition, witnesses said, adding that police used live rounds to quell protests.

“They first threw stun grenades at us, and this was followed by three or four rounds of tear gas,” said a protester, adding that residents and students told police they would take down their street barriers to open the road they had blocked.

“But they ignored our requests and tried to grab our makeshift shields away,” he said “Some people were recording them as they tried to break us up. When we resisted and fought back, they began shooting.”

In Dawei, capital of Tanintharyi region in southern Myanmar, protesters marched through the streets to the house of Lwin Oo, a demonstrator who died of gunshot wounds on Feb. 28, and were set upon by security forces.

“We were paying our respects to the man who died the other day during the protest, and the police followed us to the house and sprayed tear gas to disperse us,” said Dawei resident Min Lwin Oo.

In the Irrawaddy River town of Magway, authorities on Monday released 19 of the 57 protesters arrested on Feb. 28 and charged the others with incitement, a charge that carries a maximum two-year sentence or a fine or both.

In Hpa-an, capital of eastern Kayin state, locals said they postponed their protest plans for a day because of the huge presence of soldiers and police in the city. Police set up a checkpoint at the bridge at the city’s main entrance and searched photo studios and shops that produce vinyl protest posters used by demonstrators.

“The police came to look for evidence to see whether we were producing vinyl posters or the plastic shields that the protesters were using,” said one shopkeeper. “I heard they searched all the shops in town.”

A woman offers prayers and alms to Buddhist monks in the name of anti-junta protesters shot dead by police at Hledan junction in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, March 2, 2021. Credit: RFA

Reporters locked up

Similar protests continued in other towns across Myanmar, including Pathein and Myitkyina and in the Chin state towns of Mindat, Matupi, Htantalan and Hakha. Authorities have charged three protesters arrested in the Chin town of Falam on Feb. 28 with incitement.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group, said that as of Tuesday, 1,294 people had been arrested, charged, or sentenced in relation to the military coup, with 988 still being held and about 300 released.

The number of arrestees includes 29 reporters picked up across the country since the Feb. 1 coup. Some of them have been released, though others face charges.

An RFA tally indicates that three reporters have been charged with criminal defamation for covering the anti-coup protests, and about 10 others are in detention, some of whom are in Yangon’s infamous Insein Prison on the city’s outskirts. The whereabouts of some of the others are unknown.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders said Tuesday there are at least 11 reporters currently being detained on charges under Section 505(a) of Myanmar’s Penal Code for allegedly spreading false information. If found guilty, they could face up to two years in prison.

On Monday, the Committee to Protect Journalists called on the junta to immediately release all journalists detained for their work and to allow reporters to cover protests without fear of reprisal.

Police and soldiers in seven military vehicles arrested DVB news reporter Aung Kyaw at his home in Myeik Monday night without giving a reason, his wife said.

“We do not know where he has been taken. … When they found him, some of the soldiers said he was the guy who was doing a live broadcast in the afternoon,” she said. “I believe they want to put the country’s media under the military administration.”

Earlier that day, Aung Kyaw did a live interview with protesters in a city ward, who were injured during a crackdown by police and soldiers.

A soldier aims his rifle at anti-junta protesters in Sanchuang township in Myanmar’s largest-city, Yangon, March 2, 2021. Credit: RFA

‘A lawless state’

Five other reporters — Kay Zun Nway of Myanmar Now, Aung Ye of 7-Day Daily, Thein Zaw from the Associated Press, Ye Myo Khant from the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency, and Hein Pyae Zaw of Zeegwet News — remain in detention after their arrests on Feb. 27 while covering protests.

Nila Khine, a high court lawyer who has taken up their cases, said that Kay Zun Nway was being held at the Sangyaung police station in Myeik on defamation charges.

“We already have a remand for her,” the attorney said. “I don’t think she will be brought to court. The case will be heard by video conference.”

The Foreign Correspondents Club said Thein Zaw also faces defamation charges, while J Paing of the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency said photographer Ye Myo Khant faces defamation charges.

On Feb. 24, reporters Tin Mar Swe of MCN-TV news and Khin May San of The Voice went to a police station in the town of Monywa, Sagaing region, for information about a video shot two days earlier in which local residents questioned a suspicious person in their ward at night. But instead, the two reporters were arrested on defamation charges.

On Feb. 28, authorities arrested freelance reporter Shin Moe Myint, Kyaw Ne Min of the Choon Journal, Ye Yint Tun of Pathein-based Than Daw Sint News, and Lin Tun of Ramanya news agency. Shin Moe Myint was freed Tuesday morning, according to police.

Police Colonel Tun Shwe of the Ayeyarwady region police headquarters told RFA that Ye Yint Tun, currently held in Pathein Prison, had been charged with defamation, but declined to say why he had been charged or who had opened the case against him.

“We want him to be released,” said Ye Yint Tun’s sister. “He’s a journalist and he’s doing his job. I don’t think he is in the wrong, so he should be released immediately.”

Police arrested Salai David of the Chinland Post in Hakha on Monday but released him Tuesday afternoon.

“We must realize that the current situation is a lawless state, and we cannot have protection from the law,” said Zayar Hlaing, a veteran journalist and former member of the Myanmar Press Council. “So, reporters must be on alert at all times and think of their safety first. Since we cannot have protection of the law we have to run if necessary.”

A Myanmar citizen touches a makeshift memorial for an anti-junta protester shot dead by police at Hledan junction in Yangon, March 2, 2021. Credit: RFA

Civil servants suspended

The junta meanwhile suspended 12 tax and revenue workers under the Ministry of Planning, Finance and Industry for joining the civil disobedience movement on Feb. 26, a suspended deputy customs official told RFA on Tuesday.

The 12 civil servants are customs inspectors, deputy custom inspectors, accountants, and clerks, said the official who declined to be named for safety reasons.

An internal memo issued on Feb. 26 said the 12 were found to have failed to perform their duties without good reason in violation of regulations, he said. It was signed by Aung Khine, the department director, on behalf of the director general of the Customs Department.

“I believe this move is to make an example of us so to show other employees that those who join the movement will face this kind of punishment,” he said. “It’s like a deterrent for others to stop them from joining the civil disobedience movement.”

“During my 14 years of service with the department I have seen many such oppressive actions from these ex-military officials,” added the customs official.

Government employees across the country who have stopped going to work in protest against the military regime increasingly are being fired and their families evicted from government housing. Some have been charged with violating government regulations.

The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, a national legislative body led by National League for Democracy legislators elected in the 2020 elections, has said that striking civil servants will be able to return to their jobs when the elected civilian government returns to power.

Several police officers have joined forces with striking civil servants and protesters to denounce the military regime.

Tin Min Tun, acting police major at the news and information unit of the Yangon Region Police Force, joined the anti-coup movement on Sunday, live-streaming on social media interviews he conducted with fellow officers.

He asked the officers how they could expect young people to want to join the police force after officers had committed crimes ordered by the leaders of the coup, and how they could face their children and grandchildren after committing crimes and dealing brutally with protesters.

Tin Min Tun said he joined the civil disobedience movement because he could no longer tolerate what was happening.

He also said that the image of the police force had become tarnished because officers have been sacrificed by the military to commit violent crimes on its behalf.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.

By Apache StrongholdCensored NewsMarch 1, 2021Contacts:  Dr. Wendsler Nosie, Sr. Apache Stronghold, apaches4ss@yahoo.comMichael V. Nixon, J.D., michaelvnixon@yahoo.com FOREST SERVICE PUTS SACRED OAK FLAT LAND GIVEAWAY ON TEMPORARY HOLD “FOR SEVERAL MONTHS.”OAK FLAT, Ariz. – The Forest Service announced this morning that it will “rescind” January 15, 2021, Final Environmental Impact Statement

Deaths reportedly occurred as a result of live ammunition fired into crowds in Yangon, Mandalay, Dawei and Myeik in the southeastern Tanintharyi region, the central regional capital, Bago and Pakokku in the western Magway region, it said.

RFA’s Burmese Service was able to confirm through witnesses and demonstrators 15 protester deaths — four in Yangon, three in Mandalay, four in Dawei, two protesters in Bago, and one each on Mawlamyine, the Mon State capital, and Pakokku.

​​​​​At least 18 people were killed when security forces fired on protesters in cities across Myanmar on Sunday, the bloodiest day in a month of mass demonstrations against the military’s ouster of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Capping a weekend of escalating violence against opponents of the Feb. 1 coup, police in riot gear and uniformed soldiers shot flash-bang and stun grenades and fired live and rubber bullets at protesters, causing fatalities in at least six major cities, including Yangon and Mandalay.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said it had received “credible information” that at least 18 people were killed and more 30 were wounded, in the highest single-day death toll since the military takeover brought hundreds of thousands of protesters into streets across the country of 54 million people.

“We strongly condemn the escalating violence against protests in Myanmar and call on the military to immediately halt the use of force against peaceful protestors,” the rights office said in a statement.

The casualties occurred when “police and military forces have confronted peaceful demonstrations, using lethal force and less-than-lethal force,” the UN statement said.  

Deaths reportedly occurred as a result of live ammunition fired into crowds in Yangon, Mandalay, Dawei and Myeik in the southeastern Tanintharyi region, the central regional capital, Bago and Pakokku in the western Magway region, it said.

RFA’s Burmese Service was able to confirm through witnesses and demonstrators 15 protester deaths — four in Yangon, three in Mandalay, four in Dawei, two protesters in Bago,  and one each on Mawlamyine, the Mon State capital, and Pakokku.

Protesters take cover as they clash with riot police officers during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 28, 2021. Credit: Reuters

Accountability demands

An activist group called Gen Z Revolt 2021 tweeted that 26 protesters had been killed Sunday, including seven in Myeik and one in Lashio, in northern Shan State.

According to the junta-controlled MRTV on Sunday evening, eight people were killed, with 571 people arrested nationwide. Including 322 in Yangon alone. 

“We are heartbroken to see the loss of so many lives in Myanmar. People should not face violence for expressing dissent against the military coup,” the U.S. Embassy in Yangon said in a statement.

“Targeting of civilians is abhorrent,” the mission added.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said the world must insist on accountability for the deaths, any illegal use of live ammunition by Myanmar security forces, and the violation of basic rights from the deepening crackdown.

“The Myanmar security forces’ clear escalation in use of lethal force in multiple towns and cities across the country in response to mostly peaceful anti-coup protesters is outrageous and unacceptable, and must be immediately halted,” he said in a statement.

“Security forces are also engaged in a widening pattern of arrests, detaining scores with each passing hour,” added Robertson.

Among those arrested as police and soldiers started using more aggressive tactics against protesters Saturday were 13 journalists detained while covering protests.

A security official aims a weapon in a crackdown on protesters at Hledan Junction, in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, Feb. 28, 2021. Credit: RFA

Journalists detained

Eight journalists and photojournalists were picked up Saturday, including Associated Press correspondent Thein Zaw, who remained in custody after two of the eight were released. Another five local journalists were detained in several cities on Sunday, RFA has learned.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a watchdog group, said that as of Sunday, 1,132 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced in relation to the military coup, with 883 still being held or facing outstanding charges. It counted approximately 30 deaths since the coup.

Myanmar state television announced on Saturday that U.N. envoy from the deposed civilian government who made an impassioned appeal Friday for the world body to “use any means necessary to take action” to restore democracy had been fired for betraying the country.

“In addition to the existing support, we need further strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people, and to restore the democracy,” Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun told the 193-member U.N. General Assembly.

Tens of thousands of civil servants across Myanmar who have joined the three-week-old anti-coup civil disobedience movement face increasing pressure from employers who are threatening to fire and sue them for going on strike to support the protests.

The military council says that civil servants have been coerced and agitated to join the movement by disruptive elements.

More than 24,000 employees from 24 government ministries are taking part in the strikes, according to data collected by groups participating in the movement. The strikes have brought nearly all public health services, education, and railway transportation to a halt.

Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Paul Eckert.

Chinese companies have bought up 17 U.K. private schools in the United Kingdom in recent years, sparking fears of expanding Chinese Communist Party (CCP) influence in the country as the schools struggle financially in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, British media reported.

“Hundreds of independent schools left in dire financial straits by the coronavirus pandemic are being targeted by Chinese investors,” the Mail on Sunday newspaper reported at the weekend.

Some of the companies are run by high-ranking members of the ruling Chinese Communist Party, and “seek to expand their influence over Britain’s education system,” the report said.

According to an investigation by the paper, nine of the 17 schools under Chinese control are owned by companies controlled by Chinese entrepreneurs who are also members of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a body which maintains close ties between private sector wealth and the ruling party.

Private schools have been hard-hit by the pandemic, with plummeting enrollments and falling fees as students are sent home for distance-learning, the report said.

Before the pandemic, Bright Scholar — a company owned by the daughter of Chinese property magnate Yang Guoqiang — had already invested in several schools, including Bournemouth Collegiate School and St Michael’s School in Llanelli, Carmarthanshire, the paper said.

Bedstone College in Shropshire and Ipswich High School are owned by London-based asset manager London & Oxford Group, which in turn is backed by China’s Wanda Group conglomerate.

Riddlesworth Hall Preparatory School in Norfolk, attended by Princess Diana, was acquired by the Confucius International Education Group in 2015.

Ray Global Education, which owns two U.K.-based private schools, says the acquisitions were a part of its “Global Campus” project that seeks to promote the CCP’s Belt & Road infrastructure and global influence initiative in the global education sector.

The company’s president Hu Jing told Chinese state-run media in 2019 that he runs the business in accordance with “political laws, educational laws, and economic laws.”

“No matter how international the school is, it is still fundamentally a Chinese school, and it must pay close heed to the political environment,” Hu told journalists.

When his company set up a school in Shanghai, the first thing it did was to set up a CCP committee and choose a party secretary, he said.

British schools a weak link

Wang Jianhong, spokesman for the U.S.-based rights group Humanitarian China, said she was surprised at the sheer scale of Chinese acquisitions in the U.K. private education sector.

“British private schools are a weak link, because there is a need for investment, and the CCP is taking advantage of that,” Wang told RFA.

“There is little awareness of CCP infiltration,” said Wang, who lived in the U.K. for more than a decade.

Wang said any Chinese company investing in the sector would definitely need the backing of the CCP.

“The CCP’s investment in British private education has been on the increase … and there is definitely a CCP background to these companies: how would ordinary Chinese companies manage to buy up U.K. private schools?” she said.

“Compulsory education providers in the U.K. are now owned by enterprises controlled by the CCP, and the worry now is that its ideology will affect what is being taught there,” Wang said.

She said a current review of Confucius Institutes in the U.K. wouldn’t be enough to curb Beijing’s influence.

“Even if you shut down the Confucius Institute, the CCP has other ways in, including the acquisition of private schools,” Wang said. “I don’t think Western countries have yet realized the extent of the CCP’s involvement here.”

‘No idea how to resist’

U.K.-based author Ma Jian said the U.K. government was failing to perceive the risk in allowing such takeovers.

“These British politicians really are idiots,” Ma told RFA. “China is using their economy to gain a political voice, but they have no idea how to resist them.”

He said U.K. educational institutions also have a huge portfolio of investments in China.

“The U.K. has turned itself into a trading outpost of China, not just in terms of business, economy and trade, but also in terms of culture,” Ma said. “[U.K.] universities, research institutes, secondary and primary schools have invested a lot of money in China.”

He said the acquisition of U.K. private schools in entirely in keeping with China’s bid to expand CCP influence around the world under general secretary Xi Jinping.

“This is all about targeting the next generation, educationally speaking,” Ma said.

An employee of a Shanghai-based education-sector investment company, who gave only a nickname An, said there are also strong economic reasons for Chinese companies to be interested in the private education sector in the U.K.

The Hurun Research Institute reported in 2018 that more than 80 percent of China’s wealthiest families plan to send their children to overseas schools, with nearly one third saying they would choose schools in the U.K.

“British brands are also particularly attractive to Chinese parents, who think about the aristocratic British accent and lifestyle,” An told RFA.

According to a 2020 report from the Independent Schools Council (ISC), China has sent more students to private U.K. schools than any other country, a total of 10,864 at the time of the survey.

According to An, a weaker, post-Brexit pound and strong government support are also attractive to Chinese investors and parents alike.

ISC chair Barnaby Lenon told the Times Educational Supplement in 2019 that people should be “jolly pleased” that Chinese investors were buying up U.K. private schools.

“This obviously is the salvation of a small number of these schools. It’s a good thing for those schools because it means they can remain viable,” Lenon said.

Reported by Jane Tang for RFA’s Mandarin Service, and by Yitong Wu and Singman for the Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.

The DREAM Act of 2021 could represent one of the narrower legalization measures with better prospects for passage in a narrowly divided Congress. MPI’s latest estimates of the DREAMers who could gain conditional and then permanent legal status are offered here, as are the share of DREAMers who feature in another ongoing conversation, around essential workers in the U.S. labor market overall as well as in the health-care sector.