Crossing the Rubicon in Myanmar, a point of no return (Article)

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NP News – Nov 17

A happy mother on pilgrimage carrying her infant baby on arms and holding hands of toddler paused with big smile for the photo shot on the stairs before boarding the shuttle bus to mountaintop Golden Rock pagoda. Her body suddenly twitched and collapsed like a rag down the staircase amid the hail of bullets leaving her stunned toddler alone. A woman holding smart phone taking picture for them shockingly looks over lifeless bodies of mother and baby sliding down the staircase before running with the crowd. But she turned back to the surviving toddler and carried him to the safety, leaving lifeless bodies of mother and baby on the floor.

Those images are from the CCTV footages of ferry terminal on premises of Golden Rock “Kyaik Htee Yoe” Pagoda which is one of the holiest Shrines for the Myanmar Buddhist, located mythically on the tip of rocky gorge defying gravity and famed to be levitated by holy relics of Lord Buddha enshrined there. The Myanmar Buddhist equivalent of St.Paul Cathedral which is popular destination for the international Buddhist pilgrims.

It was recorded on early morning of 12 October 2022 when Burmese Buddhist are celebrating the end of three months long Lent season and beginning of the pilgrimage. All parts of the CCTV footages clearly described the peaceful morning for the pilgrims on the sanctity of religious premise were destroyed by the unexpected hostilities. There were more than 20 causalities including death of 3 women after shooting which immediately claimed responsible by the ethnic Karen rebel group KNU/KNLA and its ally PDF militia of NUG parallel government that controlled the area. The Christian majority rebel group claimed that they targeted the police guarding the ferry terminal and victims were killed by the returning fire of police but ballistic of the bullets and peaceful behaviors of the victims proved otherwise.

One of three pilgrims shot dead by KNU/PDF
The once mighty ethnic Karen rebels have two major functions separated about 15 years ago along the religious line, the Christian dominated KNU/KNLA who attacked pilgrims and Buddhist dominated DKBA who formed alliance with Myanmar Government Army the Tatmadaw. The veteran KNU/KNLA rebels have cemented alliance with the recently formed National Unity Government NUG parallel government and its militia Peoples’ Defense Force PDF led by Suu Kyi’s NLD political party whose 2020 election victory was denied by the Tatmadaw’s Coup’d tet. The 75 plus year old KNU/KNLA married to one year old NUG/PDF and born a new face of insurgency. The Dejavu of such an alliance is a way of life for the world’s longest ongoing active civil war on the 75th birthday yet the NUG’s act of attacking famous religious building in this volatile region with uneasy union of the hundreds of different ethno-religious groups is comparable to the famous crossing of Rubicon River by the Roman Emperor Julius Cesar. From this point onward, there is no way to return from the new era of alleged war-crimes and crimes against humanity committed by both sides.

If this incident of attacking place of worship was happened elsewhere outside Myanmar, it will define as war-crime under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property but there even was no international media attention since it occurred at the wrong place. The CCTV footage is easily obtainable on social media Facebook.

Since the coup on February 2021, Myanmar is in chaos and the Burmese language Social Media Facebook is awashed with familiar stories about attacks by PDF on pilgrims, monasteries, public transport, telecommunication towers, electrical power lines and Government employees who refused to walk out of the jobs to support Civil Defiance Movement CDM called by the exiled parallel Government NUG. The international community who do not read Burmese social media may not aware about it. As for the majority of Myanmar citizens who use Facebook as their only windows to the world, are familiar with pro-Democratic forces abducting and killing unarmed civilians as part of their campaign against the coup.

Ethnic Karen rebel force KNU/KNLA
Since Myanmar’s largest employer is the state sector, the public school teachers, administrators, firefighters, ambulance crews, doctors, nurses, electrical crews who decided to continue serving the public services after the coup, as well as students who return to public schools are the fair victims of targeted killings by the PDF militia acting under commend from the NUG parallel government. The victims of political assassinations and targeted killings include unarmed children, women and Buddhist monks. The hit list goes on with anyone accused of expressing their sympathy toward military coup, members of rival political parties who competed in election against the NLD party, family members of security forces, the military veterans or retirees and their families. The PDF hit squads proudly claimed responsibility for the political assassinations on their social media Pages, accusing the victims they assassinated as “Dalan” the Burmese slang for Spy or the collaborators with military regime.

According to independent sources, by the end of October 2022 total of 5541 Myanmar civilians were assassinated by Democratic pro-rebellion hit-squads since the coup on February 2021. The tallies do not include casualties of belligerents and combatants from both sides. All the foreign language information come out of Myanmar is prepared, translated and presented to the international audience by the pro-Democratic NUG parallel government’s allied media sources which naturally do not mention atrocities and human-rights abuses perpetrated by the PDF death-squads serving their holy cause. Most major international news outlets often quoted the tally of the victims killed by the Myanmar army from website of pro-rebel group “Assistance Association for Political Prisoners” AAPP which claimed total of civilians killed by Myanmar army for the same period as 2404.

If the numbers claimed by the both sides of conflict are correct there are almost 8000 civilians killed by the politically motivated assassinations and pro-Democracy PDF hit-squads killed more than double of their targets over their opponents. Certainly the pro-Democracy PDF forces under the commend of NUG parallel government is in upper hand of conflict on the ground in Myanmar. Although it is impossible to verify the reality of tropical battlefields’ ground conditions in this 75 yearlong simmering civil war with more than one million armed combatants, pro-Democratic NUG/PEF forces apparently winning the war on media ground with more successful extrajudicial killings and war-crimes, like attacking of religious premises committed yet winning the sympathy from the international community. In the Facebook and social media dominated era, the information about Myanmar, picked up from the international media outlets is fed by community based newsfeed where only the popular opinion is tolerated. Anyone who tried to differ from the popular opinions of majority is oppressed with flood of reports bringing down their Facebook accounts into utter silence by the army of cyber enthusiasts armed with smart phones since before the coup. But the post-coup era popular rebellion led by NLD party’s NUG parallel government armed those cyber enthusiasts with hand guns and grenades instead of Chinese smart phones. Almost all PDF death squads have their announcements and fund raising done on social media. Asking public donations for their assassination missions or to purchase a M4 Assault rifle is just like posting your daily snapshot on their Facebook pages. So a negative comment on popular social media newsfeed by those Cyber based urban guerilla PDF forces may invite a bullet instead. Almost every report about Myanmar making international news headline can be found their origins on social media newsfeed fed by the community-based reporters of popular rebellion movements against the military coup and translated to foreign languages by the peoples from the same side.

New rebel force PDF of NUG parallel government
The October 12 ,2022 attack on Golden Rock pagoda highlights the bias of international media attention about atrocities and crimes on the unarmed civilians by international community since the information they received is from a side of a belligerent of 75 year conflict. The UN Security Council condemned with a statement calling for an immediate halt to all violence and “full respect for human rights and the rule of law” on 17 July 2022 about the death sentence carried out by Myanmar within a few days of execution. On contrary, the early October attack carried out by pro-Democracy rebels on one of Myanmar Buddhist’s holiest shrines have passed one month and UN with all the Governments in the world kept their usual and eerie silence as if they do not know. In fact, the international community does not know about violence, extra judicial killings and war-crimes committed daily in Myanmar by PDF death squads. All of the English language media outlets run by pro-Democratic activists reported the incident as pilgrims were killed by government forces during the clashes with anonymous armed group despise KNU and PDF claimed responsibilities. It is said that average 18 civilians are assassinated daily by PDF.

The 75 years of armed conflict in Myanmar formerly known as Burma was complicated with alliances of ethnic rebel armies, warlords, drug cartels and world’s largest narco-armies armed with anti-aircraft missiles pitting against each other for drug turf as well as against the Burmese dominated government army who controlled largest territory of the country. The newest addition on Myanmar rebellion pantheon, NUG/PDF is armed with pistols and social media advantages is forging alliances with veteran rebel armies and vowing to bring down the junta within a year on 2023 .

KNU/KNLA regional commender who is responsible for pagoda attack
In the world which is controlled by popular public opinion from Social media, for the Myanmar citizens who speaks and read Burmese language, the next year 2023 is likely to witness more targeted killing of civilians having different opinion with popular movement NUG/PDF or accused of sympathizing with military regime, attacks on religious premises, schools, hospitals and bombing of public celebrations sponsored by the regime. As for the international community, they would be seeing more of atrocities committed by mean-faced military dictatorship who do not respect human-rights and rule of law.

The crowd based decision about which content is suitable for the audiences made by social media means only the popular opinions can be heard and different opinions cannot become a popular one as the mob on the upper hand can use any available method including the violence to suppress it. On December 2021 Facebook was sued by Rohingya, at California court for $150 billion over allegations that the social media company did not take action against anti-Rohingya hate speech which contributed to violence. The same crowd who dominated Facebook to create popular opinion that contributed the violence on Rohingya conflict is up in the arms against the military junta now.

What happening in Myanmar is another proof that Facebook allowed speeches that contributed to violence, assassinations, war-crimes and suppressed the different opinions.

M.B is Australian based Myanmar Observer

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