ASEANEWS HEADLINE-CIVIL WAR | BANGKOK | Myanmar’s military govt extends mandate another 6 months
In this image provided by the Myanmar Military True News Information Team, Myanmar’s military leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, centre, speaks during meeting with members of the National Defence and Security Council Friday, Jan. 31, 2025, in Naypyitaw, Myanmar. AP
..
FREE ASEAN
FREE MYANMAR/CAMBODIA/THAILAND /LAOS
FREE Aung San Suu Kyi
.
BANGKOK – Myanmar’s military government on Friday announced another six-month extension of its mandate to rule in preparation for elections it has said will be held this year, as the country enters its fifth year of crisis.
.
|
|
However, it did not announce an exact date for the polls.
The military declared a state of emergency on Feb. 1, 2021, when it arrested the country’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and top officials from her government in an army takeover which reversed years of progress toward democracy after five decades of earlier military rule.
The takeover sparked an armed resistance movement, with powerful ethnic minority militias and people’s defence forces that support Myanmar’s main opposition now controlling large parts of the country.
The military government is currently facing its greatest challenge since taking power and is on the defensive in much of the country. However, it is still able to hold onto much of central Myanmar and big cities including the capital, Naypyidaw.
State-run MRTV television reported on Friday that the National Defence and Security Council decided unanimously to grant an extension of emergency rule after Senior Gen. Ming Aung Hlaing, the head of the military government, argued that more time was needed to restore stability to the country to hold national elections.
The council is nominally a constitutional administrative government body, but in practice is controlled by the military.
Under the army-drafted 2008 constitution, the military was able to rule the country under a state of emergency for one year, followed by two possible six-month extensions before holding elections. However, the extension on Friday was the seventh.
  |
Tom Andrews, a special rapporteur with the UN Human Rights Office, said in a statement on Thursday that four years of military oppression, violence and incompetence have cast Myanmar into an abyss. The United Nations has estimated that more than 3.5 million people have been displaced by the conflict.
“Junta forces have slaughtered thousands of civilians, bombed and burned villages, and displaced millions of people. More than 20,000 political prisoners remain behind bars. The economy and public services have collapsed. Famine and starvation loom over large parts of the population,” he said.
The United States, United Kingdom, European Union and others jointly condemned the military government’s violence against civilians and the deprivation of their rights.
They said more than one-third of the population, 19.9 million people, need humanitarian assistance to meet their basic needs, including food aid, and that up to 3.5 million people are displaced internally, an increase of nearly 1 million in the last year.
AP
|
|
Memento Maxima Digital Marketing.
Related Posts
-
February 12, 2024 -
August 27, 2024 -
May 20, 2024 -
October 14, 2024
