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ASEAN Breaks Junta Ban and Wins Backlash

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro, as ASEAN Chair's Special Envoy on Myanmar, held an informal meeting with junta Foreign Minister Tin Maung Swe in Bangkok on July 12, the first high-level engagement since the bloc suspended “senior” contact in 2021. Lazaro didn’t ask for any break from hostilities as a condition for the talks. Former foreign ministers Saifuddin Abdullah of Malaysia and Kasit Piromya of Thailand, as well as three former UN experts from the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar, said on July 18 that the Philippines' chairmanship was in a "tailspin." The DFA fired back the next day by saying the criticism was "malicious and misleading" and reaffirming the 2021 Five-Point Consensus as ASEAN's framework. On July 13, the Steering Council for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union, which groups the KNU, KIO, KNPP and CNF, met Thai officials and ASEAN's envoy in a closed-door session, refusing any table with junta representatives and telling diplomats that Naypyidaw no longer controls the territory it claims. ASEAN foreign ministers will hold their informal Myanmar consultation in Manila tomorrow.

Read more: Bangkok Post (Suu Kyi), Mizzima (UN rights council), Gmanetwork (DFA rebuttal), BNI Online (SCEF sincerity doubts), DVB (Starlink appeal)

Starlink Axes 13 Million

More than one in five Starlink terminals in Myanmar have gone dark since the beginning of the month, cutting service to more than 13 million people and nearly 800,000 students who use it to log into virtual schools run by the National Unity Government in Kachin, Karenni, Sagaing and Mandalay. SpaceX has told users the terminals aren't licensed to operate in the country and some now need government-issued ID to reconnect, a tightening that follows the company's disabling of more than 2,500 terminals last year after US lawmakers connected smuggled dishes to border scam compounds. On July 17, a coalition of 255 civil society groups wrote to Elon Musk asking him to keep the service running. SpaceX has not yet made a public reply.

Read more: DVB

Two Boats Vanish Off Rakhine, 500 Feared Dead

More than 500 people, most of them Rohingya, are thought to be dead after two boats vanished off the Rakhine coast. One boat, carrying about 250 passengers, lost contact shortly after leaving Rakhine State in late June, and the other, with about 280 aboard, is believed to have sunk off the Ayeyarwady coast on July 8. IOM and UNHCR announced the losses on July 16. The figures, if confirmed, would add to nearly 300 deaths or disappearances already recorded this year in the Andaman Sea and Bay of Bengal. That would put this year on pace to exceed the nearly 900 lives lost in 2025, the deadliest year on record.

Read more: Khaosod English, Iom, DVB, CNN, France 24

Three Bombs Fall on Ma-Ei

A military jet dropped three 500-pound bombs on Ma-Ei town in Rakhine's Taungup Township on July 19, killing five residents of Ward No. 2 and wounding 14. The Ma-Ei strike was one of a wave in Rakhine, Mandalay, and Sagaing over the weekend that killed at least six civilians and destroyed more than 25 homes, the latest in what resistance media says are near-daily strikes as Min Aung Hlaing's July 31 deadline for peace talks with ethnic armies and resistance groups gets nearer. The Arakan Army, which controls 14 of Rakhine's 17 townships, says it will continue to respond to every assault on territory under its administration.

Read more: DVB (cumulative death toll), BNI Online (victim identities), Narinjara (prior Gwa airstrikes)

TNLA Asks for Ta'ang State

TNLA delegates met the regime's peace committee in Naypyidaw on Sunday to ask for a recognized "Ta'ang State," promising it would stay part of the Union. No boundaries were specified in the request. The ask comes after a punishing run of losses. The group gave up Mogok and Momeik to the regime last November under a China-brokered ceasefire, lost Kutkai to former ally MNDAA in March, and was ordered to give up Namhkam, Namtu, Mongngawt and Monglon during talks on May 12 in Kunming.

Read more: DVB

PDF Blast Blacks Out Four Townships

Junta media says that insurgents from the People's Defense Force planted and detonated a mine at Tower No. 338 of the 132 kV main line near Paung Laung Kan village in Pakokku Township around 7:30 PM on July 19. The blast cut power to Pakokku, Yesagyo, Myaing, and Kamma townships and destabilized the Magway grid, causing voltage drops and outages in villages that are well outside the immediate blackout zone.

Read more: Myanmaritv

Suu Kyi Barred From Martyrs' Day, Again

Under a cellular blackout, Min Aung Hlaing laid down several wreaths at the Martyrs' Mausoleum in Yangon on July 19. Aung San Suu Kyi, 81, was barred from the ceremony for the fifth straight year. Her estranged older brother Aung San Oo sent a wreath; both of the junta's vice presidents skipped the event. Myanmar's ousted NLD demanded (again) this week that Suu Kyi be included in any political process. ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights has written to Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and José Ramos-Horta in the Philippines (ASEAN chair) demanding proof she is alive, as foreign ministers gather in Manila this week for the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting.

Read more: BNI Online (sentence reduction), Aseanmp (proof-of-life demand), Mizzima (family representative)

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ASEAN Ends Five-Year Freeze on Myanmar Brass

Southeast Asia's foreign ministers met with Myanmar's Tin Maung Swe in Bangkok for their first in-person ministerial meeting since the 2021 coup and in a demonstration that Min Aung Hlaing's pivot from junta chief to elected president is allowing him return access to the regional halls of power. Nine of ASEAN's ten members sent their foreign ministers; Malaysia sent its secretary-general, Cambodia skipped it. Myanmar’s pro-military parliament voted last week to reject the Five-Point Consensus as interference, the framework Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow said still underpins "calibrated engagement." Suu Kyi's status was raised, but Myanmar pushed back on ASEAN's request for access. Philippine Foreign Secretary Theresa Lazaro is expected to make a humanitarian visit later this year, and Myanmar will come back on the agenda at the ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Manila between July 21 and 23.

Read more: Bangkok Post, Nation Thailand, SCMP, Bloomberg, Straits Times

Min Aung Hlaing Books August Stop in Bangkok

Min Aung Hlaing will visit Thailand in early August, ASEAN sources say, his second trip to a bloc capital since his elevation to the presidency in April. He was in Laos earlier this month on his first such visit. The Bangkok trip follows Sunday's ministerial meeting (first story), where Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow put the heat on Naypyitaw over “progress” on the peace framework that got Min Aung Hlaing barred from ASEAN summits in October 2021. No detailed schedule has been announced as of yet. His previous stop in Thailand, in April 2025, was for a BIMSTEC summit, not a bilateral call.

Read more: Bangkok Post

No Verified ASSK Sightings Since 2022

Taichito, the mongrel that Aung San Suu Kyi's son gifted her on her release from a previous stint in prison in 2010, died last month at her Yangon home aged about 15, still waiting for an owner who’s not been seen in public since 2022. Her captors say the 81-year-old is under house arrest at an undisclosed location in Naypyidaw. "Not everyone can know her location," said Thein Tun Oo, spokesman for the junta-aligned USDP. "I don't know. Because I am one of the people." Min Aung Hlaing announced her move from prison to house arrest in April, trying to cast it as a display of mercy during his shift from general to civilian president; her 27-year sentence was commuted by a third. No photo, video, or verified sighting has surfaced since.

Read more: The Economist (rumors), Jakarta Post (family)

Junta Admits Removing Aung San Statues, Blames Art

Government spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe confirmed that at least 15 statues of independence hero General Aung San have been removed or destroyed since the coup, and monuments in more than 100 townships are under review. Her explanation was about “proportions,” not politics. She said statues with "incorrect" shapes were handled "in accordance with" a 1962 monuments law. Crews have been working mostly at night, cutting electricity and fencing off sites in Yangon and Bago so no one can photograph the work in progress. The statues were mostly put up between 2015 and 2020 during Aung San Suu Kyi's NLD government, and were funded mostly with public donations. The Burma Lawyers' Council says the demolitions should be considered criminal mischief under Section 425 of the Penal Code, and ought to be punishable by up to seven years in prison. We’ll see about that.

Read more: DVB (NLD reaction), Radio Free Asia (removal locations)

Rakhine Floods

In Rakhine State, rains have swamped more than 100 villages across at least eight townships, affecting around 100,000 people, and the Global Flood Awareness System has kept its highest alert in place through July 23. Flooding from the Bilin River in Mon State displaced almost 1,000 people from 226 homes; residents are blaming upstream gold mining for choking the river's drainage.

Read more: UCA News

Response Plan Half-Funded

Myanmar's humanitarian caseload has risen to more than 16 million. Displacement is reportedly near 3.8 million and many of the people have been uprooted more than once. By the end of March, aid groups had been able to reach 1.6 million of the 4.9 million people they hope to give aid to this year, but the 2026 response plan needs $890 million and has raised a little more than 40% of that, roughly halfway through the year.

Read more: ReliefWeb (confirms), ReliefWeb (election)

Beijing's Spy Agency Takes Over Scam-Center File

Xi Jinping has said that Southeast Asia's scam center industry is a national emergency, and the Ministry of State Security is giving orders. Just a few weeks after a Great Hall of the People signing with Min Aung Hlaing, China's civilian spy agency has given orders to follow through on the junta chief's commitment to shut the compounds down. No public timeline or benchmarks have been released for what the crackdown might mean in reality, however. The MSS, which runs China's foreign intelligence and counterespionage operations, had no formal role in the scam-center file before June.

Read more: Intelligenceonline

China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Corridor Moves

The China-Myanmar-Bangladesh Economic Corridor got a name and some delineation on the map during Bangladesh PM Tarique Rahman's June trip to Beijing. The deal was for a road-and-rail route running Kunming to Mandalay to Chattogram and Mongla. The plan was folded into the third joint communique Dhaka and Beijing have issued since 1975. Chinese Ambassador Yao Wen said it was a "historic milestone.” Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman, asked what money Bangladesh secured, apparently retorted that the country hadn't gone "with a begging bowl," but, having said said that, no financing numbers or construction timeline were shared. The corridor's middle stretch passes right through Myanmar.

Read more: The Daily Star (trade gap), The Daily Star (Naypyitaw visit)

Junta Bets on Bagan for 1.8 Million Tourists

Arrivals were 448,205 through May, up only 5 percent vs last year, so the junta's 1.8 million visitor target will need to almost triple the pace in the second half. Chinese and Thai travelers are doing most of the numbers - Chinese arrivals up 12 percent through May, Thai arrivals up 7 percent. Visa-on-arrival is now available to visitors from China, India, Japan and South Korea, and Thai influencers Farose and Go Went Go's Bas have been filming in Yangon. Even if Myanmar hits the full-year target, the number of visitors will still only be about a third of the 4.7 million tourists it attracted in 2015.

Read more: Spokesman

Belarus Opens Its Door to Myanmar Passports

Belarus's 30-day visa-free window for Myanmar citizens opened on July 8, and Maung Maung Soe has presented credentials in Minsk as Myanmar's first ambassador to Belarus. Foreign Minister Maksim Ryzhankou is keen on a 2026-2028 roadmap on trade and work on joint-industrial projects, and a Belarusian embassy in Naypyidaw is also on the table. The improvement in relations follows on Lukashenko's November 2025 visit to Naypyidaw. One of the challenges is that most young Myanmar citizens who would be willing to visit (or keen to leave) still have no passports.

Read more: Mizzima (passport ranking), Reform News (roadmap)

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

Please go to https://www.mekongmemo.com/account to select country editions you would like to receive without affecting your overall subscription status.

The Post-Coup Death Toll Passes 100,000

ACLED has counted the number of conflict deaths since the February 2021 coup and says the total is 100,114, based on media reports from Asia's deadliest active war. Despite the carnage, the military now controls barely 30 percent of the territory it claims. A separate Assistance Association for Political Prisoners count counts child deaths at 1,083 through June, with 400 more cases still being checked. "I am so deeply resentful and very angry. But I don't even know who to be angry at anymore," said Thein Aye Nu, 49, whose husband was killed in a Rakhine air strike last month. The UN counts 3.7 million people internally displaced.

Read more: France 24 (conscription), Modern Ghana (refugees), Mizzima (child deaths)

Starlink Cuts 2,500 Terminals

More than 2,500 Starlink terminals (more than a fifth of the country’s active units) went dark after the company traced hardware routes through northern Shan State to scam compounds in Karen State's Myawaddy Township. Starlink has no license to run in the country. Users pay monthly fees starting at $100 and register terminals under addresses in Malaysia, Indonesia, or the Philippines, three Southeast Asian countries where Starlink is licensed. The downside is that the same workaround that kept scam compounds online has also kept resistance fighters and civilians connected through the junta's 2022 communications blackout. A People's Defence Force member in central Myanmar said backup communications exist, but none match Starlink's reach.

Read more: DVB (Thai seizures), Indo-Pacific Defense Forum (compounds)

Rohingya Mass at the Naf as Rakhine Fighting Reignites

Explosions loud enough to shake homes in Teknaf sent residents into panic as the military started a new offensive against the Arakan Army in Maungdaw and Buthidaung. Those are the Rakhine townships that emptied into Bangladesh in 2017. Hundreds of Rohingya have reportedly collected themselves along the Naf River to wait for a chance to cross, though Teknaf's executive officer says no confirmed crossings have been recorded. Border Guard Bangladesh has reinforced patrols, and Thailand has shut every crossing in Tak province after cross-border gunfire from fighting with the Karen National Liberation Army damaged homes there. Monsoon landslides killed at least eight Rohingya in Cox's Bazar, part of a settlement of 1.2 million where monthly food rations have been cut from $12 to as little as $7.

Read more: TBS News (border pressure), Anadolu Agency (Teknaf panic), DVB (landslide toll), UCA News (Arakan Army tensions)

Junta Blocks ASEAN Envoy From Seeing ASSK

Philippine Foreign Secretary Ma. Theresa Lazaro was turned away a second time, (now in her capacity as ASEAN's special envoy), when she asked to see the embattled Aung San Suu Kyi. Junta spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe said the 81-year-old Nobel laureate, moved from prison to a "designated residence" in May, is "not allowed to meet with international representatives" and might be granted permission "only after her sentence" (that’s about 19 years away). The visitor list is short, with former Thai foreign minister Don Pramudwinai getting in during July 2023 and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in April. Manila welcomed an amnesty for about 4,500 prisoners but repeated its call to free the rest, Suu Kyi included.

Read more: Straits Times (ASEAN envoy), The Diplomat (summit ban), PNA (Philippines stance), DVB (displacement)

Beijing Detains ISP-Myanmar Director, Then Hosts Junta Chief

Min Zin, the American executive director of ISP-Myanmar, disappeared in Kunming on June 3 after Chinese authorities detained him on suspicion of espionage, twelve days before Min Aung Hlaing arrived in Beijing for his first state visit since 2021. The trip resulted in about 70 business MoUs and 18 state-level agreements. Thirty days in detention have now passed, the threshold under Chinese law when formal charges can be filed, but none have yet been announced. An ISP-Myanmar analysis published shortly before his disappearance described the country as "tethered to Beijing's inescapable influence." The Chinese embassy in Washington has not responded to a request for comment.

Read more: Newsweek (wrongfully detained call)

Sky Villa Developer Gets Five Years, Two Below Statutory Minimum

A Mandalay court sentenced Naing Tun Lin, owner of N.T.L. Construction Company, to five years for criminal negligence in the Sky Villa condo collapse during the March 2025 earthquake, which is two years short of the seven-year minimum set by Section 304-A of the penal code. The 11-story building housed more than 400 tenants when it fell; about half survived. N.T.L. paid families of 146 victims 10 million MMK, about $2,500, for units that had sold for up to 650 million MMK, or $160,000. The ruling comes as the World Bank published its estimate of nationwide quake damage at $11 billion, about 14 percent of GDP, with the economy still contracting a year on.

Read more: DVB (survivor outrage), ReliefWeb (nationwide recovery)

Junta and Laos Sign Off on a Mekong Dam Study

The junta chief spent three days in Vientiane and came away with an agreement on a joint feasibility study for a 2,790-megawatt hydropower project on the Mekong border with Laos, signed by Primus Sapphire Power and Laos's Phongsupthavy Group. The study will run for 34 months and covers technical and economic viability only, with no site location, no investment figure, and no discussion of how the power would get divvied up. The Mekong makes up about 240 kilometers of border between eastern Shan State and northern Laos, and Tachileik, cut off from Thai electricity in 2025, now leans on imports from Laos, which calls itself the "Battery of ASEAN." The deal builds on a 2018 electricity MOU that was extended for five more years in 2023.

Read more: Nation Thailand (Win Myint visit), The Star (GMS energy goals), New Day Myanmar (construction not authorized)

Xi Pitches Bangladesh a Kunming-to-Bay of Bengal Corridor

Xi Jinping pitched Bangladesh Prime Minister Tarique Rahman a 1,700 km trade corridor from Kunming to the Bay of Bengal during Rahman's Beijing visit. The route would run through Mandalay and Kyaukphyu in Rakhine State before finding Chattogram and Mongla ports. The plan revives the old Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar corridor, which was dropped from Belt and Road plans by 2019 as Sino-Indian ties soured. Ambassador Yao Wen says India is welcome back "if they are willing to join." Dhaka is not biting yet. Foreign Minister Khalilur Rahman said peace in Rakhine needs to come first, and that is a large condition in a state where the junta controls somewhere between a fifth and 30 percent of the territory, depending on who you ask.

Read more: NDTV

Lukashenko Makes Fifth Visit to Naypyitaw

Aleksandr Lukashenko went to the capital for a one-day visit, his fifth sit-down with the junta chief and second trip to the country since 2021, sandwiched between stops in China and Indonesia. The talks were centered on economic, industrial, agricultural, and pharmaceutical cooperation, with Lukashenko saying the relationship is a model for the region. The general thanked Belarus for sending observers to the junta-run elections. A June 2025 Justice for Myanmar report alleged Belarus has supplied air defense technology and training to the military. Neither side has talked about that publicly.

Read more: DVB (air defense supply), Belsat EU (Lukashenka)

Junta Asks Tokyo to Restart Aid, Gets Nowhere

Parliament spokesperson Khin Khin Soe said "ordinary citizens will suffer" from Japan's aid freeze, in place since 2021. Tokyo, which said the junta-run elections held in December 2025 and January 2026 were likely to "invite more resistance," has so far been unmoved. Human Rights Watch wants sanctions tightened instead, and reminded everyone of past junta misdeeds including those of a military-owned conglomerate that profited from Japan's Bago River Bridge project and army misuse of Japan-funded boats to move troops and weapons into Rakhine State in 2022.

Read more: Human Rights Watch

The Matriculation Exam Loses Three-Quarters

Only 255,228 students sat this year's matriculation exam, down from almost a million before the coup. The pass rate rose to about 52 percent, producing a little more than 130,000 graduates. That’s about as many as the old system used to fail.

Read more: DVB

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

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The Olive Branch Was Smoldering

On June 26, Min Aung Hlaing stood before the Central Committee for the Development of Border Areas and Ethnic Groups in Naypyitaw and offered ethnic armed organizations "unconditional peace talks," saying he wanted to "rush out like a horse galloping out of a stable" once the fighting cleared. Forty-eight hours later, the Air Force leveled five homes in Talaing village in Sagaing, killing eight civilians, four of them children, and wounding more than twenty others. The PDF said there was no active combat anywhere near the village at the time. That afternoon, jets bombed a monastery and a school in Ye Kyaw village in Gwa Township, Rakhine, injuring five residents including a ten-year-old. The Gwa strikes fit a pattern dating back at least to June 20, as the military is trying to claw back territory held by the Arakan Army. Min Aung Hlaing's self-imposed deadline for resistance groups to respond is July 31.

Read more: Shan Herald (peace offer), DVB (Talaing strike), Narinjara (Gwa strike)

Shopping in Delhi, Closing in Dhaka

Min Aung Hlaing sat down with Narendra Modi in New Delhi on June 1, his first foreign trip since taking the presidency in April, and the two sides promised to revive the long-stalled Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project and the India-Myanmar-Thailand highway. Both projects have spent years losing ground to jungle and insurgency. Modi posted on social media about rare earth cooperation, a detail that was somehow absent from Naypyidaw's readout. Myanmar could now be the world's third-largest producer of rare earth elements, putting out around 31,000 metric tons in 2024, but almost all of it flows to China.

Read more: SCMP (India visit), Geopolitical Monitor (Beijing corridor), The Daily Star (Bangladesh deals), Fibre2Fashion (BRI scope)

Suu Kyi's Son Still Wants Proof of Life

Kim Aris told reporters in London that he does not believe his mother has been moved to house arrest, disputing the junta's claim (since April) that her sentence was commuted to roughly 17 years and her conditions had improved. The 48-year-old says he has seen no evidence of a transfer and that her health, a heart condition on top of normal age-related issues including osteoporosis, is getting worse. His last letter from her came more than two years ago, and he suspects she remains in a Nay Pyi Taw prison a former inmate described as "pretty horrendous." Aris recently skateboarded 81 kilometers to mark her 81st birthday and has been trying to get governments from Tokyo to London to cut the military's access to aviation fuel.

Read more: Bangkok Post

Pork Ribs, Call Logs, a Knock at the Door

A lawsuit nearly five years in the making alleges that Telenor, majority-owned by the Norwegian state, gave phone call records for six customers to the junta on October 31, 2021. About three weeks later, soldiers surrounded a Yangon safe house and nabbed hip-hop artist and democracy activist Phyo Zeya Thaw halfway through his lunch. His wife Thazin Nyunt Aung had set our his favorite meal, pork ribs and rice, when the military convoy pulled up to their tenth-floor apartment in Dagon Seikkan township to get him. Zeya Thaw was 40. Telenor had entered Myanmar seven years earlier, its three-petaled blue logo becoming an emblem of the country's opening to the world.

Read more: Observer

The Baht Stops Here

Regime troops raided the Myawaddy home of KNU/KNLA-PC Captain Min Htet Paing in late June and reportedly found counterfeit Thai currency, printing machinery, and weapons. It is the second arrest of a regime-aligned officer in weeks. Captain Saw Arkar was picked up in mid-June near Friendship Bridge No. 2 after allegedly passing fake THB at a restaurant. Min Htet Paing slipped the initial raid, but BGF Battalion 4 caught him and sent him back to the military. Ward 5 administrator Sai Myo Nyunt Oo, named as one of four alleged accomplices, has not been arrested and denies any involvement.

Read more: The Irrawaddy

Myawaddy's Scam Compounds Still Open

As of June 25, about 5,300 people are still being held inside at least four scam compounds along the Thai-Myanmar border, including 18 Filipinos and about 1,500 Chinese, even though raids were supposed to shut down the trade. The Shengrui Group compound holds around 1,000 people, Zhongxin Company holds about 1,800, and SKY Company and another undisclosed site hold more than 2,500. It seems clear that when the raids arrived that operators didn’t shut down, they just moved the workers.

Read more: Philippine Inquirer

Bonfire of the Quantities

Myanmar's junta torched more than 50 tons of heroin, methamphetamine, opium, ketamine, marijuana and other drugs outside Yangon on Friday, a $600 million pile of smoke that was worth more than double last year's haul. Police Lt. Col. Aung Myat Soe said Yangon burned $321 million worth gear, to say nothing of similar scenes in Mandalay and Taunggyi, the Shan State capital closer to where much of the product gets made. The Ta'ang National Liberation Army, which signed a ceasefire with the junta after taking control of large parts of northern Shan State, announced its own $5.5 million burn the day before.

Read more: AP News (drug burn), Arise TV (UN day)

Half the Audience Gone, As Designed

A Human Rights Myanmar report for 50 outlets and 12 billion Facebook data points found that monthly audience reach collapsed from 4.7 billion to 2.4 billion since the 2021 coup. The report says the junta engineered the reduction by way of shutdowns, Facebook and website blocks, VPN restrictions, surveillance, and increased data costs. Shares of media posts fell almost two-thirds and comments fell by more than two-fifths, as users learned that visible engagement can invites visible consequences. The outlets pushed out almost a fifth more content anyway; regional outlets more than doubled their output. Reach for military-affiliated media fell by about three-quarters.

Read more: BNI Online

Six Million Empty Desks

When Myanmar's 2026-27 school year opened on June 1, 6.3 million school-aged children, almost half the estimated 13 million total, were not to be found in any classroom. Enrollment is now 6.7 million, down from 9.7 million before the coup.

Read more: The Irrawaddy

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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The Memo is published weekdays - Cambodia (every Monday), Myanmar (Tuesday), Laos (Wednesday), Vietnam (Thursday) and Thailand (Friday). The Thailand edition is free in its entirety; the others usually abbreviated for non-paid subscribers.

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A Welcome With Caveats

The red carpet in Beijing came with a little bit of fine print. Xi Jinping received Min Aung Hlaing at the Great Hall of the People with full state honors, military salute included, and the two sides signed agreements on trade, infrastructure, transportation, health, and security. Bilateral trade was just under $20 billion in 2025, up 19.1 percent year on year, giving Beijing a good reason to stay engaged, but Xi also took the opportunity to tell his guest to find the "right path." That may have been the bill arriving with the banquet.

Read more: The Economist (coup rebrand), Mizzima (China dependence), Nikkei Asia ("right path"), CGTN (agreements), Chinadailyasia (aid)

What the Election Can’t Paper Over

A UN Human Rights Office report verified at least 702 civilian deaths between August 2025 and January 2026. Airstrikes were responsible for 476 of them. Victims included 224 women and 153 children. Sagaing saw the biggest toll at 191 dead, among them 23 killed at a candlelit Buddhist celebration outside a school in Chaung-U and 19 bombed while watching a football match at a Tabayin tea shop.

Read more: Upi (UN appeal), Deccanchronicle (election period), BBC (Chaung-U and Tabayin)

The Crisis Grinds On (and On… and On…)

UN Special Envoy Julie Bishop told the General Assembly that conditions have been getting worse since the election, not better, with "records being set for all the wrong reasons." The numbers are, once again, bleak. By the UN’s count, 3.7 million people are internally displaced, another 1.6 million have fled abroad, and Myanmar is now among the world’s six worst hunger hotspots. Bishop called Myanmar a "global epicenter" for cybercrime, with scam syndicates growing human trafficking networks across Asia, Africa and the United States. She also reminded everyone that the UN "neither supported nor observed" the election.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (child casualties, airstrikes), Aa Com TR (Rohingya refugee camp), DVB (Khampat military advance)

An 81st Birthday in Isolation

Aung San Suu Kyi apparently turned 81 without anyone reliably confirming she's alive. She was ostensibly moved to house arrest in Naypyidaw in April, but her whereabouts remain unknown even to her family. The junta spent her birthday stationing plainclothes officers at flower markets to question anyone buying fresh blooms, and arrests were threatened for anyone joining the annual "Flower Strike," a digital solidarity campaign now in its fifth year. About 134 current and former parliamentarians from 11 countries wrote to ASEAN demanding proof of life and the granting of independent medical access.

Read more: Khaosod English (ASEAN letter), DVB (81 for 81), DVB (China trip), DVB (UN address)

The Junta Sold Ports It Doesn't Control

Min Aung Hlaing spent recent weeks in New Delhi and Beijing signing promises about the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port and Kaladan transit corridor, both of which run through Rakhine, where the Arakan Army now controls most of the state and virtually the entire border with Bangladesh. Observers watching Chinese construction say the project sites connect directly to AA-administered areas, even though the junta has been able to continue clinging to Sittwe, Kyaukphyu town and Manaung. From Dhaka’s perspective, the relevant border authority on the return of more than a million Rohingya is a non-state actor it has no framework to deal with and no formal way to engage.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (airstrikes, CMEC), Arab News (Bangladesh pivot)

The Border Keeps Voting No

Bangladesh turned down a UN request for more land for Rohingya refugees, with Dhaka’s UN ambassador telling Julie Bishop that the crisis began in Myanmar and must be solved there. The border, less politely, continues to disagree. Three Bangladeshis were killed by landmines near Naikhongchhari in Bandarban in May, and a 12-year-old died when an abandoned mortar shell exploded in the same area in June. Bangladesh is already sheltering 1.2 million refugees in Cox's Bazar and Bhasan Char, and a UK-backed XCEPT study described those camps as "extended battlefields" of the civil war.

Read more: Mizzima (land refusal), Thedailystar (border spillover)

Not Every Guest Gets to Leave

Min Zin, a US citizen and founder of the Myanmar-focused think tank ISP-Myanmar, landed at Yunnan's airport after accepting an invitation from a Chinese academic institution and didn't surface again for nine days. Beijing's Foreign Ministry eventually confirmed his detention on suspicion of espionage and endangering national security. He was held incommunicado in Kunming the entire time, and colleagues reportedly went to journalists only after diplomatic channels went quiet. ISP-Myanmar studies China-Myanmar relations, cross-border trade, resource extraction, and Beijing's support for the junta, which made this a very different kind of academic hospitality.

Read more: Article19

China Got There First

Russia has secured tungsten mining rights in eastern Shan State, planting its flag near an existing Chinese-linked operation close to the Thai border. The junta approved the project despite controlling little of the actual ground, where ethnic armed groups and China-friendly militias shape what moves and what doesn't. On the mining side, Russia offers little that China doesn’t already have covered. Its currency with Naypyidaw runs to weapons, aircraft, diplomatic cover and nuclear cooperation.

Read more: Think China

Still On The Blacklist

FATF confirmed that Myanmar is staying on its three-country blacklist alongside Iran and North Korea, with foreign banks still required to apply enhanced due diligence on any Myanmar-linked transaction. The agency pointed to progress on cross-border investigations and asset confiscation, but said prosecutions and financial intelligence are still weak. It also highlighted the growing problem of fraud and cyber-scam networks that exploit trafficked workers.

Read more: Sigma World

Junta's Ninety-Seven Scalps

Three more outlets, Myaelatt Athan, Red News Agency, and Asia Citizens, lost their licenses in May, bringing the junta's tally of suspended media permits to 97. The count includes 23 independent outlets and 12 printing presses, all racked up inside the first 50 days of a new term that followed an election widely panned as fraudulent. The country is still ranked among the world's worst for press restrictions by the Independent Press Council Myanmar, which is not a crowded field anyone wants to lead.

Read more: BNI Online

An Easy Target

Myanmar authorities permanently deactivated 143,409 SIM cards between March 2025 and May 2026 after catching them blasting bulk gambling promotions, shut more than 1,000 mobile wallet accounts, and blocked 102 gambling sites and apps through IP restrictions. Legal action has also been opened against actors and social media influencers who ran online slot-game ads. The enforcement is reaching anonymous SIM farms and small-time influencers, even as the scam compound bosses have been operating openly for years. A separate bill working through the legislature proposes the death penalty for abduction-to-fraud schemes and life behind bars for people running scam centers or committing fraud involving digital currencies.

Read more: Xinhua (SIM enforcement), VietnamPlus (death penalty bill)

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High-Stakes Visit to Beijing

Min Aung Hlaing landed in Beijing for a five-day state visit, his second foreign trip in about a fortnight, and by far the more consequential one or the two. The India stop in late May was mostly a photo op with geopolitical cover; this visit is where the real business will get done. Xi Jinping is hosting him with Premier Li Qiang and top legislator Zhao Leji, and he’s getting the full reception package that China normally reserves for heads of state it intends to keep. Beijing wants security guarantees for its oil and gas pipelines and for the Kyaukphyu deep-sea port in Arakan State, where the Arakan Army now controls 15 of the region's 17 townships. Bilateral trade is almost $20 billion a year, and Beijing wants the infrastructure that moves it to stay intact.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (civilian president), DVB (Min Zin), Arab News (rare earths), AA (trade), DVB (Modi)

Beijing Jails Man Who Watched Beijing

Min Zin, executive director of ISP-Myanmar and a Ph.D. candidate at UC Berkeley, was held at Kunming airport after flying in for a conference at a Chinese academic institution's invitation. China's Foreign Ministry confirmed the arrest, saying that he was suspected of "engaging in espionage and endangering national security." Min Zin had spent years tracking Chinese investments, border politics, and Myanmar's rare-earth exports to China through ISP-Myanmar, the think tank he co-founded and moved overseas after the 2021 coup. Beijing announced the detention publicly and promptly by notifying the U.S. Consulate General in Guangzhou. Min Aung Hlaing's state visit to China started two days later (previous story).

Read more: NPR (1988 activism), DVB (ISP move), The Guardian (asylum), NBC News (Trump)

Eighty-Five Percent Go Straight to the Front

Eighty-five percent of the junta's newly conscripted soldiers are going directly into active combat zones, with no real training, according to the Myanmar Defense and Security Institute. The numbers are shocking because more than 60,000 people were drafted in 2025, (that’s six times the 2020 number, at roughly 4,700 a month plus another 400 basic militia recruits). The MDSI has been tracking 25 separate conscription cycles over a little more than 24 months. Recruitment throughout the year averaged around 25,000 between 2005 and 2010, then fell below 15,000 after political reforms as voluntary enlistment slowed down.

Read more: Narinjara

Myanmar Air Campaign Intensifies (Again)

At least 15 mass-casualty airstrikes have hit civilian sites across Arakan State since November 2023, as the junta's map continues to shrink. On International Human Rights Day last December, a strike on Mrauk-U Public Hospital killed more than 30 patients, caregivers, and bystanders. A September 2024 strike on a Maungdaw facility holding prisoners of war killed about 50. A private school in Kyauktaw Township was bombed in September 2025, killing students and teachers. The Arakan Army is now running governance, taxation, and policing over most of the state; the military still holds Sittwe, Kyaukphyu, Manaung, and a handful of physical installations.

Read more: Mizzima

Kyat's Phantom Value

The Central Bank has held the official kyat at 2,100 to the dollar since August 2022, a rate that is now more than double what the street trades it at. The unofficial market settled at 4,245 kyat per dollar at end-May; exporters are forced to convert at a 15/85 blend of official and platform rates and so therefore pocket only 3,423 kyat of every dollar earned abroad. Garment manufacturers, allowed to convert entirely at the platform rate, get 3,658. The gap reduces profit margins and shrinks the amount of money available to pay wages and buy crops from farmers. The junta's 100-day plan, introduced after it took power (post-election) in April, focuses on agriculture and rural lending but makes no mention of the exchange rate.

Read more: Fulcrum

Jakarta Joins Naypyidaw Pilgrimage

Indonesian Foreign Minister Sugiono went to Naypyidaw on June 8, the first Indonesian minister to make the trip since the coup, and described his meeting with Min Aung Hlaing as "cordial, positive, open and constructive." Jakarta spent years as one of ASEAN's most vocal voices for holding the junta to account, which made the scene particularly notable. Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak was there in April, Malaysia's Mohamad Hasan in May, and now Indonesia has joined the throng. That’s three consecutive ministerial visits from the bloc's core members, since the election cleared Min Aung Hlaing's path to the presidency in April.

Read more: Nation Thailand

AmCham Dispute Leads to Arrest

Adam Castillo, former AmCham Myanmar president and author of a memoir on surviving the 2021 coup while confronting White House sanctions policy, was detained at Yangon International Airport and remanded to custody for two weeks. The arrest came after a complaint from the chamber's current leadership involving more than $300,000 that a former board representative allegedly collected from a Washington PR firm in November 2024, on a contract that exceeded individual board signing limits and was never shared with the auditors. Castillo, who founded security firm AGS Myanmar and led the chamber from 2023 to 2025, faces a criminal breach of trust charge involving property, punishable by up to a decade in prison.

Read more: Philippine Inquirer

US Embassy Employee Found Dead in Yangon

A US embassy employee was found dead at the Sakura Residence + Hotel in Yangon, roughly a kilometer (~half a mile) from the US mission and a residence hotel used by diplomats and expats. Police are treating the case as a possible homicide and have a Thai woman in custody, according to rumors in the city's diplomatic community. The State Department confirmed the death of a government employee assigned to the Yangon embassy but said nothing more. Thailand's foreign ministry won't say whether it has provided consular support to the suspect, and the hotel manager isn't talking.

Read more: The Guardian

Kokang's New Bosses Speak Mandarin

The MNDAA's "Kokang Special Region 1" now controls the Lashio-Muse Road, the main artery for border trade with China, and is running it like a Yunnan county. Ta'ang village names have reportedly been changed into Chinese script, Shan flags have been banned, and ethnic Chinese from Yunnan are moving on in.

Read more: Shan Herald

A Crackdown With Limits

The junta announced that it had destroyed 56 high-rises used for “cyber scams” in Shwe Kokko, and it has 21 more to go. Locals say the targets were riverbank shells that had long ago been abandoned and stripped of anything valuable in advance of the cameras showing up. Compounds that are currently active in Shwe Kokko, Myawaddy town, and four other sites are still operational, and new buildings still under construction.

Read more: BNI Online

An Uneasy Return to Normal

Yangon’s curfew is gone, but many residents behave as if it is still in place. Clubbers in Sanchaung doze on sofas until dawn rather than risk a ride home, even as music in warehouse venues get as loud as 150 decibels (Ed.: yikes), yet much of the city remains unusually quiet after dark. The junta uses claims of the lifted restrictions and last year’s widely panned elections as proof of normality but almost half of young people say they feel unsafe walking alone at night. Chinatown's 19th Street fill up on weekends but is mainly emptied by midnight.

Read more: Mizzima

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Modi Buys the Bridge, Resistance Owns the River

Min Aung Hlaing got to New Delhi on May 30 for a five-day state visit and left with what junta media said was the biggest diplomatic breakthrough of his presidency. He left with full state honors from Modi, a rare earths deal, a rupee-kyat currency settlement agreement, and renewed commitments to two infrastructure projects that have been collecting dust for years. The problem with the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project is that Chin State's Paletwa, the route's key transit point, has been held by the Arakan Army since January 2024. The India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway runs through Sagaing, where resistance forces are formidable, and contested parts of Karen State. The rare earths deal has the same sort of shape to it. The accessible dysprosium and terbium deposits are in Kachin State's Pangwa-Chipwi belt, under control of the Kachin Independence Army since October 2024, and the ore currently runs to Yunnan processors under a KIA-structured deal. India has spent about $340 million on Kaladan over two decades and it still isn’t done.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (pre-monsoon offensive), The Diplomat (Neighborhood First policy), DVB (U.S. sanctions risk), DVB (northeast India dissent)

Old Dog Learns New Tricks

Much news this week recapping the election story (again). The usual summary, but for those who haven’t been keeping up: Aung Hlaing hung up his uniform in exchange for a longyi on April 10 when he made himself president. That was after elections in which the military-proxy USDP took 339 of 420 contested seats AND awarded themselves 25 percent of parliamentary seats. That gave military-aligned lawmakers more than 86 percent of the new legislature. Turnout in the election was 54 percent, but the National League for Democracy had been dissolved and voting was canceled in many conflict areas across the country. The commander-in-chief title was given to General Ye Win Oo, a former intelligence chief. Aung San Suu Kyi was (reportedly) moved from prison to house arrest after (reportedly) meeting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Richard Horsey of the International Crisis Group: "The uniforms may have changed to civilian clothes, but this is not a political transition."

Read more: East Asia Forum (Myitsone Dam revival), International Crisis Group (economic crisis), DVB (food insecurity), The Diplomat (junta propaganda machine), Foreign Policy (China's role)

Junta Hires Roger Stone as Beijing Hauls Tungsten

Roger Stone continues to rake in $50,000 a month from the junta's lobbying budget. He was brought on as a consultant to DCI Group, which signed a $3 million, one-year contract with Naypyitaw's Information Ministry in mid-2025 to rebuild ties with the Trump administration around trade, natural resources, and humanitarian relief. The pitch is that Washington gets rare earths diverted away from China, and the junta gets rehabilitated. Marco Rubio told a House panel that Beijing holds "tremendous" influence over the regime, said Myanmar was "a hard nut to crack," and said only "baby steps" were realistic. He’s right, and there might be a case for moving faster. A Chinese mining company working with the United Wa State Army has been running tungsten out of Shan State's Mong Ton Township since February. The product gets moved through Tachileik and Mong Phyak to Mongla on the Chinese border. Wang Yi received the junta's foreign minister Tin Maung Swe, himself a former ambassador to Beijing, in the Chinese capital on Friday and restated his terms. He wants continued Belt and Road progress and safety guarantees for Chinese staff in-country.

Read more: The Irrawaddy (Rubio quotes, Wang Yi), The Irrawaddy (DCI contract, Stone)

A Fifth of the Map and a Full Air Force

The junta controls 21 percent of Myanmar's territory against resistance forces that control about 42 percent. On Saturday, four airstrikes on Mahlaing Township's Thayetkaung Pin village killed five civilians and wounded 15. Three of the dead were teenagers walking home from a weekend class. The same night near Kyaukphyu, a Y-12 transport modified for combat dropped eight bombs on three villages. The strike wounded a 12-year-old girl and two elderly residents, gutted a family home, and killed three cows and two pigs. Since the 2021 coup, Insecurity Insight has reported almost 2,000 attacks on health care facilities. Min Aung Hlaing announced his "100-day peace plan" on April 20, but DVB says at least 149 people have been killed by regime aerial attacks since.

Read more: Asia Times (territorial control), DVB (post-April 20 toll), Narinjara (Kyaukphyu strike), ReliefWeb (healthcare attacks)

Beijing Plays All Sides of the Border Fence

Wang Yi went to Naypyidaw in April to reaffirm Beijing's support for Min Aung Hlaing's new presidency, with the usual script of stability, sovereignty, and friendship on the agenda. What was less prominent in the announcements was that Beijing has been keeping its own channels open with the ethnic armed groups that control Kachin State's rare-earth deposits, particularly around Chipwi and Pangwa. The mines are in Myanmar, but processing, pricing, and downstream industrial power all run through China.

Read more: East Asia Forum (CMEC joint security), East Asia Forum (Modi meeting, ASEAN exclusion)

Resistance Takes Roadshow to Ottawa, Canberra

NUG Foreign Minister Zin Mar Aung wrapped up a cross-country Canadian tour on June 3 and pitched the newly forged SCEF alliance to Parliamentary Secretary Robert Oliphant after stops in Toronto and Vancouver. The Steering Committee for the Emergence of a Federal Democratic Union binds the NUG and the ousted lawmakers of the CRPH with four ethnic armed organizations, including the KNU and KIO. The delegation has now introduced the coalition in Washington, Tokyo, and Istanbul. SCEF representatives briefed envoys from 24 countries at a Bangkok session on Friday. In Australia, Aung San Suu Kyi's youngest son Kim Aris made his first visit to the country on June 4 and called for independently verified proof that his mother is still alive.

Read more: DVB (SCEF member organizations), Mizzima (Bangkok briefing), DVB (Kim Aris demand)

Arakan Army Takes a Headcount in Maungdaw

Village administrators connected to the Arakan Army have started collecting names of Rohingya residents aged between 18 and 30 in Maungdaw Township. They're using household registration documents to create lists (for as-yet-unrevealed reasons) in villages including Paungzar, Hla Baw Zar, Kyauk Hla Ka, and Mingalar Gyi. Some young people who previously joined armed groups have gone missing for long stretches without a word, and residents say anxiety over the registration is pushing youth to sneak out of their villages before the next gang comes knocking.

Read more: Muslim Network TV

Tourist Visas, Drone Lessons, Mizoram Detour

India's NIA has asked a Delhi court for voice samples from Matthew Aaron Van Dyke, a US citizen, and six Ukrainian nationals who were arrested under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act over a (purported) plan to train Myanmar's ethnic armed groups in drone warfare, assembly, and jamming. The case was filed March 13 after the group reportedly flew in on tourist visas, made their way to Mizoram, and then went into Myanmar without permits. The agency also wants its investigation window extended from 90 to 180 days, saying forensic work on seized devices and a trace of the money trail is still ongoing. The next hearing is July 2.

Read more: ANI News

Junta's Plainclothes Dragnet Tightens in Kalay

For about three months, junta forces in plainclothes have been working Kalay Township in Sagaing. Reports say they’re using unmarked vehicles to grab solo travelers and young adults off roads, from near hotels, and at bus terminals, before shipping them to the Central Regional Training Center 10 for redistribution to military camps nationwide. On June 6, the Kalay Public Strike Steering Committee told residents to avoid Bogyoke Road and the Sanpya intersection, steer clear of bus terminals, and to never travel alone.

Read more: Mizzima

Naypyidaw Calls Moscow to Reboot the Servers

Yatanarpon Cyber City, the junta's Silicon Valley fantasy planted near Pyin Oo Lwin in the mid-2000s, has found a new patron in Russia. Cut off from Western technology and apparently unwilling to fall fully into Beijing's arms, the military is now working on the project through a Moscow partnership that's built on surveillance tech and digital sovereignty. The campus has been stalled for the better part of two decades, hobbled by patchy electricity, sanctions, and the (tiny?) problem that it’s difficult to find investors for a military-run tech park.

Read more: The Diplomat

Yangon Throws a Travel Expo, State Department Sends Regrets

Myanmar's tourism ministry is pitching Bagan, Mandalay, and Inle Lake to ASEAN buyers and European operators at an International Travel Expo in Yangon this June. It's being billed as the country's most ambitious comeback push since the pandemic/ 2021 coup. The U.S. State Department still has Myanmar at Level 4 "Do Not Travel," and Australia says the security picture is still unpredictable even in major cities. The EU extended its sanctions in April over human rights violations. Strange times to be making a strong travel pitch, but A for effort?

Read more: Eturbonews

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TNLA's Mining Stash Takes Half a Village With It

Gelignite stored by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army's economic department blew up (like, as in, exploded) around noon on May 31 in Kaung Tat village, Namhkam Township, killing at least 39 people and injuring dozens more. The blast site, about three kilometers from the Chinese border, left a crater where the storage building stood. More than half the village's houses were destroyed, and those nearest the center were blown apart completely. The TNLA confirmed the gelignite was held by its economic department for use at nearby mining and quarrying sites that run jointly with Chinese businessmen and produce raw materials for silicon metal used in semiconductors and solar panels. Residents of the 200-household village say they were never warned about the local storage of explosives.

Read more: Bangkok Post (witness), The Hindu (mine operators), DW (blood shortage), DVB (six children killed), Arise TV (Pan Lone damage)

General Gets the Full Red Carpet

Min Aung Hlaing arrived in India on Saturday and got more than a meeting with Modi - he also got Bodh Gaya, Hyderabad House, and a tour of NTPC's clean-energy research facility in Greater Noida, with business talks in Mumbai to follow today and tomorow. India is the first country he's visited since swapping fatigues for a civilian suit in April, and New Delhi treated it accordingly. A joint statement revived the long-stalled Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit project and the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway (70 percent done but going nowhere), agreed to improve the rupee-kyat settlement mechanism and cooperation on critical minerals. Bilateral trade was ~$2.5 billion in FY2025; India is Myanmar's fourth-largest trading partner. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri shared New Delhi’s position on engagement: "Disengagement only produces a vacuum that others go on to fill, to our detriment, and those others have no interest in democracy," he said. Modi raised Aung San Suu Kyi's case but pulled up short of asking for her release.

Read more: Dawn (cyberscam rescues), Economic Times (ICCR scholarships), The Wire (China vacuum rationale), DVB (Indian investment), KDH News (Western sanctions stance)

Washington Gets in Line for Junta Dirt

The Trump administration has put aside decades of bipartisan sanctions policy and is laying groundwork to cooperate with Myanmar's generals (we wonder if they share some of the same view as in India), and rare-earth minerals are the prize. A group of entrepreneur-diplomats has materialized in the gray space between business and statecraft, each positioning themselves as the broker who can connect Trump and the junta. One told Foreign Policy the scene is like "Shark Tank."

Read more: Foreign Policy

Beijing Dusts Off the Myitsone Blueprint

The junta has started public consultations on restarting the $3.6 billion Myitsone Dam, a Chinese-backed hydroelectric megaproject that Thein Sein shelved in 2011 after it became a politically inconvenient as a lightning rod for popular anger. The dam is in territory largely controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, which hasn't softened its position. Running "public consultations" through a government that holds no meaningful elections and controls little of Kachin State makes the word “public” do a lot of work.

Read more: SCMP

Eighty-One Candles, No Sign of the Birthday Girl

Kim Aris still wants to know if his mother is still alive. The younger son of Aung San Suu Kyi launched an "81 for 81" campaign yesterday, suggesting that supporters walk 81,000 steps, run 81 kilometers, or cycle 81 kilometers between now and ASSK’s 81st birthday on June 19. She was reportedly moved to house arrest earlier this month after more than five years in solitary confinement, with no family visits, no lawyer access, and a single undated, grainy photograph the junta offered as proof of life. Aris, 49, says he plans to skate 81 kilometers in a day to mark the occasion.

Read more: Yahoo News NZ

Rakhine's Rebels Inherit the Junta's Strategy

Satellite analysis from Bellingcat shows 115 villages in Rakhine State partially or completely destroyed since the coup, and the Arakan Army's fingerprints are on much of the recent damage. The centerpiece is Htan Shauk Khan, where Human Rights Watch says the AA "may have killed at least 170 Rohingya men, women, and children" on May 2, 2024. The death toll came to light more than a year later, after survivors made it into Bangladesh and the camps at Cox's Bazar where they told the tale. The AA denies it, claiming those killed were junta soldiers and Rohingya militants.

Read more: Bellingcat

Thirteen-Gun Salute on the Tamu Border

The Assam Rifles fired heavy weapons 13 times at Min Thar Village in Tamu Township on the night of May 31, hitting a junta-held position about a mile from the Indian border, hours after Min Aung Hlaing met with Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval in New Delhi. Junta forces responded with three rounds of counter-battery fire before the exchange settled in the wee hours around 3:30. The garrison at Min Thar houses about 300, including Pyu Saw Htee militias, Shanni Nationalities Army elements, and Meitei and Naga insurgents who have been known to run armed campaigns against the Indian government from Myanmar soil.

Read more: Mizzima

Thought Police Keep a Spreadsheet

The Myanmar Internet Project counted 374 people arrested for speaking their minds online between February 2022 and July 2024. The surveillance net has made even basic connectivity a risk and (therefore) a chore. In Rakhine's Thandwe area, residents have to trek more than 10 miles by motorbike or car, then hike two hours up a mountain to find a phone signal. One source used that route to reach family for the first time in more than two years.

Read more: Mizzima

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