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Headlines:
Junta Runs Dry
Lights Out Till the Rains Come
Same Generals, New Suits
Rebel Toll Booth on the Rare-Earth Highway
Bombing Its Own POWs
Delhi Busts Drone Smugglers
Papers, Please
Junta Runs Dry
Myanmar's domestic airlines stopped selling tickets this week as jet fuel ran out, with Myanmar National Airlines telling customers to "check again around April" and Myanmar Airways International stopping all domestic routes while keeping its Bangkok and Singapore flights running. The military government blamed Middle East tensions and trotted out a nationwide fuel rationing system using QR codes that limit purchases to once or twice a week depending on engine size. Diesel prices rose sharply on March 20, and the regime ordered all government employees to work from home every Wednesday starting March 25 to save fuel. The central bank sold $96 million to oil companies at favorable rates this month to help with imports, and junta spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun insists the country has reserves with more tankers on the way. The Straits Times reported a 50-day stockpile claim, though other accounts say “40 days,” and either figure sits awkwardly alongside airlines with empty tanks and desperate families watching rice and cooking oil prices climb.
Read more: Straits Times (50-day stockpile claim), Nation Thailand (airline suspension details), Mizzima (exact price spikes), Azernews (WFH Wednesday policy)
Lights Out Till the Rains Come
Yangon entered rotating four-hour blackouts on March 18 as the grid has a more than 1,000-megawatt shortfall, with the electricity ministry warning that outages will continue through June when monsoons normally arrive. Daily demand hit 4,664 megawatts, but generation is only about 3,600, squeezed by low reservoir levels and a regional heatwave that has residents cranking their air conditioners and water pumps. The ministry is keeping industrial zones powered, but residential districts are getting carved into Group A and Group B rotations. Residents say the four-hour windows rarely arrive on schedule. A South Okkalapa resident said that the scheduled windows sometimes slip by hours, leaving families rushing to pump water and cook before the next cut. The ministry calls it a "mechanical necessity" to keep what's left in the reservoirs.
Read more: Mizzima (Group A/B rotation), Mizzima (oil shock context)
Same Generals, New Suits
The junta-backed parliament came together for the first time since the coup. The military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party swept 232 of 263 lower house seats and 109 of 157 upper house seats that have been announced so far. Khin Yi, the USDP chairman, is now the lower house Speaker, and former general Aung Lin Dwe is heading the upper chamber. Both of them were elected without opposition. The real event comes March 30, when parliament will start the "new president” selection process, which is expected to install Senior General Min Aung Hlaing (he'll need to resign as Commander-in-Chief first to satisfy constitutional requirements that bar civil servants from the presidency). Combined with the 25% of seats reserved for unelected military appointees, the generals completely control the legislature.
Read more: Mizzima (sanctions advocacy details), DVB (March 30 process), Fair Observer (turnout figures reported)
Rebel Toll Booth on the Rare-Earth Highway
China's biggest external source of the heavy rare earths that go into EVs and missile guidance systems isn't a country with a functioning government, it's not even a country - it’s a warzone in Kachin State. The region's ion-adsorption clays, concentrated around Chipwi and Momauk, shipped $624 million worth of dysprosium and terbium to China in 2025, according to Kachin News Group, with the cumulative tab since 2017 roughly $4.3 billion. The Kachin Independence Organization now controls the mining zones and is charging a $4,800-per-tonne levy on exports. That puts a non-state armed group at a chokepoint in a supply chain that can't be rerouted in any short order. New mines elsewhere will take years of approvals and require enormous amounts of capital; recycling tech isn't anywhere close to filling the gap. China still handles more than 90 percent of global rare-earth refining, so the ore flows in only one direction.
Read more: Kachin News Group
Bombing Its Own POWs
As previously reported in The Memo, the junta killed 287 of its own troops held prisoner by resistance forces across nine airstrikes targeting detention facilities, according to another report this week from BNI Myanmar Peace Monitor. One strike hit an Arakan Army facility in Rakhine State where captured officers were being held. The bombing campaign, which ran from February 26 to March 11, killed more than 300 civilians overall and injured 177 POWs. Despite grounded airlines and rationed fuel, the military has somehow been able to keep warplanes in the air throughout the period.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (fuel shortage context), Myanmar Peace Monitor (POW casualty data)
Delhi Busts Drone Smugglers
India's National Investigation Agency arrested seven foreign nationals (six Ukrainians and one American), after they allegedly trained ethnic armed groups in drone warfare and smuggled jamming equipment from Europe by way of India's northeast. The prize catch is Matthew VanDyke, founder of Sons of Liberty International, a self-described security analyst with previous stints in Libya and Ukraine. He allegedly recruited battle-hardened vets to teach the Kachin, Chin, and Arakan armies drone assembly and signal-jamming tactics that they would use against regime forces. The groups have previously reported links to Indian insurgent outfits that operate across the border. Mizoram's chief minister flagged nearly 2,000 foreigners visiting the state between June and December 2024, many of them “not genuine tourists.” The court has given the NIA custody until March 27.
Read more: NDTV (border security stakes), Daily Pioneer (confession details, custody)
Papers, Please
The junta put a new passport law into effect last week that civil society groups warn is going to allow authorities to track citizens more closely and make it harder for citizens to leave the country. The law arrives at the same time that “Training 23,” the latest round of military conscription efforts, kicked off nationwide with ceremonies at military commands across the country.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (surveillance concerns), GNLM (ceremony details)
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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