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Headlines:
Min Aung Hlaing Offers Peace, Brings Death Penalty
Wang Yi Drops By to Bless the New Boss
Three Fronts, and a Junta Stretched Thin
Sold on a Fault Line
Ta'ang Spring, Beijing Winter
Brussels Hits Snooze on Sanctions Until 2027
ASEAN Asks Nicely for the Other 22,000
The Junta Doesn't Like What It Can't Read
Mae Sot Bridge Stirs, Maybe
Min Aung Hlaing Offers Peace, Brings Death Penalty
Min Aung Hlaing signed emergency ordinances on Friday that put 60 townships in nine states and regions under direct military command, transferring all executive and judicial authority to Regional Military Commands for 90 days. Military tribunals have been given permission to hand down death sentences without any right of appeal. The order is for territories in Shan, Rakhine, Sagaing, Chin, Magwe, and Mandalay Region, including 14 in Rakhine, most of them already held by the Arakan Army. Just a few days earlier, he was assuring visiting Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow that he was doing his best to find peace, even though he also set a July 31 deadline for ethnic armed organizations to come to the table or face "necessary action." The martial law list includes territories held by the TNLA and United Wa State Army, groups that have already accepted his presidency.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (Ye Win Oo delegation), DVB (death penalty appeals), DVB (inauguration)
Wang Yi Drops By to Bless the New Boss
Wang Yi went to Naypyitaw on April 25, the first senior Chinese official to call since Min Aung Hlaing took the presidency, and apparently left with everything both sides wanted. Min Aung Hlaing got diplomatic cover. Beijing offered "firm support" for his sovereignty, a promise to speak up for the regime at the UN, in ASEAN, and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation forum, and Wang's quotable belief that Myanmar "will become a developed country" under his leadership. China received security guarantees in the form of a personal assurance that no activity harming Chinese interests would be permitted on Myanmar soil, renewed momentum on the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, and more commitments on the Mandalay-Muse-Kyaukphyu railway. Wang's visit was his third to Myanmar since the 2021 coup and came days after a similar call by Sihasak.
Read more: AP News (ASEAN, border talks), The Irrawaddy (Myitsone Dam revival), Nation Thailand (Wang Yi), The Irrawaddy (junta military losses), New Day Myanmar (Min Aung Hlaing)
Three Fronts, and a Junta Stretched Thin
The KNLA surrounded the regime's Waw Lay command base (71 kilometers south of Myawaddy) on Saturday, leaving it standing only because airstrikes and suicide drones kept resistance forces back. In Rakhine, the military sent troops and heavy weapons to at least seven positions west of Sittwe between April 21 and 23, after Arakan Army chief Twan Mrat Naing set an end-of-2027 deadline to take Sittwe, Kyaukphyu and Man Aung. The one bright spot for the generals came on April 25. After a six-month village-by-village grind, troops retook Falam in Chin State. Rihkawdar, the resistance-held trade hub on the Indian border, is reportedly next on the list.
Read more: The Irrawaddy (Thai border spillover), The Irrawaddy (Falam casualty toll), BNI Online (Sittwe fortifications)
Sold on a Fault Line
The regime's 14th public meeting since December pitching the revival of the Myitsone Dam took place in Myitkyina on April 25, well-timed to Wang Yi's swing through Naypyitaw. The 6,000-MW, $3.6 billion project is 25 km from the Sagaing Fault (that’s the one that caused last March's 7.7 shaker). Kachin's junta-appointed chief minister again repeated the story about how the dam will solve local electricity needs. Early construction has already displaced more than 15,000 people. The Kachin Independence Army, which currently controls large areas of the state, says its opposition comes along with overwhelming local sentiment.
Read more: The Irrawaddy
Ta'ang Spring, Beijing Winter
The PSLF-TNLA, which captured all or parts of 13 townships during Operation 1027 and built a civilian-led Ta'angland Council as a counter to Chinese-style top-down rule, congratulated Min Aung Hlaing on taking (no pun intended) the presidency on April 15, 2025. Chinese pressure pushed the TNLA to sign the Haigen ceasefire in Kunming last October, after which it pulled out from Mogok and Momeik. In March the MNDAA overran Kutkai with Chinese connivance. The TNLA still holds six Ta'angland townships.
Read more: Mizzima
Brussels Hits Snooze on Sanctions Until 2027
The EU rolled over its Myanmar sanctions for another year on April 27, keeping asset freezes, travel bans, and an arms embargo in place on 105 people and 22 entities through the end of April next year. One name was removed from the list, but that’s because they died. The UN has numbered the conflict's displacement at 3.6 million, and the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has confirmed nearly 8,000 killings and close to 31,000 arrests since February 2021. Brussels said it "stands ready to impose additional restrictive measures."
Read more: Brussels Times (dual-use export ban), Anadolu Agency (military training ban), Devdiscourse (Min Aung Hlaing), Internazionale (detention toll)
ASEAN Asks Nicely for the Other 22,000
The Philippines, as ASEAN chair, called on the junta April 24 to release more political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose 27-year sentence was trimmed by a sixth as a result of the April 17 amnesty. Sihasak passed along ASEAN's concerns to Min Aung Hlaing, who said "good things" were being considered for the 80-year-old and that she was being "well looked after."
Read more: Asia Media Centre
The Junta Doesn't Like What It Can't Read
Three news agencies, Khonumthung Media Group, Chin World, and Myatmaukkhit News Agency, lost their publishing licenses on April 24, with the ban backdated to April 9. All three are accused of publishing content detrimental to "national security, the rule of law, and public peace." Two of them mostly covered happenings in Chin State. Khonumthung's editor Salai Robert said the outlet had declined to renew its license under an administration that treats independent media as an enemy, and that the revocation fits a pattern stretching back to the 2021 coup, when 7Day, Mizzima, DVB, Myanmar Now, and Khit Thit lost their licenses on the same day.
Read more: IFEX
Mae Sot Bridge Stirs, Maybe
The Myawaddy-Mae Sot Friendship Bridge No. 2 is reportedly expected to reopen for commercial traffic within days. If it comes to pass, it will be the end of a closure that began August 18. The bridge is a main artery on the East-West Economic Corridor, and its eight-month shutdown has brought official border trade to a standstill. Border traders say no official announcement has come through yet, so the re-opening is, as of now, still a rumor.
Read more: Asian News Network
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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