Myanmar Latest

[PeterRS]

Given the extensive posts on Myanmar in another thread (yes, I'm guilty!), I suggest we should start a new one since a lot is happening in that country.

First, there is a massive amount of reconstruction required in various central parts of the country. The new capital of Naypyitaw was the second most badly hit after Mandalay with the Prediential Palace, the Parliament Building, the War Office and other buildings badly damaged. Since the capital is only around 20 years old, the junta leader has ordered those who constructed the buildings to rebuid them! Yet, he has also awarded a contract to Aung Pyae Sone who just happens to be the junta leader's son, to rebuild damaged military structures. "In Myanmar military parlance, GE officially refers to the work of military engineering units responsible for construction, fortifications, logistics infrastructure, and other engineering support for combat and non-combat operations."

Aung Pyae Sone is the owner or a director of quite a number of different companies. Sky One Construction Ltd. is one of them. Is it merely coincidence, I wonder, that SKY, under its Chinese name Xin Ke Yuan, is the company being investigated for inferior steel suppplied for the building in Bangkok which collapsed during the Myanmar earthquake? Could the Myanmar and Thai companies somehow be interlinked? Frankly I do not know. I merely throw it into the pot of speculation.

https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/firm-owned-by-myanmar-junta-bosss-son-reportedly-tipped-for-quake-reconstruction.html

Second, Al Jazeera has reported that with the junta's conscription drive now nearing the end of its first year, it is likely to be close to hitting its target of 60,000 for drafting into the army. But the junta has changed its rationale for enlisting new troops.

Richard Horsey, a senior adviser on Myanmar for the International Crisis Group, said new conscripts are getting harder and harder to round up. While some answered the draft willingly in the first few months of it coming into force last year, that has changed.

“Over time, the authorities have had to resort to ever more draconian measures to get conscripts, including abducting young men from bus stops and other public places,” Horsey said.

“Local officials have been extorting money from potential conscripts in order to avoid the draft. Some officials have been killed when they entered communities attempting to compile draft lists or enforce conscription orders,” he said.

And instead of being posted to guard duty around military bases or other posts behind the front lines as first intended, many of the draftees are said to be getting some of the riskiest battlefield assignments.

“There are many reports of conscripts being given the most difficult and dangerous duties that more experienced soldiers are reluctant to do, such as being airdropped behind enemy lines. They are unsurprisingly failing at these tasks – either being killed, defecting or fleeing if they have the chance,” Horsey said.

The conscripts are also being rushed into battle with far less training than the soldiers they are joining or replacing, in some cases as little as three months, and treated more like cannon fodder than fighters, said Kyaw Htet Aung, who heads the conflict, peace and security research program at Myanmar’s Institute for Strategy and Policy, an independent think tank.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/11/myanmars-military-drafts-thousands-in-first-year-of-conscription-drive

[Moses]

7 hours ago, PeterRS said:

“Local officials have been extorting money from potential conscripts in order to avoid the draft. Some officials have been killed when they entered communities attempting to compile draft lists or enforce conscription orders,” he said.

 

And instead of being posted to guard duty around military bases or other posts behind the front lines as first intended, many of the draftees are said to be getting some of the riskiest battlefield assignments.

“There are many reports of conscripts being given the most difficult and dangerous duties that more experienced soldiers are reluctant to do, such as being airdropped behind enemy lines. They are unsurprisingly failing at these tasks – either being killed, defecting or fleeing if they have the chance,”

Sounds like news from Ukraine.

[Keithambrose]

37 minutes ago, Moses said:

Sounds like news from Ukraine.

Or Russia.

[Moses]

3 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

Or Russia.

You forgot: here are no mobilization.

Only on Ukraine military kidnapping young people on the streets. Only on Ukraine Zelenskiy changed military commissars (they are responsible for mobilization) in whole Ukraine twice at past 3 years.

this is villa of Ukrainian military commissar from Odessa Eugenie Borisov. Spain, Marbella:

   

https://en.golos.eu/tajny-ispanskoj-nedvizhimosti-semya-odesskogo-voenkoma-raskryvaetsya/

 https://babel.ua/en/news/96492-odesa-ex-military-commissar-yevhen-borysov-was-informed-of-the-suspicion-the-search-issue-is-being-resolved

He is already in the prison.

[Keithambrose]

5 hours ago, Moses said:

You forgot: here are no mobilization.

Only on Ukraine military kidnapping young people on the streets. Only on Ukraine Zelenskiy changed military commissars (they are responsible for mobilization) in whole Ukraine twice at past 3 years.

this is villa of Ukrainian military commissar from Odessa Eugenie Borisov. Spain, Marbella:

   

https://en.golos.eu/tajny-ispanskoj-nedvizhimosti-semya-odesskogo-voenkoma-raskryvaetsya/

 https://babel.ua/en/news/96492-odesa-ex-military-commissar-yevhen-borysov-was-informed-of-the-suspicion-the-search-issue-is-being-resolved

He is already in the prison.

Yawn.

[macaroni21]

Gone off topic from the get go. 😁

[vinapu]

2 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

Gone off topic from the get go. 😁

it must be AI doing

[PeterRS]

9 hours ago, Moses said:

You forgot: here are no mobilization.

 

From today's BBC website

Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years

President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia's highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.

The spring call-up for a year's military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

[Moses]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Putin begins biggest Russian military call-up in years

President Vladimir Putin has called up 160,000 men aged 18-30, Russia's highest number of conscripts since 2011, as the country moves to expand the size of its military.

The spring call-up for a year's military service came several months after Putin said Russia should increase the overall size of its military to almost 2.39 million and its number of active servicemen to 1.5 million.

That is a rise of 180,000 over the coming three years.

Well, is it new for you what Russia has call-up twice a year - on April 1st and October 1st?

 

[PeterRS]

18 minutes ago, Moses said:

Well, is it new for you what Russia has call-up twice a year - on April 1st and October 1st?

 

Not new. What IS new is what the BBC reported: it is the BIGGEST call-up since 2011. Or do you dispute that as well?

While on the subject does Russia still conscript prisoners - or at least give them the option of conscription in return for freedom (assuming they are not killed in battle)? That became law in the summer of 2023, did it not?

Then in October 2024 Putin signed into law measures that even permits defendants in criminal cases to avoid prosecution if they join the military. Even before their trials. Yes? No?

[Moses]

24 minutes ago, PeterRS said:

it is the BIGGEST call-up since 2011. Or do you dispute that as well?

Should I? 5K more at spring and 5K more at autumn comparing to 2024. Number depends on how many boys in current year became 18yo. Conscripts are serving in their home cities in training camps.

Or West is in panic because of it?

[Moses]

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

While on the subject does Russia still conscript prisoners - or at least give them the option of conscription in return for freedom (assuming they are not killed in battle)? That became law in the summer of 2023, did it not?

Yes, the same as in Ukraine, in Russia some categories of convicts may voluntary sign contract with army. 

 

1 hour ago, PeterRS said:

Then in October 2024 Putin signed into law measures that even permits defendants in criminal cases to avoid prosecution if they join the military. Even before their trials. Yes? No?

No.

If the crime is minor or moderate, not related to treason, drugs, a crime against the person (pedophiles, rapists, premeditated murderers), such people can sign a contract with the army after the investigation into their case is completed, after the charges are announced in court, the parties begin to debate.

The criterion for being allowed to sign a contract is that the criminal article implies imprisonment for 3 years or more.

Signing a contract occurs after a voluntary admission of guilt and does not exempt from liability - such a person is considered convicted, and after returning from the conflict zone, all the same restrictions are imposed on him as after release from prison - mandatory checks by the preventive service during the probationary period, restrictions on the rights to hold positions in government organizations, etc.

"During the period of military service, criminal proceedings against such persons will be suspended, and the preventive measure (recognizance not to leave, prohibition of certain actions, bail, house arrest, detention) will be cancelled." http://duma.gov.ru/news/60026/

 

[Moses]

Back on rail:

[a-447]

I've been to Yangon and Mandalay.

My plan to visit Bagan was cancelled after the coup.

Does anyone have any photo evidence of the damage done to the Bagan temples? And how bad is the damage in the other 2 cities?

As I recall, there really wasn't a lot to see in Myanmar, apart from temples. It's a shame to think that some of these may now be damaged beyond repair.

[PeterRS]

2 hours ago, Moses said:

Or West is in panic because of it?

Why should the west be in panic? I merely stated a fact which you did not dispute.

[daydreamer]

15 hours ago, a-447 said:

Does anyone have any photo evidence of the damage done to the Bagan temples?

I visited Bagan in January 2010.  Below is a photo I took in a covered archway of one of the temples in 2010.  Directly below it is a current photo taken in nearly the exact same spot, showing the roof in the foreground has collapsed, where I was standing when I took the 2010 photo.

From what I have read, most of the original ancient structures remain intact.  Much of the recent damage was to modern restorations, that was not of the highest quality.

Also, I found a photo (below) of another temple, taken during the violent shaking. 

[PeterRS]

1 hour ago, daydreamer said:

From what I have read, most of the original ancient structures remain intact.  Much of the recent damage was to modern restorations, that was not of the highest quality.

I am sure this must be correct. After all, Myanmar has been subject to so many earthquakes since these structures were built including quite a few of 7 or more on the Richter scale in or near Sagaing, and one of 8 in 1946.