News Analysis India

Tag: Myanmar Coup

  • Row erupts over who represents coup-hit Myanmar at United Nations

    By AFP
    UNITED NATIONS: Myanmar’s military junta and the envoy sent by its toppled civilian government have launched contradictory claims over who represents the country at the United Nations, officials said Tuesday.

    Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun spectacularly broke with the junta before the General Assembly on Friday in an emotional plea for help to restore ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

    The next day the junta said the envoy had been sacked, but on Monday Kyaw Moe Tun sent a letter to the president of the UN General Assembly to say that he still holds the post.

    “The perpetrators of the unlawful coup… have no authority to countermand the legitimate authority of the president of my country,” said the letter obtained by AFP, referring to Suu Kyi.

    “I wish therefore to confirm to you that I remain Myanmar’s permanent representative to the United Nations,” he added.

    On Tuesday, Myanmar’s foreign ministry sent a note verbale to the UN, also obtained by AFP, claiming Kyaw Moe Tun had been removed.

    IN PICS | 18 lives lost, agony continues: One month after coup, here’s how Myanmar is surviving

    “The ministry of foreign affairs… has the honour to inform that the state administration council of the republic of the Union of Myanmar terminated the duties and responsibilities of ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun”, the note said.

    “At present, Tin Maung Naing, deputy permanent representative ambassador, has been assigned as the charge d’affaires ad interim of the permanent mission,” the note added.

    UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric told a press briefing that the body had received the two “contradictory” letters.

    “We are taking a look at those letters, where they came from and what we will do,” he said.

    The United States backed Kyaw Moe Tun and hailed his “bravery,” with a State Department spokesman saying “we understand that the permanent representative remains in his position.”

    “We will continue to oppose the military coup and we will continue to support the restoration of Burma’s democratically elected civilian government,” the US spokesman said.

    UN accreditation and protocol committees will look into the issue and then refer it to the General Assembly.

    Dujarric said that the UN envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who is currently in Switzerland, “continues her conversations with various parties regarding the current situation.”

    On Friday, Burgener said that “it is important the international community does not lend legitimacy or recognition to this regime,” and called for the international community to press for a return to democracy.

  • Myanmar coup: No request received for asylum from Chin community, says Mizoram government

    Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: The Mizoram government said it has not yet received any request for the asylum of people belonging to the Chin community of Myanmar allegedly affected by the coup.

    “So far, none has applied to us seeking political sanctuary or political asylum. If at all there is a request and we take a decision, it has to be ratified by the government of India since the issue concerns two countries,” Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana told The New Indian Express on Tuesday.

    Claiming that the Chin people have been affected by the civil unrest in Myanmar, the Mizo Students’ Union in Mizoram urged the state government to offer them political asylum in the state.

    The Chin community and the Mizos in India belong to the Zo ethnic group and share the same ancestry. People from the Chin community are settled along the 404 km porous border in Myanmar’s Chin State bordering Mizoram.

    Last week, the Chin National Army, which is a Chin nationalist insurgent group in Myanmar, had approached village authorities in Mizoram’s Champhai district seeking shelter for the Chin people in Mizoram. Subsequently, Champhai District Magistrate Maria CT Zuali brought the matter to the notice of the state government.

    “If they need political asylum, they should apply as per protocol. As of now, we haven’t received any request. We are not allowing the people to migrate. They are busy agitating on the Myanmar side. Nobody is serious about migrating. We learnt about their move on political asylum from village panchayats,” Zuali said.

    She said since this is a very serious matter, she told the panchayats to make sure the people cannot cross over. She said if allowed entry, they would be confined to one place and given identity cards.

    “People living on either side of the Champhai border are of the same ethnic group and they speak the same language. A lot of marriages also do take place between them,” Zuali added.

    Over the past 40 years, thousands of Chin people have migrated to Mizoram and made it their home.

  • Armed Myanmar group seeks asylum in India, high alert in Mizoram border

    By PTI
    AIZAWL: Myanmar-based armed insurgent group Chin National Army (CNA) has sought asylum for their families in India in the wake of the military coup in the neighbouring country, an official in Mizoram said on Wednesday.

    The CNA, the armed wing of the Chin National Front (CNF), has asked for asylum for 40 families, Mizoram’s Champhai district deputy commissioner Maria CT Zuali told PTI.

    “The CNA has communicated the matter to the village council president of Farkawn, who later informed the Champhai district administration,” she said.

    Zuali said that she has forwarded the matter to higher authorities.

    The district administration has issued an alert against an influx of refugees from Myanmar in the wake of the coup, officials said.

    Mizoram shares a 404 km porous international border with Myanmar.

    A notification issued by Zuali on Tuesday instructed all villages to inform the district administration if Myanmarese refugees are seen entering their areas.

    Thousands of members of the Chin community of Myanmar fled to Mizoram because of the military junta since the late 1980s, officials said.

    Though many have returned to Myanmar after democracy was restored in the neighbouring country, thousands of them are still living in the state, they said.

    The Chins of Myanmar and the Mizos of India share the same ancestry and culture.

    With the Myanmar military taking power, there are apprehensions in the border areas that many Myanmarese from the Chin state and other regions will flee to Mizoram.

  • India expresses deep concern over coup in Myanmar; monitoring situation closely

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: India on Monday expressed deep concern over the military coup in Myanmar and detention of its top political leaders, and said the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld in the country.

    In its reaction to the fast-paced developments in Myanmar, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India is monitoring the situation closely and that it has been steadfast in supporting the democratic transition in that country.

    According to reports from Myanmar, the country’s powerful military grabbed power in a coup against the civilian government and imposed a state of emergency after detaining Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) in the early hours on Monday.

    “We have noted the developments in Myanmar with deep concern. India has always been steadfast in its support to the process of democratic transition in Myanmar,” the MEA said.

    “We believe that the rule of law and the democratic process must be upheld. We are monitoring the situation closely,” it said in a statement.

    The Myanmarese military staged the coup amid its rising friction with the ruling NLD government over the results of the November 8 general election.

    The NLD had registered a thumping victory in the polls.

    However, the military had alleged discrepancies in the electoral process.

    According to media reports, an announcer on Myanmar’s military-owned Myawaddy TV declared on Monday morning that the military had taken control of the country for one year.

    Myanmar’s leader Suu Kyi and other senior figures from the ruling party have been detained in an early morning raid, the spokesman for the governing National League for Democracy (NLD) was quoted as saying in the media.

    The democratic transition in Myanmar had taken place in 2011 after decades of military rule.