9th May, 2021 #day98

 

The NUG Deputy Education Minister Ja Htoi Pan told Myanmar Now that an interim education plan is being developed for those who do not wish to study under military rule and will be ready soon. The program will be available for all those who are attending higher education, universities, and parents are also planning to use home-schooling for their children. For now, priority of the program is being given to final year students and master students at various universities. A total of 156 teachers, including professors and lecturers, from Lashio College of Education, and 156 educational staffs from Sagaing University of Education have been suspended by the military council, according to media reports.

A renowned poet Ko Zaw Tun @ Ko Khat Thi, one of the leaders of the strike in Pale, Sagaing Region, was arrested on the night of May 8 and died the next morning after being tortured. After his death, netizens are sharing his short poem that said, "they shot at heads but do not know that revolution is in hearts". Sai Hla Min, a disabled man involved in a monk-led strike in Mandalay's Chan Mya Thar Si Township, was arrested by the military council. According to eyewitnesses, plainclothes soldiers in civilian cars abducted him. The junta troops raided Star City Building B5 in Thanlyin Township, Yangon, and arrested 14 people blindfolded and handcuffed. According to Khit Thit Media, one person fell to his death from the building. According to a source close to the incident, the man was pushed by soldiers as he fled.

The military council has declared the NUG and its People's Defence Force (PDF) terrorist organizations. The military council has accused the groups of carrying out bombings, murders and arson. To date, nearly 800 civilians have been killed and nearly 8,000 arrested by the military council, according to VOA. The Irrawaddy reports that the powerful Arakan National Party (ANP) in Rakhine State, which has come under fire for its involvement with the military council, is close to divisions within the party. Aye Nu Sein, one of the top leaders of the ANP, is a member of the military council, but the ANP Central Executive Committee (CEC) meeting decided to suspend cooperation with the military council on May 4 saying the junta failed to fulfil their promises.
In Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, where more than 100 civilians were killed in a shootout by the military council, a ward 3 administrator appointed by the military council, was stabbed to death last night, Khit Thit Media reported. Many administrators appointed by the military council have been assassinated in recent days across the country. Netizens have likened the incidents to the technique of Arakan Army used in Rakhine State in the past few years. The AA targeted many local administrations close to the military. Fighting broke out again between the three Brotherhoods (AA, TNLA, MNDAA) and the junta troops in Kutkai Township, northern Shan State, according to VOA. The military council has extended an uniliteral ceasefire until the end of May but is still conducting offensives in the frontier areas. At least four locals were injured in the clashes on May 4, and tensions have forced some 1,000 villagers to flee.

The military council has approved $ 2.8 billion in foreign investments while many businesses prepare to leave, according to Reuters. The investment also includes a gas power plant but does not say which countries or organizations are making those investments.