9th-10th August, 2021

 

The whole country was shocked by the news of five young people jumping to their deaths from a building to avoid capture on 10 August. Four young men and one young woman jumped off from eight-story building when junta troops raided an apartment on 44th street in Botataung Township, downtown Yangon. An eyewitness told RFA that there were six deaths and two or three youths had been beaten and arrested. According to some media reports, they decided to jump off from the building after one person had been shot dead on the rooftop. A voice recording of junta troops communicating each other during the raid also surfaced on social media.

An eyewitness told RFA that Than Shwe, a former dictator, and his wife, Daw Kyaing Kyaing, had been receiving emergency treatment at the military hospital in Naypyidaw. Rumors of their deaths surfaced on social media on 9 August. They are both around 89 years old.

U Hla Thein, a spokesperson of the Rakhine state government, told Narinjara that they do not have plan to vaccinate Muslims in relief camps yet, although Rakhine people are being vaccinated. There are about 8,000 Muslims in the relief camp in Sittwe.

Soldiers told Myanmar Now that the junta has been secretly vaccinating its soldiers using the Indian-made Covaxin vaccine since early this year without their consent. This Covid vaccination has not yet accredited by the World Health Organization (WHO). On 9 August, the junta-controlled television announced that the plot to assassinate Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, has nothing to do with Myanmar and is a US internal affair, Mizzima reported.

According to the Chin National Organization’s statement, a woman was shot dead in Falam, Chin State, and a pregnant woman was also shot in the thigh and her husband was arrested by the junta troops on 9 and 10 August. An elderly woman was also in critical condition after being shot. 

Khit Thit reported that the building of the Young Men’s Buddhist Association (YMBA) in Yangon was targeted by a bomb attack on 10 August. The organization has been criticised for granting an award to the coup leader before the coup. A local of the Depayin Township, Sagaing Region, told Khit Thit that the junta troops had set fire to civilian homes and arrested villagers on 10 August.