Ousted MPs set up people’s army
A SHADOW government of ousted Myanmar MPs said yesterday it has set up a “people’s defence force” to protect civilians, as the police and military deploy deadly arms against anti-coup protesters.
The country has been in turmoil since the military deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a mass uprising of daily protests and a nationwide boycott from public servants. So far, nearly 770 people have been killed in deadly crackdowns, according to a local monitoring group – although the junta has a far lower death toll which it blames on “rioters”.
A group of ousted lawmakers who call themselves the National Unity Government (NUG) and are working underground to oppose the junta announced their own “people’s defence force” to “stop the use of violence against people”.
It is intended as a precursor to a “Federal Union Army”, the NUG said in a statement referring to a longtouted idea of bringing anti-coup dissidents together with Myanmar’s ethnic rebel fighters into an army.
Some in the anti-coup movement have called for unity among Myanmar’s myriad rebel armed groups to defeat the well-trained soldiers.
But the more than 20 groups – made up of disparate ethnic minorities agitating for more autonomy – have long distrusted the ethnic Bamar majority, including lawmakers affiliated with Suu Kyi’s government.
An official of the Karenni National Progressive Party, which has said it is sheltering anti-coup dissidents, expressed scepticism at the announcement. “As far as I know, it is the people themselves who walk into the jungle and receive the training from the (ethnic armed organisations); it is not decided by the NUG,” said KNPP vice-chairperson Khu Oo Reh.
He said while the NUG has spoken to many rebel groups about a militia made up of civilians, “I have no idea what their intentions are”. Another group along Myanmar’s eastern border, said the statement was “confusing”.
Before the NUG’s announcement, some communities – especially in townships that have seen a high death toll at the hands of police – have announced local “defence forces” for their areas.
State media reported that five protesters, including a former MP from Suu Kyi’s party, were killed when they tried to plant a bomb in the southern region of Bago. Bombs have exploded sporadically across the country in recent weeks, especially in Yangon.
Authorities blame the blasts on “instigators”.
A JOURNALIST who disappeared last month in Mali’s northern city of Gao appeared in a video yesterday, appealing to authorities to do everything they can to free him from Islamist militants holding him.
“I’m Olivier Dubois. I’m French. I’m a journalist. I was kidnapped in Gao on April 8 by the JNIM (al-Qaeda North Africa).
“I’m speaking to my family, my friends and the French authorities for them to do everything in their power to free me,” Dubois said in a 21-second video shared on social media.
French civilians have long been favoured targets for kidnapping by criminal and Islamist groups in West Africa’s arid Sahel region, partly because of perceptions that the French government is prepared to pay ransoms to secure their release.
“We confirm the disappearance in Mali of Mr Olivier Dubois,” the French foreign ministry said, stopping short of describing it as a kidnapping. The ministry said it was in contact with his family and carrying out technical checks on the authenticity of the video.
Dubois is the first French national to be taken hostage by jihadist militants in Mali since French aid worker Sophie Petronin was freed in October last year. She had been abducted near Gao in late 2016.
Islamist militants have repeatedly declared French citizens in West Africa to be targets since a 2013 military intervention by France drove back al-Qaeda-linked groups that had seized cities and towns in northern Mali.
The head of Reporters Without Borders said on Twitter the organisation had been aware of Dubois’s disappearance two days after he did not return to his hotel in Gao after lunch.
Christophe Deloire said Dubois worked for France’s Le Point magazine and Liberation newspaper.
“In consultation with the news organisations that employed him, we decided not to announce that he had been taken hostage so as not to hinder a rapid possible outcome,” Deloire said. “We are asking Malian and French authorities to do everything possible to obtain his release.”