“Anyar” is the Burmese name for upper Burma central dry zone.

Serge Pun is a powerful Burmese-Chinese businessman whose businesses including companies publicly listed in Myanmar and Singapore thrived under prior military and civilian regimes. He has recently fallen out of favor with Min Aung Hlaing and was detained by the Junta for alleged financial crimes.

Born to Burmese-Chinese parents in Burma who were communist party members. In his youth his whole family escaped to Beijing and were welcomed by the Chinese as citizens when military junta took over Burma in 1961 and communist guerillas became the main focus of the army. As an adult he later moved to Hong Kong then Singapore and began establishing businesses in Burma with “funds” from overseas. He later renounced other citizenships and reclaimed Burmese citizenship so that he can own real estate in Burma. His communist Chinese links and links to Singapore, a known financial safe heaven for drug lords of Burma makes him a businessman whose moves and career are interesting to follow.

This little report speaks to the nature of guerilla groups in Burma. And how feudal and medieval the politics of guerillas are.

There is an interesting passage here about Rohingya guerillas and the Junta:

“The junta soldiers and Muslim armed rebels, who retreated during the AA offensive on Maungdaw, took shelter in the outposts.”

China actually liked working with the previous civilian regime. Suu Kyi was smart enough to cultivate that relationship. Chinese don’t care what government runs Burma, as long as their influence remains strong, and they achieve their strategic objectives. In the last election in 2019 Chinese were actually caught funding a political party to the tune of millions of dollars, essentially trying to buy seats in the parliament. Alas, that party was caught and its candidates were disqualified just prior to the elections.

The arrogance of these mofos. Watching this you can’t tell me this is not an apartheid state or a police state where people are being treated like they are under occupation. There is absolutely ZERO respect towards another human being. They are treating him like a second class citizen. I’m glad I’m not in the US.

This has a brief history of the most powerful ethnic armies in Burma today and is a must read for anyone with interest in the conflicts in Burma.

Bungles always bungling the first few games of the season. Again.

There has been Chinese-sponsored (or coerced) peace talks in Yunan in the past. There were truces that came out of them, only for fighting to break out months later with both sides accusing the other of breaking the terms of truce. With every disparate guerilla force gaining momentum and growing more powerful, there is no end in sight. Not for the next 50 years.

As a long time observer of Myanmar’s civil war, I need to clarify the somewhat misleading nature of this article. The journalist makes it appear as if RSO and the military Junta have reached some sort of a “truce”. This is further from the truth. Rohingya guerillas have had little to no presence in Burma since the military’s operations in 2017 and subsequent years marked by the infamous massacre of over 100 Rohingya villagers in August 2017. Due to the emergence of Arakan Army (AA) as a powerful guerilla force in Burma since the 2021 coup (Arakan are the native tibeto-burman people of the state of Arakan who are predominantly buddhist), and in a twist of irony, the military junta has been arming and training Rohingya guerillas as a counter to the threat from AA. As noted in the article, RSO “has reorganised itself and expanded since 2022 from a base of around 1,000 cadres to between 5,000 and 6,000, although not all of them are armed, said Ko Ko Linn.”

Currently, AA has control of most of the state of Arakan with the exception of major cities and a Chinese-owned deep sea port.