- Hits: 856
The military has been consistently using hate speech as a tool to keep their power longer throughout the history of the country. Since the coup, the Myanmar military and its supporters have been spreading religious hate speeches targeting ethnic minorities and religious minorities to make division, disunion and weaken the revolutionary forces, and to deviate public attention from the coup, oppression of people, and failure of the military in the battlefield.
The junta has been disseminating its ideology by means of hate speech throughout its administration in history. As the military faces many failures in the battlefield of Rakhine State, the military disseminates more hate speeches through both online and print media, which could lead to conflicts between Rakhine and Rohingya. It is also found that fake news was circulated to create fear among the public that the country is in danger as some people were trying to demolish the 1982 citizenship laws.
The junta and its supporters are circulating hate speeches in various ways, via both online and printed media, to make the public misunderstand revolution forces activists.
The objective of BHRN monthly report is to monitor and analysis the sources of hate speech, circulated by the military and its supporters. BHRN documented a total of 61 hate speech cases in the month of June 2024.
- Hits: 738
Operation 1027 resumed this month in Northern Rakhine State which indicates China’s tolerance of the regime in Nay Pyi Taw has gone thinner. Just days after the operation resumed one of the members of the Brotherhood Alliance, which is reading the operation, Ta’ang Palaung Liberation Army (TNLA) said it is poised to take control of two major towns in Northern Shan State, Naungchio and Kyaukmae. Now they are moving toward Pyi Oo Lwin, the town which hosts the junta’s biggest military training institute. Other priced targets the alliance is targeting are the capital of Northern Shan State Lashio also the headquarters of the regime Northeastern Command, and Mandalay, the seat of Burma's last king.
In the west another member of the alliance the Arakan Army (AA) is making further gains this month, now they control the second-largest city in the State, Thandwe.
It is no secret that the Chinese government at the highest level is backing these rebel groups fighting the regime led by Min Aung Hlaing, whom Beijing most despise among so-called Myanmar leaders.
China perhaps may be looking for how to maintain stability in Myanmar in the post-Min Aung Hlaing era, they seek support from former leaders of Myanmar including a reformist former president U Thein Sein in trying to keep the country united after the current conflict ended.
- Hits: 666
As hate speech is a term that comes from emotion, there is a wide spectrum in defining it, not a specific one. BHRN, therefore, standardized the definition of hate speech for this report as follows. Hate speech in this report means aggressiveness and hatred against protected characteristics of a person or a group, blaming, discriminative expression, writing, gesture, or art expression of excoriation, dehumanization.
It means attacking someone’s faith, language, gender, sexual orientation, origin, ethnicity, skin colour, race, belief, citizenship and physical appearance. The monitored hate speeches were categorised as (1) Criminalising Hate Speech, (2) Abusive Hate Speech, (3) Dehumanizing Hate Speech, (4) Violence Inciting Hate Speech, (5) Threatening Hate Speech, and (6) Hate Speech that supports prejudicial actions inspired by hate speech.
BHRN has daily documented hate speech terms and usages found in the contents –based on the current political crisis - disseminated by the military.
This report was written after monitoring both online and printed media which were used by Junta and its supporters to spread their hate speeches. BHRN has monitored 9 Facebook groups, 36 Facebook Accounts, 19 Tik Tok Accounts, 25 Telegram Channels and 4 Printed Media during May 2024.
- Hits: 800
Two key developments that took place last October have contributed to the current economic troubles in Myanmar.
They are - announcements by the United States on the imposition of sanctions on Myanmar State-owned Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise (MoGE), a key source of foreign exchange for the junta and other is the beginning of “Operation 1027”, which not only put the junta on the back foot militarily, but it also gives a major blow to the junta’s source of income. The military operation by the Three Brotherhood Alliance that started on 27 October led the junta to lose the major border trading towns with China to the rebel groups.
According to some experts, the income from the sales of oil and gas amounts to more than US$1.5 billion in the financial year 2020-2021. The border trade with China accounts for USD 3 billion in 2023, up to 40 percent of the country's overall border trade figure.
Since last October the junta also lost control of most of the border trading points along the Thai, Indian and more recently with Bangladesh, to different rebel groups. The military losses to the ethnic armies also led to the loss of more than USD 7 billion per year in total border trade between Myanmar and its neighbours.
- Hits: 727
The Myanmar military and its supporters have been spreading religious hate speeches targeting ethnic minorities and religious minorities to make division and disunion among the revolutionary forces. The junta is disseminating its ideology by means of hate speech. Moreover, the 2021 coup accelerates persecution, marginalization, and violence against persecuted communities. The junta is using hate speech as a tool to create fear and disunion among the communities. The military is trying to keep their power longer and to continue their persecution by creating hate speeches that target ethnic and religious groups.
The junta and its supporters are circulating hate speeches in various ways, via both online and printed media, to divert public attention from the revolution.
The objective of the BHRN monthly report is to monitor and analysis hate speeches circulated by the military and its supporters. BHRN documented a total of 133 hate speech cases in April 2024.