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Myanmar junta vows ‘no negotiation’ with NUG, bemoans global ‘fake news’ campaign
- In interview with the Post, information minister Maung Maung Ohn rules out possibility of Asean’s envoy meeting the detained Aung San Suu Kyi on visit next month
- He contradicts reporting by UN agencies, blaming the burning of villages on anti-coup forces while claiming civil strife is exaggerated and peace talks are progressing
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Myanmar’s ruling generals are the subject of a global “fake news” campaign that unfairly pins blame on them for the country’s violence and sees no scope for negotiations with anti-coup militias, a junta minister has claimed.
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In a new interview with the South China Morning Post, the junta’s information minister Maung Maung Ohn also doubled down on criticism of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean).
He said there was no chance of military authorities allowing the bloc’s special envoy to meet the detained Aung San Suu Kyi when he visits Myanmar next month.
Like on previous occasions when he spoke to the Post, the minister reinforced junta propaganda about the ground situation that starkly contradicted credible reporting by United Nations agencies, independent rights monitors, open-source intelligence as well as local witnesses.
Recent burnings of villages, for instance, were the work of anti-coup forces rather than the military, Maung Maung Ohn insisted. Those reporting these incidents relied on the accounts of “unnamed villagers” and the conclusion was that these individuals were set on undermining the country’s security, he said.
In reality, the international media has relied on information about the attacks from groups such as the Centre for Information Resilience – which independently records, verifies and investigates incidents. The group’s investigations have verified incidents such as the military’s involvement in massacres in the city of Bago last April and in Kayah state on Christmas Eve.
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