US Embassy Under Fire for Working With Firm Owned by Sanctioned Military Chief's Daughter
Source: The Irrawaddy (Burma)
By THE IRRAWADDY 15 December 2020
The US Embassy in Yangon has come in for public criticism after publishing a Facebook post that suggested it was partnering with a company run by the daughter of the US-sanctioned Myanmar military chief on an event co-sponsored by the embassy.
On Monday evening, the embassy announced on Facebook its co-sponsorship of a concert to be streamed as part of the online Myanmar Music Festival, in which international artists and instructors will collaborate with emerging Myanmar musical artists for a week of intensive training and performances. The concert advertised in the Facebook post is scheduled to be streamed on Dec 18.
So far, so good.
According to an early version of the advertisement for the show that was posted on the embassy’s Facebook page, however, viewers would have to stream the concert from the Facebook page of 7th Sense Creation, a film production company run by Daw Khin Thiri Thet Mon, the daughter of Myanmar military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. The senior general is currently subject to US sanctions over the military’s mass killings of Rohingya, in addition to other actions taken against him.
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Soon after the embassy posted the original advertisement on Facebook, its page was flooded with comments from netizens ridiculing the embassy for working with a company owned by a family member of a general who has been punished by the embassy’s own State Department for alleged human rights abuses.
Read more: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/us-embassy-fire-working-firm-owned-sanctioned-military-chiefs-daughter.html
Meet Min Aung Hlaing, the Chief of Myanmar's Notorious Military
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Commander-in-Chief of the Myanmar armed forces, in Myanmar's capital Naypyidaw on March 27, 2016. Ye Aung Thu—AFP/Getty Images
BY LAIGNEE BARRON
NOVEMBER 3, 2017 4:16 AM EDT
As the de facto leader of Myanmar’s “hybrid democracy,” Aung San Suu Kyi may still have to share power with the military, but the Nobel laureate has largely shouldered international outrage over her country’s Rohingya crisis alone. With global backlash so squarely focused on Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s military has continued unleashing its ferocious — and domestically popular — campaign unchecked. In just two months, the military has spawned the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis. But as the number of traumatized, bereft, and hungry refugees fleeing into Bangladesh increases by the day, already exceeding 607,000 people since August 25, the world’s attention is starting to shift toward the real architect of the atrocities.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing occupies the highest office of Myanmar’s military, known locally as the Tatmadaw. The 61-year-old may not have the public profile of Aung San Suu Kyi, but the world is beginning to recognize that he calls the shots when it comes to the military’s crackdown on the Rohingya.
On Oct. 26, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spoke to Min Aung Hlaing, urging him to stop the violence and allow Rohingya to return. The U.N. says the Rohingya exodus amounts to “ethnic cleansing.” But Min Aung Hlaing says the world has unfairly judged his solution to Myanmar’s “final problem.”
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The Extent of His Powers
In 2008, a new constitution enshrined the Tatmadaw’s influence and autonomy, while countenancing a civilian government and opposition figures like Aung San Suu Kyi. Despite the democratic window-dressing, the new charter cemented the powers of the “Supreme Commander of all armed forces,” allowing him to set his own agenda, appoint his own people and act as the final arbiter of military affairs. In other words, he is answerable to no one.
More:
https://time.com/5004822/myanmar-rohingya-min-aung-hlaing/
= new reply since forum marked as read
I recalled hearing of Trujillo even when I was young. He was considered a real friend by the US a long time, too, before he became so bloody, so monstrous it probably became embarrassing!
Sounds as if your father was very much in harm's way when he dared to work against him! My god.
Thank you for taking the time to refer to your own personal awareness of this nightmare in a highly decorated strongman uniform! The Americas really had some wildmen ruling over their countries, and some new models trying to follow in their footsteps, with right-wing support from Washington.
Your father was a courageous man. Thanks for your post.
Ran to Wiki to look for a summary of Trujillo's evil life. He was a guy you can tell Trump would have envied!
Trujillo with his good friend, Richard M. Nixon!
Wikipedia, Trujillo:
Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina (/truːˈhiːjoʊ/ troo-HEE-yoh, Spanish: [rafaˈel leˈonidas tɾuˈxiɟ͡ʝo]; 24 October 1891 – 30 May 1961), nicknamed El Jefe (Spanish: [el ˈxefe], "The Chief" or "The Boss" ), was a Dominican dictator who ruled the Dominican Republic from February 1930 until his assassination in May 1961.[2] He served as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952, ruling for the rest of the time as an unelected military strongman under figurehead presidents.[Note 1] His 31 years in power, to Dominicans known as the Trujillo Era (Spanish: El Trujillato), are considered one of the bloodiest eras ever in the Americas, as well as a time of a personality cult, when monuments to Trujillo were in abundance. Trujillo and his regime were responsible for many deaths, including between 5,000 and 67,000 Haitians in the infamous Parsley massacre.[3][Note 2][Note 3]
During his long rule, the Trujillo government extended its policy of state terrorism beyond national borders. Notorious examples of Trujillo's reach abroad are the unsuccessful assassination attempt in Caracas against Venezuelan President Rómulo Betancourt (1960), the abduction and subsequent disappearance in New York City of the Spaniard Jesús Galíndez (1956), the murder of writer José Almoina in Mexico, also a Spaniard, and crimes committed against Cubans, Costa Ricans, Nicaraguans, and Puerto Ricans, as well as Americans.[6] On 30 May 1961, Trujillo was assassinated by conspirators sponsored by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In the immediate aftermath, Trujillo's son Ramfis took temporary control of the country, and vowed to kill those involved in the death of his father. By 19 November 1961, Trujillo's relatives and cronies, like Joaquín Balaguer, who fled to New York City, were forced to leave the country, but not before killing the surviving members of the assassination plot.
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Oppression
Brutal oppression of actual or perceived members of the opposition was the key feature of Trujillo's rule from the very beginning in 1930 when his gang, "The 42," led by Miguel Angel Paulino, drove through the streets in their red Packard "carro de la muerte" ("car of death" ).[26] Trujillo also maintained an execution list of people throughout the world who he felt were his direct enemies or who he felt had wronged him. He even once allowed an opposition party to form and permitted it to operate legally and openly, mainly so that he could identify those who opposed him and arrest or kill them.[27]
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rafael_Trujillo
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Speaking of Trujillo's use of "cars of death" for his death squad details, this is a photo of the "car of death" Trujillo was riding in when his assassins caught up with him:
Found that photo in this article, which is actually very interesting.
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina
General Rafael Trujillo ruled the Dominican Republic as both president and an oppressive tyrant behind the standing presidents from 1930 until his assassination in May 1961. “El Jefe” or “El Benefactor” built much of the modern infrastructure of the country while holding the title of one of the cruelest dictators in the world.
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Trujillo ordered the murder of the Mirabal Sisters who were political activists and revolutionaries. The sisters were involved with a group trying to overthrow the government. The ladies were driven home after visiting their husbands in prison. They were stopped and led into a sugar cane field. Here they were beaten and strangled to death.
Trujillo was also entangled in another famous scandal regarding the disappearance of Jesús de Galíndez Suárez while working for the government as a CIA agent. Galíndez went to the USA and wrote his thesis “The Trujillo Era: A Case Study of Hispano-American Dictatorship” / “La era de Trujillo: un estudio casuístico de dictadura hispanoamericana”. This thesis gave many astonishing and exposing histories on the way the dictatorship worked. Galíndez was kidnapped in New York a few days before the book was published. He was never heard from again. It is said that he was taken to the Dominican Republic to be tortured and executed.
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*Zsa Zsa Gabor, David Selznik, Robert Mitchum, Rhonda Fleming, Shirley MacLaine, Maureen O’Hara, Jimmy Stewart, Robert Taylor, Natalie Wood, Joan Collins, were among the many famous friends of the Trujillo family.
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More:
https://www.colonialzone-dr.com/trujillo/
Very strange world!