Insight Myanmar10 Apr 2025

Exit Wounds

Episode #334: James Rodehaver, head of the UN Human Rights Office on Myanmar, describes the aftermath of the country’s recent earthquake as a crisis layered upon crises. With communities already devastated by a brutal military regime, the natural disaster has only intensified their suffering. Yet instead of pausing hostilities, the military launched over 100 attacks in just nine days—many targeting rescue efforts and civilians. Consistent with a long-standing pattern, the junta has weaponized aid, restricting access to opposition-held areas and rebranding the disaster to channel relief only to zones it controls. The military‘s strategy appears deliberately cruel. Notably, paramotors—silent man-powered gliders used to drop explosives—have struck rescue workers and survivors. Despite a declared ceasefire, attacks continue, reinforcing the military’s aim to break morale in opposition areas.

As a result, the humanitarian response has been severely hampered. Adding to this, civil society had already been gutted by years of conscription, repression, and exile, so now, the only ones digging through the rubble are poorly equipped civilians, often under threat of violence or forced labor. Rodehaver notes that even informal relief efforts are becoming increasingly difficult.

Rodehaver calls for a coordinated international political push, and a unified resistance front. He envisions a broad platform where anti-junta groups can articulate shared goals. Only through trust, coordination, and outside pressure, he argues, can progress be made. Closing with a personal note, he honors those inside Myanmar: “Their courage and unflappable will to keep on resisting tyranny ... has been inspirational.”

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(626)

Freedom’s Just Another Word

Episode #611: “I always want to be free.” Lienchi Tran, a Vietnamese American meditation teacher, first learned what unfreedom meant in postwar Vietnam. After South Vietnam fell in 1975, her father wa...

22 Sep 2h 7min

Critical Condition

Episode #610: “I can't leave anymore, because if I were to leave now, I would like never be able to live the same way, because of the comrades who have fallen and the comrades that are still with me… ...

21 Sep 1h 34min

Birth of an Icon

Episode #609: Jostein Kobbeltvedt, director of the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights in Bergen, Norway, reflects on how the 1990 Rafto Prize awarded to Aung San Suu Kyi helped bring Myanmar’s democrac...

18 Sep 1h 46min

The Giving Tree

Episode #608: Dave Hopkins came to vipassana meditation not as a scholar, traveler, or spiritual seeker, but as a working-class tree worker carrying grief, anger, addiction, and exhaustion. Raised in ...

17 Sep 1h 53min

From Section A to 505 A

Episode #607: “I could not stay under a military rule that’s been killing thousands of people,” Maple says. “I cannot just sit and watch.” When Myanmar’s military seized power in February 2021, Maple ...

15 Sep 1h 58min

No Neutral Neighbor

Episode #606: Anusorn Tamajai’s attempted intervention during Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to Thailand began with an undelivered letter. Prevented from placing his proposals directly before Myanmar’s milit...

14 Sep 36min

Borrowed Intimacy

Episode #605: Note: this podcast episode, as well as the following text describing it, includes frank language about sexuality, male sex work, and self-harm. Reader and listener discretion is advised....

11 Sep 1h 8min

Straight Outta Yangon

Episode #604: “I chose hip hop.” Born in Yangon in 1979 to parents who were nationally known singers, Anegga grew up in a household where art was both celebrated and watched. His father had helped int...

10 Sep 2h 34min