US accused of cooperating on cyber scams; Death toll in Myanmar surpasses 100,000 since 2021

US accused of cooperating with regime to combat cyber scams

The U.S. Campaign for Burma, along with 24 other organizations, issued a statement on Wednesday calling on Washington, DC, not to legitimize the military regime in Naypyidaw through “cooperation” on combatting the proliferation of cyber scam centers in Burma. The statement followed a reported meeting between unnamed U.S. and regime officials in Tokyo, Japan, on an unspecified date in late June.

“The scam centers and the junta are in a symbiotic relationship: they need each other to thrive,” stated Myra Dahgaypaw, a board member from the U.S. Campaign for Burma, in a press release on July 1. Scam centers operating across Southeast Asia stole more than $12.5 billion USD from Americans in 2025, which is a 25 per cent increase from last year, the U.N. stated in a report released in February.

Assistant Secretary of State for East Asia and the Pacific Michael DeSombre called the scam centers a threat to U.S. national security before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on June 25. “Cooperation with Min Aung Hlaing’s regime would mean helping the very same criminal enterprise that is responsible for, and benefits from, these scam centers that steal billions of dollars,” added Dahgaypaw.

Death toll in Myanmar surpasses 100,000 since 2021 coup

Over 100,000 people have died across all sides of Burma’s conflict since the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), which compiles media reports of violence. It recorded 100,114 conflict-related fatalities since the 2021 coup that toppled the elected National League for Democracy (NLD) administration led by State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.

No official death toll exists and estimates differ significantly, but analysts consider the half-decade conflict Asia’s deadliest active war. “The pain is just endless,” said Thein Aye Nu, 49, whose husband was killed in an airstrike on Arakan State last month. “I am so deeply resentful and very angry. But I don’t even know who to be angry at anymore. I just have to console myself by accepting it as fate.”

In Magway Region’s Myit Chay town, a father lost his teenage son in fighting after he joined the resistance. “If there was no coup, children would be studying at schools,” he said. The family could not perform proper Buddhist funeral rites as heavy artillery fire continued around them. “He left so many memories — I am not satisfied to have done so little for him,” the father said. Read more

Contentious dam project in Kachin State moves forward

Burma’s new pro-military administration led by Min Aung Hlaing, the former military commander-in-chief who was appointed president by a pro-military parliament, aims to complete within roughly eight years a contentious $3.6 billion USD dam project at Myitsone in northern Kachin State, said two sources with knowledge of comments by the regime’s Chief Minister Khet Htein Nan.

These comments come after Min Aung Hlaing returned from a visit last month to China, which has long sought to build the massive hydropower project in Kachin State. “It will begin shortly,” Htet Paing Htoo, a member of the Kachin State parliament, told Reuters regarding construction work suspended in 2011 after rare public outrage over a hydropower project that would have been Burma’s largest.

“An official announcement will be released. The president himself has already stated that it will be restarted.” The halt angered China, but resentment at its deep influence in Burma and environmental concerns about flooding an area roughly the ​size of Singapore prevailed over plans to export 90 per cent of the six gigawatts of generated power to the giant neighbour. Read more

News by Region

KACHIN—Over 20 people are still missing after a tailings pond in Hpakant Township collapsed on Saturday, residents told DVB. Hpakant is located 94 miles (151 km) northwest of the state capital Myitkyina and 58 miles (93 km) southwest of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) headquarters at Laiza.

A Hpakant resident told DVB that five bodies of jade scavengers, who came to the town to search for pieces of jade in tailings discarded by mining companies, were recovered on Sunday. Search and rescue efforts, which began on June 28, were suspended due to the risk of landslides caused by heavy rain.

MON—An estimated 40 men aged 18-35 were arrested by regime forces in Kyaikto Township in June and forced to conscript, family members of those detained and residents told DVB. An unspecified number of the 40 men were released after paying 15 million MMK each ($3,464 USD) in bribes to officials.

Authorities in Kyaikto have been arresting conscription aged males at security checkpoints to help meet an alleged quota of 100 conscripts last month, according to residents. The males who didn’t pay the bribes are being held at the No. 44 Battalion Headquarters and the Kyaikto Township Police Station.

AYEYARWADY—Residents of Kyonpyaw Township told DVB that regime authorities tore down a statue of Burma’s independence hero General Aung San, the father of Aung San Suu Kyi, located in Aung San ward on Thursday. Kyonpyaw is located 51 miles (82 km) northeast of the region’s capital Pathein.

A Kyonpyaw resident told DVB that the statue was built during the NLD administration in 2017. At least seven Aung San statues across Burma have been reportedly demolished since the 2021 coup. Aung San was assassinated on July 19, 1947 – commemorated annually as the national holiday Martyrs’ Day.