News Forum - Former UK ambassador and husband reported detained in Myanmar

[Thaiger]

The former UK ambassador to Myanmar and her husband have been detained in Yangon, two anonymous sources reported today. A spokesperson for the Burmese junta did not answer calls from Reuters seeking comment on the situation. A British embassy spokesperson has said the embassy is concerned about the arrest. She said, “We are in contact with the local authorities and are providing consular assistance.” It is not yet clear what charges the former ambassador and her husband have been held on. The former ambassador, Vicky Bowman, is the director of the Myanmar Centre for Responsible Business. She served as the UK’s […]

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[CanadaSam]

They are playing with fire.

Arresting a former ambassador (with her knowledge of state secrets) is not something that the UK, or even their close ally US, will take lightly.

Burma has no advanced weapons to speak of, their military junta government can be eliminated in fairly short order.

[HolyCowCm]

44 minutes ago, CanadaSam said:

They are playing with fire.

Arresting a former ambassador (with her knowledge of state secrets) is not something that the UK, or even their close ally US, will take lightly.

Burma has no advanced weapons to speak of, their military junta government can be eliminated in fairly short order.

Watch it be espionage or backing the opposition and then there is nothing anyone can do. No get out of jail card for that. Do you think they really care when the CCP and Russia heavily support them?

[Manu]

1 hour ago, CanadaSam said:

They are playing with fire.

Arresting a former ambassador (with her knowledge of state secrets) is not something that the UK, or even their close ally US, will take lightly.

Burma has no advanced weapons to speak of, their military junta government can be eliminated in fairly short order.

"or even their close ally US": sure they will make a move there with their "advanced weapons", like in Vietnam in the 60s... It is not really the UK that has the US as "ally" but the opposite. The US decides, the UK follows, not the other way around. And the declining US empire has had no say of what is happening in this part of the World for quite some time, China, and even Russia, have taken over (even their historical ally in the region, Thailand, is playing both ways). In the current climate, imagine the consequences of the slightest move by the UK (US) in Burma? For what? A former British ambassador? Yeah sure.

Also in the news, only she is mentioned but really her "artist" husband is the target, the problem is that the Junta has also arrested her officially "over alleged violations of immigration law" (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/8/25/former-uk-envoy-vicky-bowman-detained-in-myanmar-reports). And him for "helping her of doing so". Surely the UK government has warned her for quite some time of the risks, she bravely decided to stay and stick to her husband and now she is facing the consequences. Rather than "what she knows about states secrets", which the Junta could not care less, it is more a message to any foreigner trying to open their mouth in their own country. And apart from trying to resolve the situation via diplomatic ways, there is nothing the UK can do about it. The US also will not try to "bring democraty" as "they have been doing for the last 100 years around the world" in that small country with no interest to them, in a part of the World controlled by China. Even if they could, I do not think they would anyway. The thing is: they have no power anymore to do so. So the UK are completely alone. Worse thing that can happen to her now is to spend a few years in prison. Even the UK would not think a second about destabilising the World further currently for that. That is if they had the slightest power to do so, which they do not.

[OKS]

To my knowledge they've no oil or gas so nothing will happen.  They'll let her out soon enough and deport her.