On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military junta seized control of the government in a military coup with General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the army, in charge. Millions of people went to the streets all across the country in largely peaceful protests, wanting the previous multi-party election to go through, and soon the protest turned violent as the military started firing on civilians. Since then, security forces have killed over 1,500 people in attempts to silence protesters’ calls for democracy. They have razed villages and caused millions to face hunger in the growing economic crisis. Tens of thousands of people had to flee for safety, and on July 25, 2022, the military executed four democratic campaigner activists, which was the county’s first execution in more than 30 years. In response to the military coup, a parallel government or shadow government has risen up in Myanmar, in opposition of the junta (a political group ruling the country after being taken by force). It is called the National Unity Government (NUG), and in September 2022, they declared war on the junta and started an army division called the People’s Defense Force.
Another major issue is that the military junta has also forced some 140,000 Rohingya people, a long-persecuted ethnic Muslim minority group who practice a Sufi-inflected variation of Sunni Islam, to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. Just recently as of January this year, more than 100 Rohingya refugees were jailed for trying to escape across borders, and 180 refugees are feared dead as their boat is still missing. The abuse of these people has continued since 2017 when “Burmese security forces launched a campaign of mass killing, rape and arson in northern Rakhine, in what the UN has branded as genocide. Nearly 750,000 Rohingyas fled to Bangladesh, where they live in the world’s biggest refugee camp” (The Rohingyas are being wiped out in slow motion).
A strive for democracy had been led on by the country’s previous leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the military’s 2021 takeover reversed the effects of the relative democracy that had been achieved. (“Myanmar’s military holds election talks”). Since gaining their independence from the British in 1948, Myanmar has been suffering for almost 50 years under military junta rule. Although the country (then called Burma) started out with a democratic parliament, in 1962 General Ne Win led a military coup and stayed in power for the next twenty-six years (Maizland CFR). Ne Win’s policies led to a downfall in the economy that created gas and food shortages that led to massive protests from the people. The military cracked down on the protesters in August 1988 and killed three thousand people, displacing thousands more. After more protests under different military rulers, such as the Saffron Revolution where people wore the saffron colors of the monks, and citizens pressing for a new constitution, the junta stepped back from being in full control. In 2015 the country held its first nationwide elections, which led Suu Kyi to come to power. She became the country’s equivalent of a president and tried to encourage a stance of democracy. The junta allowed a form of democracy but were still largely in control behind the scenes as Aung San Suu Kyi didn’t go against them, and then they just took back power in 2021. Since the coup, she has been held “virtually incommunicado by the military” and has been sentenced an additional 7 years in jail, making her overall jail time 33 years. (Myanmar’s military holds election talks).
Myanmar has a diverse population with more than 100 different ethnic groups. There have been many conflicts and divisions between armed rebel groups, fueled in part by different divide-and-rule tactics employed during the British colonization period. This has also led to clashes with the state made worse by the military coup and has resulted in the abuse of human rights and crimes against humanity on all sides as civilians get caught up in what has been called ‘the world’s longest civil war’ that has been going on since 1948.
One more hopeful thing during these dark times is that the government seems to have been trying to start making amends by formulating peace talks with some of the warring ethnic groups. “Myanmar’s military government has held talks with three ethnic armed groups on staging elections in areas under rebel control, a spokesman for one of the groups has said” (“Myanmar’s Military”). They had also promised to hold elections in the future, although they will likely control the voting process.
As you are going about your week, please keep Myanmar in your thoughts and prayers as the country is still under the insecure governance of the military junta. And follow up with the news to see what has been happening, for the situation in Myanmar is even more complicated below the surface, and it is important to learn about what is happening in the world. Please pray for Myanmar and that the government can get back on a path of democracy and peace and where ethnic divisions can get worked out through words, rather than violence.
Sources:
- Myanmar executions: What’s happening in ‘forgotten civil war’? | openDemocracy
- Myanmar’s Troubled History: Coups, Military Rule, and Ethnic Conflict | Council on Foreign Relations
- Myanmar’s military holds election talks with armed ethnic groups | Conflict News | Al Jazeera
- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/11/more-than-100-rohingya-refugees-jailed-for-trying-to-flee-myanmar-camps
- https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2022/country-chapters/myanmar-burma
- https://www.aljazeera.com/where/myanmar/
- Myanmar: Who are the rulers who have executed democracy campaigners? – BBC News
- Myanmar Rohingya: What you need to know about the crisis – BBC News
- https://www.economist.com/asia/2022/08/18/the-rohingyas-are-being-wiped-out-in-slow-motion
Image credit: All images can be found in listed sources.