Myanmar people protesting against the Military Coup in Yangon.
Photo Credit: Deutsche Welle
On 1 February 2021 the military coup in Myanmar signaled the end of democracy in the country as the Myanmar military - Tatmadaw - arrested the State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint, and the elected members of the National League for Democracy. Following the coup, the military junta declared a year-long state of emergency which transferred the ultimate authority to the military chief General Min Aung Hlaing.
Soon after the military coup, the people of Myanmar began the civil disobedience movement and started to run protests against the military junta. Thousands of protesters flooded the streets of Yangon, Mandalay, and many more major cities. In response, Tatmadaw deployed armored vehicles and soldiers across the cities and started to shoot live rounds against peaceful protesters in an attempt to silence the demonstrations. These actions were in clear defiance of democratic ideals and the importance of the right to protest.
Since the new military regime staging a coup on 1 February 2021, the army and security forces have killed more than 700 protesters. In response to the violent takeover by the military, the elected leaders of the 2020 elections have formed the National Unity Government of Myanmar (NUG) on 16 April, 2021 with the ethnic minority groups to declare themselves as the new government that have been chosen and supported by the people.
The violent actions of the Tatmadaw is no surprise as they were already infamous for executing the Rohingya ethnic cleansing from 2016. The Rohingya genocide has resulted in the death of over 25,000 people and the creation of 700,000 refugees who have fled abroad and to create the world’s largest refugee camp. With more and more protesters getting killed everyday, many are realizing the limitations of domestic protests in Myanmar.
The people of Myanmar are urging the United Nations and other international organizations to support the democratic movement. However, the United Nations Security Council has failed to condemn the military coup due to the veto from China and Russia. This veto power is controlled by the United States, United Kingdom, France, China, and Russia which allows any one of the nations to reject any UN resolution that they disagree too. The United States has expressed deep concern for the current military takeover and has announced that the coup was a direct assault on Burma’s transition to democracy. Soon after the military coup, the United States began to impose additional sanctions on the military junta which was followed by the United Kingdom and the European Union.
Meanwhile, the western countries were imposing sanctions on Tatmadaw, Russia and China have been quietly supporting the military coup. China has maintained silence towards the military coup and the ruthless killing in Myanmar by stating the issue as a domestic matter. Russia on the other hand, sent their Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin to Myanmar's Armed Forces Day military parade on 27 March 2021, thus showing diplomatic support for the military coup. Russia and China have been known to have close ties with the Tatmadaw from weapons trading and joint economic projects. Russia has previously sold multiple fighter jets and has trained Myanmar’s air force officer at Russia's military air bases. China, on the other hand, has been maintaining positive ties with the military junta since 1988 and has already built a joint gas pipeline from the Bay of Bengal in Myanmar to Kunming, China.
Multiple states are involved in the proxy war in Myanmar. The protesters are looking at the international platform to raise support for Myanmar. However, currently the support for the protesters is weak as no state wants to get involved in domestic issues and go against the strong military power that the Tatmadaw holds. For now, without an active intervention of the international community, the chances of the victory of the new National Unity Government of Myanmar seems bleak.
Su A Cho, Staff Writer
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