Since April 8th of 2021 2,857 people have been arrested or sentenced and 614 people have been assassinatedby the junta of the coup military forces in Burma according to data from the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners1, which implies an increase in the intensity of repression and violence since the first days of the military coup and the establishment of the Min Aung Hlaing military junta. On Armed Forces Day alone 114 civilians have lost their lives in a brutal repression that has already been condemned by the UN2, including six children and adolescents.
On the morning of February 1st Burma’s coup began when the government of the democratically elected party, the National League for Democracy, was deposed by the armed forces and former state councilor Aung San Suu Kyi was arrested under the accusation of “electoral fraud”3. Since then, and despite repression and threats from the military junta, thousands of protesters have protested against the coup in the so-called “spring revolution”4. To prevent these protests the military forces have adopted countermeasures such as Internet blackouts5, media closures6, dissemination of disinformation7 and an increase in violence and repression against the population.
Meanwhile organizations such as the Civil Disobedience Movement promote boycott and absenteeism movements by officials, despite the aggressiveness of the military junta8. Health workers, threatened by military chief Min Aung Hlaing to return to work, instead use mobile medical clinics and private hospitals to offer free medical services to the population without going through the government. Activists from Thailand, Hong Kong and Taiwan have translated their protest manual9 into Burmese to support the citizen movement.
The general uncertainty due to the violence in the country has caused thousands of people to try to go into exile in neighboring countries.Between three and four thousand people travel to Karen State from the south of the country and from there flee to Mae Hong Son in Thailand10. Some 700 people in the north have entered India where they are treated as “illegal immigrants” rather than refugees. Among them are the Burmese policemen who fled to India for refusing to attack its population and of whom the military government requests their extradition to set an example11.
Given the seriousness of the situation in the Asian country, the dignity shown by a population that has decided to stand up to the coup is admirable. Despite the increase in violence or perhaps because of it Min Aung Hlaing’s military junta is proving to be a weak government without support from most countries and with a population firmly against it.
1 https://aappb.org/ 2 https://www.publico.es/internacional/matanza-militares-myanmar.html 3 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55882489 4 https://globalnews.ca/news/7654321/myanmar-protests-military-force/ 5 https://apnews.com/article/united-nations-myanmar-media-social-media-yangon-e7765d3459d386219ee1dca8ad1e089c 6 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/08/myanmar-un-chief-urges-release-of-trapped-protesters 7 https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/media-fake-10132020104123.html 8 https://www.voanews.com/east-asia-pacific/how-myanmars-civil-disobedience-movement-pushing-back-against-coup 9 https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZrIiXypVUvPIRs9JG8AsU55FkLsz81pqZstKQcbsAHc/edit#heading=h.9n9f9eiq3xhs 10 https://mondiplo.com/duro-exilio-de-los-birmanos-en-tailandia 11 https://thefederal.com/news/india-in-diplomatic-spot-as-myanmar-urges-return-of-cops-who-fled-across-border/
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