Suu Kyi came to power as state councillor in 2016 after the country’s first fully democratic vote in decades. Aid groups, concerned about a humanitarian crisis, are preparing for a flood of refugees. An entire town of roughly 12,000 people has nearly emptied out. Soldiers have fired rocket launchers, burned down homes, cut off food supplies, and shot at fleeing civilians, according to residents.ĭesperate to escape the violence, families are fleeing into neighbouring India. Residents have reported a large buildup of troops in northwest Myanmar. The Tatmadaw is targeting areas that are home to armed civilians known as the People’s Defence Force. Since the bloody crackdown against protesters in major cities, the military has been moving aggressively to eliminate resistance along the country’s border. How is the military continuing to quash resistance? The country is now on the verge of a civil war, according to the departing UN special envoy on Myanmar. In the country’s jungles, people are training with firearms and hand grenades. Since the coup, nearly 1,300 people have been killed by the junta and more than 10,000 have been arrested, according to a monitoring group.Īmong the protesters, there is a growing recognition that the Tatmadaw needs to be countered on its own terms. Since then, an expanded civil disobedience movement has paralysed the banking system and made it difficult for the military to get much done.Īs the demonstrations entered their second month, the military, notorious for having crushed democracy movements in 19 by shooting peaceful protesters, became more violent in its response. On 22 February, millions of people across the country took to the streets in a general strike. Weeks of relatively peaceful protests quickly turned deadly on 20 February when two unarmed protesters were killed by security forces in Mandalay, one of whom was a 16-year-old boy. In Yangon, the country’s largest city and former capital, residents ran to markets to stock up on food and other supplies. The stock market and commercial banks were closed, and long lines were seen outside ATMs in some places. Telephone and internet access was suspended in major cities. The military quickly seized control of the country’s infrastructure, suspending most television broadcasts and canceling domestic and international flights.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MYANMAR TV
The coup was effectively announced on the military-owned Myawaddy TV station when a news presenter cited the 2008 constitution, which allows the military to declare a national emergency. The military detained the leaders of the National League for Democracy and other civilian officials, including Suu Kyi and president U Win Myint, cabinet ministers, the chief ministers of several regions, opposition politicians, writers and activists. Soldiers have fired rocket launchers, burned down homes, cut off food supplies, and shot at fleeing civilians, according to residents The possibility of the coup emerged after the military, which had tried in the country’s Supreme Court to argue that the election results were fraudulent, threatened to “take action” and surrounded the houses of parliament with soldiers. As head of the National League for Democracy, she had been the de facto civilian leader since her election in 2015. The military refused to accept the results of the vote, which was widely seen as a referendum on the popularity of Suu Kyi. The National League for Democracy, Myanmar’s leading civilian party, had won 83 per cent of the body’s available seats. In early 2021, the country’s parliament had been expected to endorse recent election results and approve the next government. What led to the military coup in Myanmar? In the months since the coup, Aung San Suu Kyi, the country’s ousted civilian leader, has faced charges in a secret court.
WHAT IS HAPPENING IN MYANMAR FULL
The coup returned the country to full military rule after a short span of quasi-democracy that began in 2011, when the military, which had been in power since 1962, carried out parliamentary elections and other reforms.
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The Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, is now trying to eliminate resistance along the border, firing rocket launchers and burning down homes.
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Military leaders’ initially restrained response to the first waves of protests, civil disobedience and general strikes grew more forceful over time, escalating into a brutal effort to put down the movement. Peaceful pro-democracy street demonstrations and work stoppages have given way to paramilitary operations in opposition to the country’s ruthless military, which seized power in a coup d’etat on 1 February.