Washington Examiner
Washington ExaminerJoel Gehrke, Foreign Affairs Reporter
March 30, 2021
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is ordering most State Department personnel in Myanmar to leave the country after more than 100 people were killed by the regime during protests against the military junta.
“The actions that we’ve seen by the Burmese military in terms of its attacks on civilians are reprehensible,” Blinken told reporters Tuesday, using the name for the nation that military officials discarded in a previous seizure of power. “Some people simply caught in the crossfire, others just expressing peacefully their views ... This follows a series of other attacks and, indeed, increasingly disturbing and even horrifying violence.”
Blinken condemned the bloody carnival at the unveiling of the State Department’s 2020 report on human rights, a chronicle that he emphasized was drafted prior to Myanmar Gen. Min Aung Hlaing’s orchestration of a coup in January. Hours later, he ordered “non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members” to leave the country, updating a previous advisory that permitted the voluntary departure of government personnel and cautioned Americans from traveling to Myanmar.
“The Burmese military has detained and deposed elected government officials,” the State Department’s updated guidance notes. “Protests and demonstrations against military rule have occurred and are expected to continue ... [Certain areas] of Burma are especially subject to civil unrest and armed violence due to fighting between the Burmese military and various ethnic armed groups and militia forces.”
Military officials ousted State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi after a military-aligned political party suffered an extensive defeat in the latest parliamentary elections. Suu Kyi — who was honored with a Nobel Prize for leading the country’s pro-democracy movement throughout 15 years of house arrest, only to lose that reputation through her silence about the military atrocities against Muslim Rohingya — has been in detention for weeks.
Military officials have charged her with illegally importing walkie-talkie radios, among other measures designed to impede her coordination with associates and allies.
"Some townships in [several] states listed above are subject to fighting between the Burmese military and armed insurgent groups,” the State Department’s travel bulletin notes. “The U.S. government has limited ability to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in these townships as U.S. government employees must obtain special authorization to travel to these locations.”
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