What’s Happening In Myanmar’s Civil War?

The New York Times
By Hannah Beech and Weiyi Cai
April 19, 2024

• Why did the military stage a coup?
• Who is fighting back?
• How successful have the rebels been?
• How are civilians affected?
• Who lives in the country?
• Is it Myanmar or Burma?
• Will Myanmar hold together?

Myanmar’s military staged a coup in 2021, strangling democratic reforms and jailing much of the country’s civilian leadership. Three years on, the Southeast Asian nation is teetering on the brink of failed statehood. Insurgent groups, including pro-democracy forces and ethnic militias, are battling the junta’s soldiers. Tens of thousands of people have been killed, and millions more are displaced.

Myanmar civil war: 'We wish we could go back'

BBC

By Jonathan Head
at Inle Lake, Myanmar
17 April 2023

Inle Lake, once a tourist hub, is almost deserted now

Out on the crystal-clear water of Inle Lake, the boats putter back and forth, some piled high with water weeds they use on their gardens, others throwing out fishing cages.

The Shan hills, made blue by the hazy air, form the stunning backdrop to a lake which has been a tourist magnet for as long as there have been tourists in Myanmar.

But there are almost no tourists now. First the Covid pandemic, then the violence since the military coup two years ago, have driven them away.

Why Myanmar may be heading for a full-scale civil war

THE WEEK
JOE EVANS
6 JUL 2021

Civilian death toll rises as military battles anti-coup resistance groups

Resistance fighter with improvised weapon in the southern city of Yangon
Stringer/Getty Images

Myanmar’s security forces have killed at least 25 people in clashes with opponents of the military junta in a township in the central Sagaing region.

Local people in Depayin say the violence erupted after “four military trucks dropped soldiers at the village early on Friday”, Reuters reports.

The alleged raid is the latest in a series of clashes as civilians “increasingly take up arms against the generals who seized power in a coup five months ago”, says Al Jazeera.

Commentary: Potential civil war in Myanmar - stakes are very high for Bangladesh

Dhaka Tribune

Humayun Kabir Bhuiyan

June 22nd, 2021

File photo: Demonstrators block a road during an anti-coup protest in Yangon on March 4, 2021 Reuters

Bangladesh will have to make sure that its border is strongly protected to stop insurgents and any Myanmar nationals from entering

On April 13, about two and half months after the military coup ousting the government of Aung San Suu Kyi, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet warned that Myanmar was heading towards a full-blown civil war like in Syria.

Myanmar and a new kind of civil war

theinterpreter
ANDREW SELTH

Published 13 May 2021

Urban dissidents trained by battle-hardened guerillas in the

countryside could make things harder for the Tatmadaw.

In early 1989, I was passing through Bangkok when a friend from a Western embassy invited me to what she called “a secret meeting”. She knew that I was a Myanmar-watcher, but what interested her most was the fact that I had published a couple of books on terrorism and urban guerrilla warfare. The meeting was with a senior member of the All Burma Students Democratic Front (ABSDF).

The ABSDF was founded in November 1988, after the Burmese armed forces (or Tatmadaw) crushed a nationwide pro-democracy uprising, killing more than 3000 people and driving many more across the Thai and Indian borders. Others fled north to remote areas near China. A few joined existing ethnic armed groups (EAG), but about 1000 others created their own force, soon dubbed the “Student Army” by the news media.

China's UN envoy: Myanmar violence could lead to civil war

abc News
By EDITH M. LEDERER Associated Press
4 May 2021, 


China’s U.N. ambassador is urging stronger diplomatic efforts to resolve the confrontation in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup

UNITED NATIONS -- China’s U.N. ambassador on Monday urged stronger diplomatic efforts to resolve the confrontation in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup, warning that further violence could lead to a chaotic situation “and even a civil war.”

Zhang Jun also warned that “any wrong handling” might lead to further tension in Myanmar.

The U.N. Security Council on Friday strongly backed calls by Southeast Asian nations for an immediate cessation of violence and talks as a first step toward a solution following the military coup in Myanmar that ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her party and reversed years of slow progress toward democracy.

The council again demanded the restoration of democracy and the release of all detainees including Suu Kyi and condemned the use of violence against peaceful protesters and the deaths of hundreds of civilians.

Myanmar’s Civil War Has Already Begun

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Philipp Annawitt

April 19, 2021

Min Ko Naing, a veteran political activist, and a leading figure behind Myanmar’s Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), the legitimate interim government opposing the junta, has put it clearly: Activists opposed to the junta should go to territories held by allied ethnic armed organizations in the southeast. “These territories will become ‘free zones’ where they can continue the fight against the military together with ethnic minorities. Those who remain in the cities will continue their fight by guerrilla protests,” he told Radio Free Asia.

UN Rights Chief Warns Myanmar Heading Toward Syria-like Civil War

VOA

By Lisa Schlein
April 13, 2021

FILE - Protesters take part in a demonstration against the Myanmar military coup in Inle lake, Shan state, Myanmar, Feb. 11, 2021.

GENEVA - The U.N. high commissioner for human rights, Michele Bachelet, warns Myanmar could be headed toward a bloody civil war like Syria unless the violence is brought under control.

Bachelet is calling on all states with influence, especially Myanmar's neighbors, to apply concerted pressure on the ruling military junta to end its campaign of repression and slaughter of its people.

The Arakan Dream: The Search for Peace in Myanmar’s Rakhine State on the Verge of Civil War

TERRORISM MONITOR
Jack Broome
April 9, 2021

  Publication: Terrorism Monitor Volume: 19 Issue: 7

On March 23, the Arakan Army (AA)—an ethnic armed organization (EAO) based largely in Myanmar’s Rakhine State—finally released a statement condemning the military’s seizure of power in the February 1 coup. AA spokesperson, Khine Thu Kha, said that the AA was “together…with the people” and would “continue to go forward for the oppressed Rakhine people” (Dhaka Star, March 23).

Up until this point, the AA had held back from issuing any kind of response to the coup, despite an increasing number of EAOs having already declared their support for the civil disobedience movement (CDM). Some groups, such as the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), which is one of the AA’s alliance partners, have even begun to carry out attacks against the military in retaliation (Kachin News, March 12). Similarly, when the State Administrative Council (SAC), Myanmar’s new military government, announced on March 10 that it had removed the AA from the list of terrorist organizations, the rebel group made no formal acknowledgement of the move (The Irrawaddy, March 11).

Myanmar Is on the Precipice of Civil War

FT
BY LUCAS MYERS
APRIL 8, 2021,

Existing conflicts with ethnic groups add fuel to the fire.

Protesters hold homemade weapons during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon's Tamwe township in Myanmar on April 3. STR/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Since the Feb. 1 military coup, Myanmar has rapidly destabilized into widespread protests and indiscriminate violence. According to the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, at least 614 protesters have been killed and 2,857 detained as of April 8. The Tatmadaw, as Myanmar’s military is called, appears unwilling to back down despite growing international pressure.

U.N. Officials Warn Of Civil War In Myanmar

NRP

MICHAEL SULLIVAN
Heard on All Things Considered

April 2, 2021

U.N. officials warn of civil war in Myanmar as militias run by the country's numerous ethnic minorities weigh an offer to create a federal state with the deposed government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

TRANSCRIPT

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Two months after the coup in Myanmar, protesters are still defying the military. Meanwhile, ethnic minority militias who've been fighting the military for decades have renewed their attacks as well. The military has responded to both threats with more violence against a population it has repressed for decades. Michael Sullivan reports.

Myanmar’s violent civil war makes it hard to obey ICJ orders to protect the Rohingya

ASEAN Today
May 30, 2020

Aerial view of a burned Rohingya village in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Photo: Zlatica Hoke (VOA) / Public domain

Myanmar recently sent its first report to the International Court of Justice on the steps it’s taking to protect the Rohingya. The report isn’t public, but Rohingya activists and rights advocates say ongoing violence and human rights abuses show Myanmar hasn’t complied with the court’s orders.

Myanmar: Full Scale Civil War In Rakhine State – Analysis

eurasiareview

April 14, 2019 SAAG 0 Comments

By SAAG, By S.Chandrasekharan

A burnt down house in a Rohingya village in northern Rakhine State. File photo by Moe Zaw (VOA), Wikipedia Commons.

The situation in the ethnic front is rather grim, with a full scale civil war going on in Rakhine state where the Tatmadaw and the Arakan Army are engaged in heavy fighting resulting in the civil administration coming to a stand still within two months of the ongoing conflict.