29 March 2021
The sight of senior military officers in Myanmar celebrating the country’s Armed Forces Day at the weekend with a lavish party after troops had earlier shot dead more than 100 protesters was sickening. As the Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said, it represented a new low in the country’s recent lurch back to despotism after a brief flirtation with democracy. Children were among those gunned down and the security forces even intervened in funerals to arrest those who had taken part in the demonstrations.
It is only six years since the first democratic elections in Myanmar seemed to presage its admission into the comity of nations after decades of military rule. They marked a personal triumph for Aung San Suu Kyi, for years held under house arrest before international pressure secured her release. Suu Kyi, while spurning formal office, was the power behind the new government and consequently blotted her reputation as a human rights champion when she failed to stand up for the persecuted Muslim Rohingyas.
