World must not forget Myanmar's ethnic minorities

NEKKEI ASIA

Denis D. Gray
March 31, 2021

Escaping Karen villagers, pictured on Mar.28: more than 10,000 members of the ethnic minority have been driven from their villages. © Karen Teacher Working Group/Reuters

Denis D. Gray is a former Associated Press correspondent. He has reported on Myanmar's ethnic minorities since the 1970s.

The world's attention has been focused on atrocities taking place in Myanmar's central heartland: the towns, cities and villages largely populated by the ethnic Burman majority, where pro-democracy demonstrators, enraged by the Feb. 1 coup, are being gunned down by the junta's forces.

But on the country's edge, ethnic minorities making up about 40% of the population are also being brutalized. The new push by Myanmar's military to target ethnic rural areas has opened up a dangerous front in the junta's bid to "pacify" the population, which has soundly rejected the power grab by Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing.

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Tear gas and fire extinguisher gas float around demonstrators during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 2, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Stringer

Myanmar is burning: with rage, with demonstrations, with the fierce determination of the civilians to end the newly imposed military rule. From peaceful demonstrations the protests have taken a bloody turn, with pro-democracy protesters refusing to leave the streets and the military using live ammunition to disperse them. On February 28, at least 18 people were killed in what has come to be known as the bloodiest day of the protests. And just yesterday, March 3, at least nine people were killed as security forces fired on protesters.