India Faces a Two-Front Challenge From Post-Coup Myanmar

THE DIPLOMAT
By Niranjan Marjani
April 26, 2023

Myanmar’s deteriorating situation risks destabilizing India’s Northeast, while the junta’s embrace of China poses threats in the Indian Ocean.

 

 The military coup in Myanmar in February 2021 has altered India’s engagements with the Southeast Asian nation. Myanmar has been an integral part of India’s Act East Policy, with India developing connectivity projects like the India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway and the Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project linking India’s Northeast region to Southeast Asia. India has thus moved cautiously with regard to Myanmar since the coup, avoiding a confrontational approach with the military government.

Myanmar, Six Months After the Coup

THE I DIPLOMAT

August 10, 2021

 

On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s military seized control of the country, arresting civilian leaders and ousting the elected parliament. Since then, the country has perched on the edge of civil war, caught between the use of violent force by the Tatmadaw and a growing armed resistance on the part of ethnic militias as well as the proclaimed National Unity Government. On top of that, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is causing a surge in infections that threatens to collapse the health care system.

Six months after coup, Myanmar’s political, rights and aid crisis is worsening

UN News
30 July 2021
Humanitarian Aid

Unsplash/Matteo Massim ,People praying in the grounds of a temple in Yangon, Myanmar, the country's largest city.

It’s been six months since the military coup in Myanmar where there’s grave concern over the widening impact of the deepening political, human rights and humanitarian crisis affecting the country’s people.

Speaking to UN News, the organisation’s top aid official in Myanmar, Acting Humanitarian and Resident Coordinator Ramanathan Balakrishnan, described how people have been severely impacted across the country since the junta’s power grab on 1 February.

The situation in the country is characterized now by instability and a deteriorating socio-economic and security situation and to add to that we have a raging third wave of COVID-19,” said Mr. Balakrishnan in an exclusive interview.

Highlighting the ongoing nature of armed resistance to State security forces “in several ethnic minority areas” including in the states of Shan, Chin and Kachin, the UN official said that more than 200,000 people had been uprooted from their homes there to date.

Displacement swelling

In Rakhine state before the coup, the UN Humanitarian Response Plan pointed to some one million people including internally displaced people in need of urgent assistance, but “this number has only swelled”, Mr. Balakrishnan insisted.

The Economic Impact of Myanmar’s Coup

BORGEN

ON JULY 17, 2021

MORRISTOWN, New Jersey — On the morning of February 1, 2021, a military coup in Myanmar ended a four-year experiment in democracy. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, Myanmar’s military history, the militia’s lasting power on Myanmar’s politics and the increasing power of the civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, created the conditions for a coup. To understand the possible economic impact of Myanmar’s coup, it is crucial to understand the country’s political and economic history.

UN says some 230,000 people displaced by fighting in coup-hit Myanmar

PRESS TV
Thursday, 24 June 2021

Children and elders line up for food distribution in the eastern town of Namlan, Myanmar, on May 25, 2021, after being displaced from fighting between the military troops and ethnic forces. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations says an estimated 230,000 people have been displaced by fighting in Myanmar and need humanitarian assistance, several months after the military took power and plunged the Southeast Asian country into chaos.

Turmoil has gripped Myanmar since de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) were ousted on February 1 through a military coup, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement.

Protesters are demanding the restoration of civilian rule and the release of Suu Kyi and her associates, who have been under arrest ever since.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The Views of Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

JUST SECURITY

Jessica Olney and Shabbir Ahmad
June 10, 2021

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School.

This installment reflects conversations with Rohingya residents of refugee camps in Bangladesh about the coup in Myanmar. Camp residents’ views were collected by Shabbir Ahmad and other members of a team of Rohingya researchers during a recent community feedback collection project. The opinions expressed here are the views of the authors and camp residents, not those of any institution with which the authors are affiliated.

New friends, old enemies: Politics of Ethnic Armed Organisations after the Myanmar Coup

new mandala 

SALAI SAMUEL HMUNG
10 JUN, 2021

CADETS OF THE KACHIN INDEPENDENCE ARMY (KIA) PREPARING FOR MILITARY DRILLS AT THE GROUP'S HEADQUARTERS IN LAIZA, KACHIN STATE, MYANMAR. PHOTO CREDIT: PAUL VRIEZE AT VOA (PUBLIC DOMAIN)

Myanmar is still in turmoil with more than eight hundred civilian deaths and five thousand imprisoned since the military (Tatmadaw) overthrew a democratically elected government on 1 February. After the evaporation of dialogue and political solutions, the role of groups with armed forces became more prominent. The post-coup stances of Myanmar’s nearly two dozen ethnic armed organizations (EAOs) that have fought against the military regime will be a determinant in the country’s future.

Beyond the Coup: Can the United Nations Escape Its History in Myanmar?

JUST SECURITY

Ambassador Kelley Currie
May 27, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

When Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations Kyaw Moe Tun took the floor of the General Assembly on Feb. 26 to condemn the weeks-old military coup and announce his loyalty to the elected government, he not only shocked all those tuning in who expected a pro forma defense of the Tatmadaw’s power grab and denunciation of U.N. interference. He also provided Myanmar’s democratic movement a potentially powerful new tool, both to help secure their legitimacy, and to shift the historic dynamics of U.N. failure in Myanmar. To make the most of this tool, the nascent National Unity Government (NUG) must quickly learn how to work with the U.N. system and leverage it for its intrinsic utility as well as to build out their footprint internationally. To date, the results have been mixed, but there are signs that the NUG is learning. Whether these efforts ultimately will be effective also depends on whether the U.N. system can learn from its own failures in Myanmar and make the necessary course corrections at this pivotal moment.

McConnell offers praise for Biden administration's response to Myanmar coup

THE HILL 
TAL AXELROD
05/26/21

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) offered praise Wednesday for the Biden administration over its response to the military coup in Myanmar.

McConnell, who has spoken extensively with deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi over the past several years, touted moves the White House and State Department have taken to address the coup, including slapping sanctions on companies that support the ruling military junta and calling out human rights abuses.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: The Need for an Inclusive Accountability

JUSTICE SECURITY
by Carmen Cheung
May 20, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

If the current crisis in Myanmar is one “born of impunity”, any response that is rooted in accountability needs to acknowledge that the Myanmar military’s crimes span decades and across its ethnic regions. Some in the international community may have first learned about “clearance operations” in the context of the devastating attacks in recent years that have destroyed Rohingya villages and forced an exodus into neighboring Bangladesh. For almost sixty years, however, Myanmar’s military has engaged in forced displacement, sexual violence, torture, and extrajudicial killings against civilian populations as part of its ongoing conflict against armed groups in the country’s ethnic regions. A proper accounting in Myanmar must be inclusive of crimes committed against all its people, and inclusive of all the communities who have suffered at the hands of its military.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: A Crisis Born from Impunity

JUST SECURITY
Grant Shubin and Akila Radhakrishnan

May 18, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

In his first speech since illegally attempting a coup d’etat, Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing told the people of Myanmar that, “no one is above the law.” He went on, “no one or no organization is above the national interest in state-building and nation-building.” But in reality, Min Aung Hlaing and indeed all of the military (Tatmadaw) are very much above the law in Myanmar.

Of the coup’s many potential causes, perhaps the most overt is that military leadership thought they could get away with it. The military’s constitutional insulation from civilian oversight and control, the failure thus far to hold them accountable for human rights abuses and international crimes, and even periodic cheerleading from the international community for a “democratic transition” emboldened the military into thinking that subverting the will of the people could be done without major consequence. To quote the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, “This crisis was born of impunity.”

Myanmar coup: ‘No sign’ of end to brutal crackdown on all fronts

UN News

Peace and Security
11 May 2021

Unsplash/Gayatri Malhotra, Protestors calling for democracy in Myanmar.

One hundred days since the Myanmar military seized power, the "brutal" repression of protesters has continued, despite all international efforts to end the violence, the UN rights office (OHCHR) said on Tuesday.

“The military authorities are showing no sign of letting up in their brutal crackdown on opponents in a bid to consolidate their hold on power”, spokesperson Rupert Colville told journalists at a media briefing.

Myanmar coup: 100 days of turmoil

Dhaka Tribune
AFP
May 10th, 2021

An anti-coup protester walks past burning tires after activists launched a ‘garbage strike’ against the military rule, in Yangon, Myanmar on March 30, 2021 Reuters

The generals stage a coup on February 1, detaining Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi and her top allies in pre-dawn raids

Myanmar's military seized power on February 1, ousting the civilian government and arresting its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.

The 100 days that have followed have seen mass street protests, bloody crackdowns by the junta, economic turmoil and growing international concern.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: A Northern View

JUST SECURITY
by Taylor Landis

May 6, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

Disclaimer: Taylor Landis is an independent human rights expert who worked in Myanmar from 2013 to 2020. She is serving as the author of this piece on behalf of an individual in northern Burma who wished to contribute to this series but cannot be identified due to the serious security threats she currently faces. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the unnamed individual in northern Burma and do not reflect those of any institution with which Taylor is affiliated.

Three Months After Coup, Myanmar Returns to the ‘Bad Old Days’

The New York Times

By Hannah Beech
May 6, 2021
阅读简体中文版閱讀繁體中文版

Police are now stopping random people on the streets. A group of secret informers has reappeared. The killings continue, but so does the resistance.

Protesters running as security forces arrive during a crackdown, in Ahlone township, in April.Credit...The New York Times

Every night at 8, the stern-faced newscaster on Myanmar military TV announces the day’s hunted. The mug shots of those charged with political crimes appear onscreen. Among them are doctors, students, beauty queens, actors, reporters, even a pair of makeup bloggers.

Some of the faces look puffy and bruised, the likely result of interrogations. They are a warning not to oppose the military junta that seized power in a Feb. 1 coup and imprisoned the country’s civilian leaders.

As the midnight insects trill, the hunt intensifies. Military censors sever the internet across most of Myanmar, matching the darkness outside with an information blackout. Soldiers sweep through the cities, arresting, abducting and assaulting with slingshots and rifles.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: Don’t Ignore the Religious Dimensions

JUST SECURITY

Susan Hayward

May 3, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together expert local and international voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

The 2007 democratic uprising in Myanmar looked a lot different from the current anti-coup resistance. Sparked by a rise in fuel prices that created further economic burden on an already struggling population, thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns across the country took to the streets in defiance of the military. In a country in which religious actors, institutions, practices, and ideas are deeply influential, the so-called Saffron Revolution, the most recent mass mobilization prior to the current one, had seismic consequences – contributing to the military’s decision to shift to quasi-democratic rule the following year.

Myanmar: ‘The Coup Has Robbed Us of Our Rights’

IWPR
Paul
Saturday, 1 May, 2021

Anyone associated with the protests risks arrest, and no one knows where they are taken.

I am a freelance journalist and analyst in Yangon, and I live at home with my mother and father.

Yangon is my hometown but now the atmosphere here is like a ghost city. On the streets we face a lot of danger from the military. We can go out during the day, taking care, but nobody wants to go out in the evening.

We have a lot of stress because every day we hear news about many people dying. The military and the police have cracked down brutally on anyone against the coup, and everyone is angry about the situation. We feel the coup has robbed us of our rights.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: “In Accordance with the Law” – How the Military Perverts Rule of Law to Oppress Civilians

JUST SECURITY
by Pwint Htun
April 28, 2021

(Editor’s Note: This article is part of a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series brings together local and expert voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

“When protestors refuse to listen to our orders to disperse, we shoot at the protestors in accordance with the law.”

These are the chilling words of a Tatmadaw soldier. Unfortunately, they are not isolated ones, and they show how the idea of “law” has been perverted to justify both the Feb. 1, 2021 military coup and the deplorable violence that has followed. The word “law” (or “upaday” in Burmese) has long been a tenuous concept in Myanmar. After decades living under a military dictatorship, in which laws were used as tools of oppression and could change at the whim of those in power, the people of Myanmar have, understandably, little trust in law. The recent actions of Min Aung Hlaing and the current junta have only further affirmed this perception. The concept of law and the related idea of the rule of law have been warped and manipulated by soldiers and police officers, many of whom believe they are enforcing the “law” to uphold order when they crack down on protests against the coup.

Beyond the Coup in Myanmar: Echoes of the Past, Crises of the Moment, Visions of the Future

JUST SECURITY
by Emily Ray and Tyler Giannini
April 26, 2021

Editor’s Note: This article introduces a Just Security series on the Feb. 1, 2021 coup in Myanmar. The series will bring together local and expert voices on the coup and its broader context. The series is a collaboration between Just Security and the International Human Rights Clinic at Harvard Law School).

On Feb. 1, 2021, the Myanmar military – the Tatmadaw – shattered the all too brief effort to transition to democracy in Myanmar. Over the past two and a half months, the Tatmadaw has continued its illegitimate effort to undermine the democratic elections from last year and prevent the elected government from taking power. In the face of mass popular opposition and international condemnation, the military has only escalated its use of violence against its own population – systematically stripping away rights and violently attacking protestors and dissidents, reportedly killing over 700 civilians as of Apr. 20, 2021, and detaining more than 3,000.

Coup Cripples Myanmar’s Healthcare System

THE ASEAN POST
26 April 2021

Nurses hold up signs as they march during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on 13 February, 2021. (AFP Photo)

Moe* is 53 years old and has stage three breast cancer.

She used to go for radiotherapy treatment every three weeks at the state-run Mandalay General Hospital in northern Myanmar.

But the day after the military deposed Myanmar's elected government in a coup on 1 February, the hospital closed its doors. Doctors, nurses and other medical workers all walked out in protest and have not returned.