Myanmar’s Democratic Vision Depends on Including Rohingya, Other Ethnic Minorities “We will never be free until all of us are free.”

THE I DIPLOMAT

Wai Wai Nu
June 25, 2021

“We will never be free until all of us are free.”

Since the February 1 coup in Myanmar, the military has unfurled a brutal nationwide crackdown targeting protesters and civilians who oppose their unlawful rule. Indeed, last week’s stinging rebuke of the military coup by the United Nations General Assembly — only the fourth such resolution since the end of the Cold War — offers a stark reminder of what’s at stake.

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.