(Content warning: This article contains mentions of rape, genocide, and murder)
On February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s nascent democracy was thrown into turmoil. The country’s military, known as the Tatmadaw, staged a coup, deposing members of the National League for Democracy (NLD) who had just won by a landslide in a general election. Organizations such as Human Rights Watch noted the disenfranchisement of Rohingya people and other ethnic minorities, but the outcome was still virtually undisputed. Nevertheless, the Tatmadaw used election fraud as a pretense for the coup, under a clause in the constitution allowing them to seize control under circumstances that could cause “disintegration of the Union, disintegration of national solidarity, and loss of sovereign power.”
At the time of this writing, the deposed NLD officials, including the controversial Aung San Suu Kyi, are in detention. Two of them, Khin Maung Latt and Zaw Myat Lin, have already died in custody, sparking allegations that the military is torturing the officials and holding them in inhumane conditions. The leader of the Tatmadaw, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, has declared a yearlong state of emergency at the end of which elections will supposedly be held. However, many citizens of Myanmar are concerned about living under military rule and have been vehemently protesting in favor of the release of Suu Kyi and the detained NLD members, and the restoration of democracy.
The Tatmadaw has an extensive history of human rights abuses. During the country’s decades under military rule, they have waged war on minority ethnic groups such as the Rohingya, Kachin, Shan, and Karen, often clashing with militias seeking to protect these groups. According to a United Nations (UN) Human Rights report on the persecution of Rakhine, Chin, Mro, Daignet, and Rohingya communities, the military has orchestrated “disappearances and extra-judicial killings of civilians; massive civilian displacement; arbitrary arrests, torture and deaths in custody; and the destruction of civilian property.” Since 2017, a brutal campaign of village burnings, rapes, and murders has caused more than 750,000 Rohingya people to flee to nearby Bangladesh. These actions have been designated genocidal by the UN.
During recent armed conflicts in Rakhine, Shan, and Kachin states, the Tatmadaw has used civilians as human shields, porters, and fodder for land mines, killing them if they failed to comply. Furthermore, soldiers have committed horrific acts of sexual violence against women and girls in their own homes. These crimes run rampant and often go unreported, echoing the systematic rape of women during the 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya. Decades of violence and terror provide a solid explanation for the fear among women and minority ethnic groups now that the Tatmadaw has seized power.
Aung San Suu Kyi, chairperson of the NLD and former state counsellor of Myanmar, enjoyed popular support up to her deposition. She spent 15 years under house arrest during and after the 1990 general election, in which the NLD would have won 81 percent of the seats in Parliament had the results not been nullified at the hands of the ruling military junta. During her political imprisonment, she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her nonviolent efforts to democratize Myanmar. However, after her release and assumption of the office of state counsellor in 2011, she garnered criticism for her denial of abuses committed by the military and the ongoing Rohingya genocide, as well as her persecution of journalists. Some argue that Suu Kyi and the NLD were never really in control, and that the iron fist of the Tatmadaw still ruled and the coup simply revealed the true nature of Myanmar’s political situation. “Even though Myanmar always had the veneer of democracy, it was never a new democracy in any sense,” states Azeem Ibrahim, a director at the Center for Global Policy. “The military still held all the cards. They had, essentially, power without any accountability whatsoever.” Despite being lauded as a champion of peace and human rights and a “mother figure” to much of the public, Suu Kyi may have perpetuated massive injustices during her time as head of state. Nevertheless, thousands of protesters in Myanmar are risking their lives every day to demand her restoration to power. The protesters carry signs bearing anti-coup messages including “We want our leader,” “Fight for Democracy,” and “Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” (Daw is an honorific term meaning “aunt”).
Recently, a 19-year-old girl named Ma Kyal Sin, also known as Angel, was shot to death by a military sniper at an anti-coup protest in Mandalay. In the last moments of her life, she was rallying the protesters around her and flashing the Hunger Games three-fingered salute, a symbol of resistance adopted by pro-democracy groups. She was clad in a black t-shirt proclaiming “Everything Will Be Okay” on the day the fatal bullet struck her in the head. In just a few days, she has become a martyr for the movement, and her death is tragically emblematic of the military’s violent repression of peaceful protestors. The Tatmadaw has made use of water cannons, rubber bullets, and even live ammunition to disperse protests. More than 60 people have been killed at the time of this writing, and over 1,500 have been arrested.
Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar’s former UN ambassador, who was fired for opposing the coup but remains at the UN General Assembly in New York City, shared his thoughts on the protests and entreated the world not to turn a blind eye: “I appeal to the international community to help us in whatever way they can. Many of us inside the country, especially those young, young people who are on the streets, are helpless. And not only them, but all of us —all people of Myanmar—also feel helpless. My purpose here is to fight back the military regime for as long as I can … Democracy should prevail. Democracy must prevail.”