Members of the Yangon University Teachers’ Association protest against the military coup by wearing red ribbons and raising three-fingered salutes on February 5, 2021. | Getty Images
Following a military coup, the US and its allies grapple with supporting a pro-democracy movement whose leader is complicit in genocide.
Myanmar’s military has seized full control of the country’s government and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with hundreds of members of herNational League for Democracy (NLD) party in a move the Biden administration has labeled a “coup.”
The military has said it will remain in control of the country for at least a year, with ultimate authority resting with Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing. It’s unclear what will happen after 12 months, though some suspect the military will stay in charge beyond that.
Myanmar has gone back and forth between military and civilian leadership since 1948, but the Tatmadaw, as the military is more commonly known, always held significant power. The United States and other nations placed sanctions on the country for decades to compel the generals to enact pro-democracy reforms, and in 2011, the military finally ceded some of its power to civilian leaders and began to govern alongside Suu Kyi and her party.
Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, had long advocated for democracy, including while the military held her under house arrest for years, and received global support for her struggle.
But once she became the country’s top civilian leader, she declined to challenge the military on one very important issue: its 2017 campaign of genocide against the Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in the country. She even defended their actions in an international court.
In 2020, she campaigned for further restricting the military’s role in governing the country, and in parliamentary elections in November, her party won a sweeping victory, essentially giving her a mandate to pursue those changes. Seeing that as a direct threat to their power, the nation’s generals claimed, without evidence, that the election was fraudulent. And just hours before the new parliament was to convene, the military launched its coup.
Human rights advocates warn the coup will mean danger for anyone who disagrees with the military’s actions, but it could prove especially perilous for the Rohingya and other persecuted ethnic and religious minorities in the country.
“The military is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya and other severe human rights abuses against other ethnic minorities, including the Rakhine, Kachin, [and] Shan,” Daniel P. Sullivan, a senior advocate for human rights at Refugees International who focuses on Myanmar, told Vox’s Jen Kirby.
The Biden administration labeled the takeover a coup, which will result in cuts to the already small amount of foreign aid the US gives the country, and said it is considering placing economic sanctions on Myanmar’s military. But it also faces the question of how to support the country’s pro-democracy movement without also supporting Suu Kyi, who has been “potentially complicit in genocide,” writes Vox’s Jariel Arvin.
The U.N. chief is pledging that the United Nations will do everything it can to unite the international community and create conditions for the military coup in Myanmar to be reversed
Myanmar attorney Khin Maung Zaw has been assigned by the leadership of the now-deposed National League for Democracy (NLD) to represent state counselor and de facto national leader Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, now both being held under house arrest, in their trial on charges brought by Myanmar’s new military leaders. Here, Khin Maung Zaw speaks with RFA’s Myanmar Service in an exclusive interview:
RFA: We have learned that you are going to represent the detained NLD leaders, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Can you tell us how you became involved in this case?
Khin Maung Zaw: I was asked by the NLD’s Central Executive Committee to take up these cases, and I now have a written request from them to represent Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint. Aung San Suu Kyi has been charged under Section 8 of the Import and Export Law with the ownership of illegal walkie-talkies, and President Win Myint under Section 25 of the Natural Disaster Prevention Law. These are two separate cases.
RFA: Will you be their only attorney? Have you been able to meet with them?
Khin Maung Zaw: I will be assisted by Supreme Court lawyer Daw Min Min Soe and High Court lawyer U Rashid in the proceedings, and we are now preparing all relevant documents. Normally when a case is assigned to us we have to take the general power agreement [General Power of Attorney] to the accused for them to sign.
So with the letter from the NLD, we went to the houses of Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint yesterday, as they are both under house arrest, but we couldn’t get in, and so we went to the township police officer who made the arrests to ask him to let us see the leaders. He said he didn’t have the authority to do this and told us to ask the District Police Chief.
But the latter told us he was too busy and didn’t have time to see us. We tried again today, but without success. We hope to see him soon.
RFA: Do you think that the authorities will allow you to meet with your clients?
Khin Maung Zaw: The accused has the right to meet with their legal representative, according to the Prisons Manual. We had this same experience in the case of Reuters correspondent Wa Lone, whom we were able to meet only at the end of the remand period. We are hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
What we really want is an acquittal. We believe that they have done nothing illegal, as the charges against them now say. And look at the case of the president. Even though Myint Swe is now the acting president, Win Myint is legally still the president because he was not impeached, and only an impeachment can remove a president from his position.
Under Section 215 of the Constitution, the president does not have to answer to any criminal charges. The remand period will end on Feb. 17, and they will have to be in court by then. I don’t know whether the accused will appear in a virtual court or not, but I have the right to see them.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Khin Maung Nyane.
A Civil Disobedience Movement in response to a coup by the military spread rapidly throughout Myanmar on Friday despite threats of a crackdown, while investors began pulling out of the country amid political uncertainty and calls for a pressure campaign by the international community.
Hundreds of government employees from various sectors joined a protest in the capital Naypyidaw, demanding the release of detained leaders and calling on the military, or Tatmadaw, to respect the results of the country’s November 2020 election, which saw State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party win in a landslide.
Staffers from the Ministry of Social Welfare and Relief and Resettlement, the Ministry of Electric Power and Energy, the Ministry of Construction, and the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs joined the protests, while doctors and nurses from the city’s 1,000-bed hospital joined the protests, dubbed the Civil Disobedience Movement, demanding an end to military rule.
“We are here to show our support for the people,” Thet Lwin Oo, assistant director of the Ministry of Ethnic Affairs, told RFA’s Myanmar Service. “We worry for our future because we are government employees.”
On Monday, the military dissolved parliament, citing allegations of voter fraud in a bloodless coup that gave it control of the country. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto leader, was taken into custody along with other NLD leaders in the putsch, which saw army chief General Min Aung Hlaing declare a one-year state of emergency. The 75-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest.
Raucous street protests and criticism of the coup on social media have since been met with arrests in cities across Myanmar, drawing condemnation from Western governments. In New York on Thursday, the U.N. Security Council expressed “deep concern” at the declaration of the junta’s state of emergency and the “arbitrary detention” of Aung San Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and others. As of Friday morning, 134 NLD members had been detained, according to the Irrawaddy online news website.
In addition to Friday’s protests in Naypyidaw, more than 300 academic staff members and 200 students from Dagon University in Myanmar’s economic center of Yangon held a protest in front of the school’s Convocation Hall, displaying a three-finger salute borrowed from Thailand’s democracy movement to condemn the military’s actions.
Nyi Nyi Lwin, a professor at Dagon University’s International Relations Department, told RFA that academic staff took part in the protests “of our own volition and without any outside pressure.”
“We want the elected leaders to be released and we condemn the military takeover, which shouldn’t have happened at all,” he said.
Min Han Htet, president of the Dagon University Students Union, said students would go on fighting to ensure that Monday’s coup would be “the country’s last military takeover.”
“There will be more public demonstrations throughout the country in the coming days and I believe this kind of movement will have to be led by us students,” he said. “With the help of the entire population, we must take down this military dictatorship so that it won’t be a threat to future generations.”
Dagon University staff and students were joined by staff from the Yangon Institute of Education, who launched a “red ribbon campaign” in support of the color of the NLD’s flag and to signal their condemnation of military rule.
Medical staff at Yangon University Hospital also held a red ribbon protest Friday.
In total, thousands of government and medical staff, as well as students and academics at 91 government hospitals, 18 universities and colleges and 12 government departments in 79 townships across the country were on strike in protest of the coup, according to the Civil Disobedience Movement Facebook page.
Teachers take part in the Civil Disobedience Movement in Sittwe, Rakhine state, Feb. 5, 2021. RFA
Regional cities see protests
Similar protests were held by academics and students at universities in the seats of Myanmar’s Magway region, and Kayin, and Kachin states; while red ribbon campaigns were launched in Mandalay, Ayeyarwaddy, Taninthayi and Yangon regions, as well as Chin and Rakhine states.
Anti-coup protests also spread Friday to the townships of Sittwe in Rakhine state, Lashio in Shan state, Dawei in Tanintharyi region, Loikaw in Kayah state, Kalemyo in Sagaing region, and Chauk and Pakokku in Magway region.
The protests at educational institutes came a day after Cho Yu Mon, the dean of the Hpa-an Technological High School in the seat of Kayin state, was detained by police for promoting civil disobedience during a protest at the school.
Cho Yu Mon has been charged with defamation of the state under article 505(B) of the penal code and is being held without bail at Hpa-an Central Prison, fellow teacher Naing Say, who recorded a video of the arrest that has since gone viral on social media, told RFA.
“The main reason for her arrest is that we held a civil disobedience movement campaign at our school, Naing Say said, adding that her case is set to be heard in court on Feb. 17.
Meanwhile, military authorities in several townships on Friday began arresting people who have taken part in a nightly nationwide pot-banging campaign to signal their frustration over the coup.
On Friday, authorities detained six people in Mandalay region’s Chan Mya Tharzi township, bringing to 30 the number of people arrested in the region since the beginning of the campaign on the evening of Feb. 2. Arrests have also been made in Myingyan, Magway, Maypyidaw, and Yangon.
Several people in both Mandalay and Yangon regions were detained for banging pots but released after police were surrounded by angry residents.
Most pot-bangers are being detained and charged under section 47 of Myanmar’s Police Act, which allows the authorities to arrest those who “disrupt safety and security in public spaces” without warrants. Others are being targeted under article 27 of the Civil Administration Act, which carries a fine of 5,000 kyat (U.S. $3.65) or up to seven days in prison.
Shortly after the launch of the pot-banging campaign began, police nationwide were ordered to monitor and file reports on participants. The directive was posted to social media earlier this week and has since gone viral.
Plastic crates containing Kirin brand beer bottles are seen at the Kirin Brewery factory in Yokohama, south of Tokyo, Japan, June 11, 2019. Reuters
Military business partners
On Friday, foreign firms began distancing themselves from partnerships with Myanmar’s military, which is involved in a myriad of sectors, including banking, breweries, buses, telecoms, tobacco and media.
Kirin Holdings of Japan announced it had ended its relationship with the Tatmadaw, prompting the International Campaign for the Rohingya—which advocates on behalf of the Muslim ethnic group that endured a brutal military-led crackdown in 2017—to suggest it had “finally stepped too far” in orchestrating the coup.
Simon Billenness, executive director of the International Campaign for the Rohingya, said in a statement that Kirin had “finally acknowledged its grievous mistake” in choosing to do business with Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited, a military-owned conglomerate, and called on corporations around the globe to also cut ties with the military.
In particular, he called out Facebook—which the junta blocked access to on Thursday—for providing a platform that the military uses to recruit soldiers and conduct business, as well as jewelers that buy gems the military uses as a substantial source of revenue.
Billenness also called on governments to hold the Myanmar military accountable for its actions through sanctions against Myanmar military leaders, the army’s extensive business empire, and the military’s business associates.
Kirin’s announcement came as Myanmar’s former student leaders Ko Min Ko Naing and Ko Jimmy of the 88 Generation Peace and Open Society urged the public to take a variety of approaches to oppose military rule, including a boycott of its businesses.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the State Department in Washington, Feb. 4, 2021. AP Photo
US lawmakers weigh in
In Washington, Senators Edward J. Markey, Jim Risch, Bob Menendez, and Marco Rubio called on President Joe Biden’s administration to take steps to preserve Myanmar’s “fragile democratic transition” following Monday’s coup.
In a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the senators called on the White House to press for the immediate release of all political prisoners detained in association with the coup, impose targeted sanctions on the senior leadership of the Tatmadaw, and organize multilateral economic and diplomatic pressure with global allies.
They also urged the administration to use the U.S. position on the United Nations Security Council to push for a “quick and serious” U.N. consideration of the situation in Myanmar, remain engaged with partners in the country, and to call for protections for the roughly 600,000 Rohingya who still live in Rakhine state.
“Given the Tatmadaw’s long history of human rights violations and suppression of democracy, there is no reason to believe Burma’s military leaders will return the country to democratic rule without strong and sustained international pressure,” the Senators wrote, using the British colonial name for Myanmar.
The United Nations headquarters in New York, Sept. 21, 2020. AP Photo
UN condemnation
The lawmakers’ call for action came a day after U.N. Special Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener spoke with Myanmar’s Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice-General Soe Win, condemning the military action and calling for the immediate release of all detained government officials, according to U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
“[The Special Envoy] had a virtual meeting with the deputy commander in chief of the armed forces of Myanmar,” Dujarric told reporters on Friday.
“She reiterated the Secretary-General’s strong condemnation of the military action that disrupted the democratic reforms that were taking place in the country. She also reiterated her call for the immediate release of all detained and emphasized the need to advance progress on key areas in regards to a safe, dignified, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of the Rohingya refugees.”
Attorney Khin Maung Zaw, who is representing Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, told RFA Friday that he had been unable to meet with his clients, who are both under house arrest. Aung San Suu Kyi was charged under the Section 8 Import & Export Law for ownership of “illegal walkie-talkies,” while Win Myint was accused of violating Section 25 of the Natural Disaster Prevention Law.
Pyi Pyo, an elected member of parliament for the NLD, said he expects the military to bring charges against additional party members.
“This coup was launched by a small group of senior officers and we are hoping to see good decent Tatmadaw officers who would stand on the side of the people,” he said.
Reported by RFA’s Myanmar Service. Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.
In #Myanmar, the return of the #military means the return of “Kabar Ma Kyay Bu” sung to the tune of Kansas’ Dust In The Wind.
Journalist Catherine Field tells #WorldThisWeek why that anthem of resistance resonates so profoundly in a nation that’s now seen its democratic transition suspended after only five years.
Fox News has canceled “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the Los Angeles Times reported on Friday.
The final airing of the show, which typically runs twice each night on Fox Business Network, will take place on Friday, a Fox News representative told the L.A. Times.
“As we said in October, Fox News Media regularly considers programming changes and plans have been in place to launch new formats as appropriate post-election, including on Fox Business,” the representative said. “This is part of those planned changes. A new 5 p.m. program will be announced in the near future.”
He has been fired more times by more networks than any other “personality” that I can think of at the moment.
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