At least 570 people, including more than 40 children, killing In two months of turmoil. The authorities have arrested more than 2,720 politicians, activists, and civil society figures. At least 25 journalists were in detention, while others were covering the protests She was subjected to brutal treatment by state forces. On Tuesday, the police and soldiers are in Yangon Chariot off Zarganar, The country’s most famous comedian, is in a military van with unspecified charges. Last week, the authorities released Arrest warrants for at least 60 Artists, writers, plays and other cultural celebrities accused of disseminating information supposedly endangering national stability.
Last week, authorities tightened restrictions on broadband access and ordered private service providers to suspend wireless data services. According to one research companyThe internet shutdown in recent months in Myanmar may have cost the local economy close to $ 1 billion. This is a price the regime seems happy to pay to deter protesters from coordinating their actions and disseminating more information. Dissidents have courageously taken on old forms of communication, and set off Rogue radio stations Leaflets have been published urging a national boycott of the official celebration next week in Xinjian, Myanmar’s traditional new year.
However, the resilience and determination of the demonstrators “is not unambiguously good news, Because the junta also will not give up, regardless of the cost, leaving little hope of salvaging Myanmar’s political liberalization, economic reform, and development progress during a decade of civilian rule, Thitinan Pongsudhirak BooksHe is a distinguished political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. “Instead, the country faces the imminent threat of economic collapse, state collapse, and internal strife – perhaps even full-blown civil war.”
While state authorities shot dead ordinary people gathered in the streets, the most extreme factions among the protesters were as well. Begin to embrace armed resistance. Improvised weapons and tactical gear appear in pockets on the protest front lines. The security forces shot at us. We don’t have anything. We are just walking [the] Street with nothing in our hands and then they shot us, ”Yangon activist claims he recently received training at a camp in the woods He told CNN. It must be a weapon and a weapon, it should not be nonviolence then a weapon. It did not become an option for us. “
In a dramatic twist, the anti-coup movement has triumphed With support from multiple militia groups Which claims to represent the various marginalized ethnic minorities scattered across the border regions of the country. For some in Myanmar’s big cities, the junta’s brutality has awakened a new solidarity with communities that have been beaten or neglected by the state.
“We have been brainwashed since we were very young,” Yin Yin, a Yangon resident from the Bamar majority in the country For Foreign Policy magazine. The military has carried out countless filthy and cruel actions over the past 70 years. The [non-Bamar] I fought and confronted ethnic groups, and now we all face them. “
Although some Western governments have imposed sanctions on the regime, they have little influence over the military council. So far, the United Nations Security Council and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, the main geopolitical bloc in the region, have failed to muster any meaningful diplomatic response to what appears to be an escalating crisis. The political instability that followed the coup led to higher fuel prices and, as a consequence, soaring food prices – prompting the United Nations World Food Program to Warning of the growing risk of food insecurity In parts of the country.
“In addition to being morally repugnant, actions of the regime risk hastening the collapse of the state – as generals may control the trappings of the state but are unable to impose their will on the state as a whole, maintain order, or govern and effectively provide services,” Note the International Crisis GroupConflict Monitoring Authority, in its latest report on Myanmar. “The increasing levels of violence further harden the opposition and broaden the popular consensus that a return to military rule must be prevented at all costs. The banking system is barely functioning, transport and logistics are disrupted, and ports are paralyzed, which has pushed the country into an economic crisis.”
Yet the junta is more interested in trying to crush its perceived enemies – and armed ethnic groups as well A long-term goal. “I took off the gloves, it goes back to the early 2000s when it was just a brutal war,” Steve Gomayer, president of Partners for Relief and Development, which works in the Myanmar border states, told Today’s WorldView. He added that despite this challenge, neither the protest movement nor the rebel militias “will stop this army. Without outside support, they really do not have a chance.”
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