At 77, she could well spend the rest of her life in prison. Now, finally, the junta appears to have silenced her. She spent many years in detention for opposing the military. Aung San Suu Kyi has been Myanmar’s most powerful symbol of democracy. 23, military planes bombed an open-air concert in Kachin State, killing at least 80 people.įor decades, Ms. Fighter jets have bombed civilian encampments. In rural areas, soldiers have burned homes and villages, raped women, shot at fleeing civilians and cut off food supplies. The junta has arrested more than 143 journalists as of December 2022 and shut down independent news outlets. Its tactics include raiding homes to arrest opponents and seizing family members if they can’t find their target. Since the crackdown on protesters in towns and cities, the military has aggressively targeted areas of the country under rebel control, often indiscriminately.

Some of these units have engaged in guerrilla attacks, including assassinations of local leaders who enforce military rule.

Their total numbers are comparable to the People’s Defense Force’s. In areas under military control, semiautonomous resistance groups have sprung up, too. Between them, the unity government says, its forces and the ethnic armies control about half the country’s territory. Its units have been battling the Tatmadaw, sometimes alongside armed ethnic groups that have fought against the government for self-rule for decades. In May 2021, it established the People’s Defense Force, which now has about 60,000 soldiers. Some of the shadow government’s leaders operate from rebel-held parts of the country, others from overseas. Its leaders say they are fighting a revolutionary war to remove the military from power and form a truly democratic system. In April 2021, ethnic leaders and elected officials who evaded the military’s dragnet formed what they call the National Unity Government. Of these, more than 13,000 are still detained as of December 2022. Since the coup, more than 2,500 civilians have been killed by the junta and 16,500 have been arrested, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a rights group. Many protesters escaped to remote parts of the country where they took refuge with ethnic rebel groups, joined the newly formed People’s Defense Force and trained for battle. Work stoppages have continued ever since, but the protests tapered off under the brutal crackdown. Police and soldiers gunned down demonstrators in the streets, often shooting them in the head. Two days later, millions of people across the country took to the streets in a general strike.Īs the demonstrations grew, the military - notorious for having crushed democracy movements in 19 by shooting peaceful protesters - turned to violence. 20, 2021, when two unarmed protesters were killed by security forces in the city of Mandalay, including a 16-year-old boy. Weeks of relatively peaceful protests turned deadly on Feb. The National League for Democracy, led by Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, had won overwhelmingly, taking 83 percent of the available seats. 1, 2021, Myanmar’s Parliament was scheduled to endorse the results of a national election held the previous November and form the next government. Leaders of the opposition say they are fighting a revolutionary war to overthrow the military, which has ruled Myanmar for most of its existence as a nation. In the months since, peaceful protest has given way to armed clashes between the Tatmadaw, as the military is known, and pro-democracy forces, who have formed a rebel army and local guerrilla resistance groups. Soldiers and the police began shooting protesters in the streets and jailing thousands of people, including opposition leaders and journalists. Myanmar’s military, which seized power in a coup d’état in February 2021, has ruthlessly sought to consolidate its authority since then, killing and imprisoning opponents and attacking innocent civilians.Īt first, resistance consisted of mass demonstrations, work stoppages and a vast civil disobedience movement.

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