General Strike
Individual Documents
Description:
"It has been over a year since Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup from the democratically-elected government, rejecting the result of the 2020 general election in which the National League for Democracy Party won an overwhelming majority.
The coup prompted widespread protests across the country, and civil servants from various sectors including health and education came out on strike to join the wider Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), almost bringing the administrative mechanism of the military regime to a halt.
In response, the junta has detained and dismissed striking government employees, as well as issuing arrest warrants for some of them, forcing many to go into hiding.
Some have returned to work due to pressure from the regime, but many civil servants are still on strike in defiance of military rule. Just over one year since the February 1 coup, some of the CDM strikers talked to The Irrawaddy about why they continue to defy the military regime.
Professor Dr. Khin Maung Lwin
Rector, Mandalay University of Medicine
It has been one year since the military regime unlawfully took control of Myanmar. We joined the CDM because we don’t want to be enslaved by the military dictatorship, and because we don’t like that it has unlawfully taken control of the country with weapons. We are intellectuals and we don’t want to be lowly academics who have to kneel down before military dictators. So we joined the CDM.
I promise that I will bravely continue to take part in the CDM until the military dictatorship is rooted out and a genuine federal democratic country is established.
Daw Yati Ohn
Lecturer, Government Technical Institute (Kale Township)
I am proud of myself for joining the CDM. No matter what difficulties lie ahead of me, I will never regret my choice. I am currently working for a mobile medical team which provides healthcare for resistance fighters and members of ethnic armed organizations at the frontline. The team also provides healthcare for civilians displaced by the fighting.
As I am a teacher, I have conducted two short term vocational training courses as part of the interim education program with the support of the Vocational Education Committee. And I am planning to conduct more courses in the future.
Ko Bo Bo
Striking police second lieutenant who now serves in the parallel Karenni (Kayah) State Police
I don’t regret joining the CDM. There are many policemen that have joined the CDM in Karenni (Kayah State). I was a little depressed in the early days after I joined the CDM. But I haven’t felt down since I joined the revolution. I am doing my fair share with the hope that the revolution will succeed.
I am not very satisfied with the progress of the revolution in the country as a whole. But I am very satisfied with the resistance in Karenni. People have joined the resistance and I am grateful to them. I respect the resistance groups that are fighting the regime. They are making more sacrifices than us. I would like to urge the people to help the resistance movement where they can until it succeeds.
Lin Htet Aung
Striking captain from the Myanmar military
People have been repulsed by the military since it seized power. I stand by the people and I am doing what I can to fight back the regime. We have fought back with the strength of the people, and we have achieved certain progress in a short time.
It was the hardest time for me to desert the military. There were many difficulties when I deserted the military for the people. But I don’t regret it. I even take pride in myself that I have deserted the military regime. No matter how tough it will be, we won’t give up.
As more and more people have joined the resistance day by day, the military regime is in chaos. We will fight until the dictatorship is eliminated. I totally believe that the revolution will be successful with the strength of the people. Only when the dictatorship is wiped out will we be able to live our future freely. So we will fight until the end.
Striking employee
Locomotive workshop, Myanma Railways
We have joined the CDM with the determination to root out the military dictatorship. Many striking civil servants are struggling now. Some private companies do hire people, but they don’t want to recruit striking civil servants because of threats from the military regime. So we can’t find jobs no matter what we apply for.
But we decided to continue fighting. We don’t want to return to work and to be labelled as non-CDM. I would like to urge my fellow striking government employees to keep going. The revolution must succeed. But I don’t want to blame those who have returned to work because of financial hardship. I am grateful to them that they have also done what they can. But I want to ask them not to betray us.
Striking doctor from Yangon
Speaking of the impact of the CDM, the military regime can’t find substitutes for striking technicians at schools and hospitals. Some hospitals have re-opened, but they are not operational. Because those who have returned to work [after initially joining the CDM] are lazy and lackadaisical workers. They don’t have any enthusiasm.
The CDM has had a noticeable impact on the military regime over the past year. It would have had more but for the junta’s financial resources. The fact that not only striking government employees but also the people are defying their orders has also had a significant impact on the regime. The fact that the regime is in chaos and losing face on the international stage shows that the CDM has had an impact.
We don’t know how long the revolution will take. But the remaining CDM strikers have decided not to return to work. If we return to work after enduring for more than one year, we will be scorned not only by our peers who returned to work earlier than us, but also by the strikers who are sticking with the CDM. So it is very unlikely that we will return to work..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2022-02-09
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-09
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, General Strike, Anti-coup protesters, Human Rights Defenders
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"When hundreds of thousands of workers across the country walked out of their jobs in protest at the military’s seizure of power in Myanmar on 1 February 2021, Grace* was among the first to join.
Although she was seven months pregnant, the middle-school teacher from Chin state was determined to resist the military by refusing to work under its administration. Joining her was her husband, also a government employee.
What they didn’t then know was that nearly a year later, their hands, once accustomed to holding chalk and pens, would instead be holding hoes and shovels, calloused and blistered from farming under the scorching sun. Nor did they ever imagine that they would be living in hiding, on the run from soldiers and police.
“My husband and I decided to strike soon after the coup was staged. For fear of being arrested by the police, we haven’t been able to return home for nine months,” says Grace, talking to the Guardian from an undisclosed location.
Two of my family members were arrested because of me. Our houses were raided. We have no regular source of income and have to struggle every day to make a living. But never have I ever regretted joining the civil disobedience movement, not even once. We are part of the revolution against the military dictatorship.”
In the year since the coup, Myanmar has been plunged into chaos and a spiralling economic crisis as the military responds to the widespread civilian defiance to its rule with deadly violence and mass arrests.
Some of its main targets are the hundreds of thousands of public sector workers, including teachers, nurses and doctors participating in a campaign of civil disobedience and refusing the serve the regime.
Public hospitals are barely functioning, and when state schools opened in June, more than half the teachers were absent. Private and public bank workers have also been striking en masse, and even withdrawing cash is now near-impossible.
In an effort to crush the movement and make people return to their jobs, military forces have started hunting down striking public sector workers across the country and raiding their homes.
Since the strikes began in February, at least 140 people have been arrested for their participation, of whom 107 remain in detention, the Guardian was told by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Myanmar-focused rights monitoring group.
The AAPP says at least eight of those taking part in the civil disobedience movement have died in military interrogation centres, and seven of the bodies showed signs of torture.
Families have also been targeted. Since the coup, 46 people have been taken as hostages in an attempt to force their family members participating in civil disobedience to turn themselves in; 39 of these hostages are still in custody, according to the AAPP.
Grace went into labour shortly after she left her home. With family members being targeted by police raids, she was so scared of being arrested she registered at the hospital under a fake name. Her husband did not dare accompany her.
The military has also attempted to force those who are taking part in the strikes to return to work by making it harder for them to survive. It has evicted thousands from worker housing, and stopped paying salaries. Last May, more than 125,000 striking teachers had their contracts suspended in an attempt to try and force them back into the classroom.
The Guardian spoke with seven teachers in Chin state who are still on strike. They all said their only financial support was community donations, which were irregular and amounted to less than half of their former income.
For Grace and her family this is not enough to survive. In June, the couple began farming corn. On weekends, they sell fried snacks to make ends meet. They still face the constant risk of arrest.
As violence and military attacks escalate across the country, many teachers and other public sector workers who have gone on strike are now also living under the shadow of war. Since May, fighting has dramatically increased. The military has sought to quell armed resistance by attacking entire civilian populations, and the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that more than 400,000 people have been displaced from their homes.
Intensifying military attacks caused Ling Kee*, a high school headteacher who joined the civil disobedience movement and went on strike last year, to leave the town of Thantlang in August with his three adult daughters, also strikers, and his wife.
They took shelter with relatives in Hakha township, but a month later had to flee again upon hearing that soldiers were going door to door hunting down strikers. With nothing but the nightclothes they were wearing, they drove motorbikes through the night along mountain roads until they crossed the border into India. .
Unable to work there, they are relying on their savings to survive.
Students have also joined taken action against military-run services. After weeks of protests over a military “slave education system” in May, only 10% of the country’s nearly 10 million people of school age registered this year, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation.
When state schools opened across the country in June, many of them guarded by armed soldiers, classrooms were empty.
To ensure that youth do not miss out on their education, churches, civil society organisations and striking teachers have established multiple grassroots education channels, supported by community donations. But funds are limited, and teachers also worry that their classes could get caught in the crossfire of the ongoing fighting, a teacher from Kanpetlet township told the Guardian.
Biak* had just one year of high school left when the coup happened.
Now living in a refugee camp in Mizoram, India, after her home was destroyed in a military attack, she is unable to study because there are no education facilities. “Currently, my family doesn’t have a house to live in, and I have no chance to study. All of my dreams were reduced to ashes, just like the homes in Thantlang, including mine,” she says.
* Pseudonyms have been used for security reasons
Flora Lian is an independent researcher from Chin State, Myanmar and writes about current issues in Chin State. She holds a master’s degree from Chiang Mai University. She is writing under a pseudonym for security reasons..."
Source/publisher:
"The Guardian" (UK)
Date of publication:
2022-02-01
Date of entry/update:
2022-02-02
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, General Strike, Human Rights Defenders
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Sub-title:
Governments Should Deny Abusive Junta Funds, Arms
Description:
"(Bangkok) – Since the military coup on February 1, 2021, Myanmar’s junta has carried out a brutal nationwide crackdown aimed at suppressing widespread public opposition to its rule, Human Rights Watch said today. Concerned governments, including the United States, European Union, United Kingdom, and Japan, should together block the junta’s access to foreign revenues from oil, gas, and other extractives that are funding its abusive rule.
"How many more people does Myanmar’s military have to detain, torture, and shoot before influential governments act to cut off the junta from its flow of money and arms." - Brad Adams (Asia Director)
Under the leadership of Sr. Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, junta security forces have carried out mass killings, torture, sexual violence, arbitrary arrests, and other abuses against protesters, journalists, lawyers, health workers, and political opposition members amounting to crimes against humanity. Military attacks in the country’s northwest and southeast have resulted in numerous war crimes. The nature of the security force crackdown – methodical, widespread, and systematic – reflects the junta’s countrywide policy of suppressing the opposition.
“How many more people does Myanmar’s military have to detain, torture, and shoot before influential governments act to cut off the junta from its flow of money and arms,” said Brad Adams, Asia director. “Myanmar’s people, who have not given up their fight for democracy in the face of daily atrocities, need to know they have the global community’s support.”
On February 1, 2021, the military arrested the country’s elected civilian leaders, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, in early morning raids in the capital, Naypyidaw. In the ensuing weeks, millions of people across the country joined the anti-coup Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM), peacefully protesting the junta through mass demonstrations and general strikes.
Security forces responded with increasingly excessive and lethal force, including live ammunition, grenades, and so-called less-lethal weapons. Police and soldiers massacred protesters in cities and towns across the country. The security forces have killed nearly 1,500 people since the coup, including at least 100 children. “When they came at us, we had nothing,” said a protester attacked on March 3 in Yangon. “We didn’t have a stick. We didn’t have a knife. All we had was our chants and our three-finger salute.”
On March 26, the junta’s MRTV channel warned protesters to “learn from the tragedy of earlier ugly deaths that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back,” and urged parents to deter their children from demonstrating: “Let’s not waste lives for nothing.” Security forces killed 160 people the next day.
To contest the junta, in April, civilian members of parliament, ethnic minority representatives, and civil society activists formed a National Unity Government (NUG). In August, Min Aung Hlaing extended the one-year state of emergency, which the junta had declared on February 1, until 2023.
The junta has arbitrarily detained over 11,000 activists, politicians, journalists, and others, according to the Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, and forcibly disappeared hundreds. Military tribunals have sentenced 84 people to death in summary proceedings that do not meet international fair trial standards. Detainees are frequently kept incommunicado, unable to contact relatives or legal counsel.
Security forces have subjected many detainees to torture and other ill-treatment, including routine beatings, burning with lit cigarettes, prolonged stress positions, and gender-based violence. At least 150 people have died in custody, in many cases at military-run detention centers. “There was so much blood,” said a former detainee who was beaten during his eight-month detention. “I couldn’t even remember what I was there for. I couldn’t sit or stand. I kept wanting to faint. Maybe I did keep fainting.”
The junta has arrested over 120 journalists, about 50 of whom remain in detention awaiting charges or sentencing. At least 15 journalists have been convicted, the majority under section 505A of the penal code, a new provision that criminalizes publishing or circulating comments that “cause fear” or spread “false news.” The junta stripped the media licenses of seven local outlets and banned satellite television. “I’ve had to get my whole family out,” one journalist said. “Myanmar is not a safe place for anyone with a moral compass.”
Security force crackdowns spread beyond cities into rural and ethnic minority areas as resistance to the junta grew countrywide. The military continues to launch targeted and indiscriminate attacks on civilians, including airstrikes and heavy artillery barrages, the United Nations has reported. Accounts from displaced people and aid workers suggest that the junta has continued to use the military’s longstanding “four cuts” strategy, in which the armed forces maintain control of an area by isolating and terrorizing the civilian population.
In some areas, recently formed People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) and other anti-junta armed groups fought alongside long-established ethnic armies against the junta’s military forces. In November, clashes were reported in every state and region in the country.
On December 24, security forces summarily executed at least 39 people in Hpruso township, Karenni (Kayah) State, including four children and two staff members from the international aid organization Save the Children. Many of the victims were bound, gagged, and showed signs of torture, and some may have been burned alive. “It is one of the most shocking and depressing things I have ever experienced,” said a doctor responsible for performing autopsies on the victims.
Since the coup, over 400,000 people have been internally displaced by fighting and unrest, primarily in the northwest and southeast, with an estimated 32,000 refugees fleeing to India and Thailand. The junta has deliberately blocked humanitarian aid from reaching millions at risk, in violation of international humanitarian law. Troops have attacked aid workers, destroyed supplies, and blocked access roads and aid convoys, seemingly as a form of collective punishment against civilians in areas where junta rule is contested.
According to the UN, the number of people needing assistance in the country has grown from 1 million before the coup to 14.4 million, including more than 5 million children. About 25 million people, or half the population, are estimated to be living below the national poverty line.
The Myanmar healthcare system has effectively collapsed since the coup. With the junta cracking down on medical professionals for their role in the Civil Disobedience Movement, Myanmar has become one of the deadliest countries in the world to work in health care, according to data from the World Health Organization and Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition. “We have to fight and overcome this, otherwise our futures are lost,” said one young doctor.
From February 1 to November 30, security forces allegedly killed at least 31 health workers and arrested 284. Security forces have beaten and shot medical staff providing care to injured protesters and forced clinics operated by nongovernmental groups to close, driving medics and volunteers to work underground in poorly resourced makeshift mobile clinics.
While the US, Canada, UK, and EU member states have imposed targeted sanctions on junta leaders and military-controlled companies over the past year, the junta’s foreign currency revenue remains largely untouched, in particular from natural gas sales, its greatest source of funds. Governments should immediately impose sanctions to block the junta from accessing the US$1 billion in foreign revenue that gas projects generate annually, and tighten sanctions enforcement on other sources of foreign revenue from mining, timber, and transportation facilities.
The UN Security Council should end its inaction borne of political gridlock, and urgently pass a resolution that institutes a global arms embargo on Myanmar, refers the military’s grave crimes before and since the coup to the International Criminal Court, and imposes targeted sanctions on the junta leadership and military-owned conglomerates. If China and Russia continue to oppose council action on Myanmar, they should face concerted global pressure for upholding the junta’s indefensible rights abuses.
“The one-year anniversary of Myanmar’s military coup serves as a signpost of a deepening descent into crimes against humanity and humanitarian catastrophe that the US, EU, and others need to address,” Adams said. “These countries should at long last impose costs on the junta that are too great for the generals to bear.”..."
Source/publisher:
"Human Rights Watch" (USA)
Date of publication:
2022-01-28
Date of entry/update:
2022-01-28
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics and Government - global and regional - general studies, strategies, theory, Anti-coup protesters, General Strike, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar
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"Protesters rallied in towns and cities around Myanmar on Tuesday to denounce its military rulers, 100 days after the generals' overthrow of an elected government pitched the country into its biggest crisis in decades.
Demonstrators took part in marches, motorcycle convoys and flash protests to evade security forces, some making three-finger gestures of defiance as anti-coup groups renewed calls for the toppling of a junta that has been condemned around the world for killing hundreds of civilians.
The junta has struggled to govern Myanmar since seizing power on Feb. 1. Protests, strikes and a civil disobedience campaign have crippled businesses and the bureaucracy in an overwhelming public rejection of the return of military rule.
Protesters in the biggest city Yangon carried a banner saying "Yangon strikes for complete removal of the enemy", while demonstrators in Hpakant in Kachin State marched chanting "the revolution must prevail".
Demonstrators in Hpakant, the Saigang region and elsewhere held signs in support of a National Unity Government (NUG), an anti-junta coalition that has declared itself Myanmar's legitimate authority. Last week the NUG announced the formation of a "People's Defence Force".
The NUG's spokesman Dr. Sasa, said in a tweet he and other ministers of the parallel government would meet with a U.S. assistant secretary of state on Tuesday to discuss how the United States and its allies "can work together to end this reign of terror". He did not elaborate on the meeting.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation of the meeting.
The military arrested elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi hours before the coup. It said its takeover was to protect Myanmar's fledgling democracy after a November election that it said was marred by fraud. Suu Kyi's party says its landslide win was legitimate.....INTERNATIONAL CRIMES: In a statement on Tuesday, the NUG said rank-and-file members of the military should recognise that they were responsible for committing international crimes.
"It is time to answer the question clearly whether you will stand on the side of human rights and fairness, or you will continue to violate human rights by committing violence and then face the international court," it said.
Despite the imposition of limited economic sanctions by the United States, the European Union and others, the junta has shown no sign of compromise. It has the tacit support of neighbouring China, a major investor and a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council.
Tuesday's protests took place amid sporadic violence in the country that has included deadly attacks on military-appointed administrators and weeks of small explosions involving homemade bombs, which the junta says is the work of the ousted government.
The NUG has said the military has orchestrated such attacks as a pretext for its crackdown.
In its nightly news bulletin, state-run MRTV said two members of the security forces were killed and three others wounded on Monday evening in an attack by "terrorists" in the Sagaing region.
A group calling itself the Sagaing People Defence Force, in a statement earlier on Tuesday, claimed responsibility for an attack on security personnel around the same time in the same area, which it said killed three people.
News reporting and information flow inside Myanmar has been severely impacted since the coup, with restrictions on internet access, a ban on foreign broadcasts and some news organisations ordered to close, accused by authorities of inciting rebellion.
Security forces have killed 781 people since the coup, including 52 children, and 3,843 people are in detention, according to the Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group, whose figures are being used by the United Nations.
The U.N. human rights body said on Tuesday the military was showing no let-up in its efforts to consolidate power and its human rights violations went far beyond killings.
"It is clear that there needs to be greater international involvement to prevent the human rights situation in Myanmar from deteriorating further," said Rupert Colville, spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights..."
Source/publisher:
"Reuters" (UK)
Date of publication:
2021-05-11
Date of entry/update:
2021-05-12
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Spring Revolution, General Strike, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, violations of, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Human Rights Defenders, National Unity Government (NUG), 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Description:
"Situation Update: Seven weeks following the military takeover on 1
February 2021, the situation in Myanmar is
evolving rapidly, with a high risk of increasing food
insecurity and malnutrition, particularly for the
urban poor.
• Food and fuel prices in Myanmar are rising,
according to WFP price monitoring in February. The
biggest increase was observed in northern Rakhine,
while a 20 percent increase in the price of
vegetable oil was recorded in Yangon. Fuel prices
increased at least 20 percent across the country,
which has an important knock-on effect on food
prices.
• Demonstrations and the general strike throughout
Myanmar are likely to exacerbate the socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 lockdown measures,
which saw 80 percent of households lose income.....WFP Response: In February, WFP assisted over half a million people
in Myanmar with cash-based transfers and in-kind
food assistance, through four activities:
Emergency Relief Assistance; Nutrition
(stunting prevention and support to persons living
with HIV and tuberculosis (TB) patients); School
Feeding; and Livelihood Support.....Emergency Relief Assistance: • WFP’s highest priority is to maintain its monthly
life-saving assistance to internally displaced people
and other vulnerable populations who fully rely on
it.
• In February, WFP provided life-saving food and
cash assistance to 349,200 people in conflictaffected states of southern Chin, Kachin, Rakhine
and northern Shan.
• In view of current banking challenges or potential
constrained market supply, WFP is building a
contingency food stock, which would allow it to
provide in-kind food assistance if needed.....Nutrition: • WFP provided a comprehensive package of nutrition
support for 80,300 children aged 6-59 months and
pregnant and lactating women and girls; as well as
some 1,350 people living with HIV and TB patients.
• Continuing WFP nutrition interventions is critical to
avoid short- and long-term public health crises, on
top of the pandemic..."
Source/publisher:
World Food Programme
Date of publication:
2021-03-26
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-24
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
WFP (World Food Programme), Food Security and nutrition in Burma/Myanmar, Food Security and human rights in Burma, Food Security and militarisation in Burma, Food Security and displacement in Burma, Food Security and the economy in Burma, General Strike, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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Topic:
civil disobedience movement, Coup, Democracy, Human Rights, military in politics, Min Aung Hlaing, National League for Democracy, November 8 general election, Rule of Law, State Administrative Council, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatmadaw, Yangon
Topic:
civil disobedience movement, Coup, Democracy, Human Rights, military in politics, Min Aung Hlaing, National League for Democracy, November 8 general election, Rule of Law, State Administrative Council, State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Tatmadaw, Yangon
Description:
"What is the new normal for Myanmar today? As people have been trying different forms of civil disobedience to fight the military coup it has become a new normal in Myanmar.
The words “civil disobedience” comes from State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s appeal before she was detained. She urged people to “oppose the military coup together in any way possible”. For her, as she often said, “the people are the most important force”.
A veteran journalist asked another National League for Democracy (NLD) leader, U Win Htein, about the message and what Daw Aung San Suu Kyi wants people to do. U Win Htein said she wanted a civil disobedience movement rather than mass street protests because of COVID-19 and the potential for bloodshed.
As her message was not clear enough, people were puzzled about what to do.
NLD members have waited for instructions from the party’s central executive committee who are being held in Naypyidaw.
The strict hierarchy of the NLD left people feeling bereft on the first day of the coup. My 78-year-old mother kept asking me, “Is there any luck?” She cried the whole day because her beloved leader, “Mother Suu”, was detained. It is heartbreaking for her because she did not expect to return to military rule.
One day after the coup, people started banging pots and pans and honking car horns to oppose military rule. Banging pans is a traditional way of driving out ghosts. That initiative reached the international media and was dubbed the “drum revolution”.
Thais have followed suit in an attempt to drive out Thailand’s military regime.
But pots and pans are not enough for young citizens who have been hit the hardest by the forced internet shutdown ordered by the authorities. My son and his student friends have lost their online jobs, they cannot play virtual games and their online shopping businesses have folded.
Food Panda delivers lost their jobs as online ordering has broken down and most bank cards have stopped working because of connection failures. Shops only want cash as the banking system is unstable and the Grab taxi app just says, “no connection found”. The internet shut down is causing a long list of problems.
Facebook was blocked after the authorities forced telecoms operators to ban the most popular social media network. People immediately searched for virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass Myanmar’s networks. Anti-coup posts and protest photos returned to Facebook..."
Source/publisher:
"The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
Date of publication:
2021-02-15
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-15
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, Health Workers Strike, Rail Workers strike, Spring Revolution, General Strike, The 2020 General Elections in Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, violations of, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Political role of the Tatmadaw, Articles on the NLD, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports
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Sub-title:
As civil servants stage walkouts in protest against military rule, new groups are forming to help them meet basic needs
Description:
"In the two weeks since Myanmar’s military seized power, resistance has taken many forms, from people banging pots and pans to massive street protests. But none have shown more commitment to the cause of restoring civilian rule than the tens of thousands of civil servants who have put their lives and livelihoods on the line by joining the growing civil disobedience movement.
Some in this movement have been targeted for arrest, as the regime carries out late-night arrests around the country as part of its effort to crush popular opposition to its rule. But many others are struggling with a more basic problem: meeting their material needs as they forego an income in their bid to bring down the junta.
It is in recognition of this sacrifice that new groups have begun to crop up to assist public employees in need. These groups—with names like “We Support Heroes” and “2/21 Sturdy Hands”—are trying to ensure that the regime doesn’t win by attrition what it can’t achieve through fear and intimidation.
“Whenever we urge civil servants to stay away from work, there are always some who ask us how they can feed themselves. That’s why we formed this group, so that we could answer that question and show our unity,” said a member of a group that calls itself “Get Well Soon”.
Already, hundreds have sought help. So far, however, support has come mainly in the form of food and shelter provided by private donors, as financial aid is still not available due to the fact that none of the groups have begun fundraising yet.
One group, We Support Heroes, says that it has assisted at least 100 public employees and their families since the civil disobedience movement, or CDM, started in the days after the February 1 coup. Most are nurses, but others include customs officials, parliamentary office staff, and the households of six police officers forced to leave government-sponsored housing.
One of the members of the group told Myanmar Now that even without much cash at its disposal, it has been able to amply provide for those in need of assistance thanks to the generosity of the public.
“There are people who have welcomed others into their homes, in some cases giving them the whole house to live in. In Mandalay, a whole hotel was provided. And some are giving not just accommodation, but also daily meals,” he said.
Engineering resistance
Many of those walking off the job to join the CDM are technical staff working in a variety of ministries, including the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and the Irrigation and the Small-Scale Industries Department. Scattered around the country, from remote parts of Kachin State to the urban centers of Yangon and Mandalay, they have been among those in greatest need.
Civil Disobedience Campaign—Myanmar Engineers, a group formed to assist workers in technical professions who have lost their jobs or housing due to their participation in the CDM, says that it has received 600 requests for help, but has so far only been able to assist in about 200 cases..."
Source/publisher:
"Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-02-16
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-14
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, General Strike, Spring Revolution, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations, Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and Association, violations of, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, Political prisoners and other violations in Burma - reports, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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"After its coup d’état on February 1, 2021, the military is doing everything to cling to power, and every day, the violence against civilians is growing and becoming more brutal. The situation is horrendous, and no one knows when and how it will end. Yet, the massive popular resistance to military rule, across ethnic, religious, and generational divides, gives hope for a new democracy in Myanmar with ethnic equality and inclusion.
What at first appeared as a power struggle between the military top brass and Aung San Suu Kyi and her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), has become a broad-based popular resistance on social media, on streets of cities, and in rural and ethnic border areas. The hundreds of thousands of protesters and civil servants on strike across Myanmar agree on one thing: they reject the military takeover. So far, this has not resulted in one single movement or a single source of clear leadership, but multiple enactments of resistance. The challenge now is to persist against the brutal crackdowns by the security forces and unite around a common message and strategy that is broadly inclusive. Here, multiethnic unity is crucial and presents a challenge to overcome in a country that has been ethnically and religiously divided for so long. However, important signs of unity are emerging through a shared rejection of the military and calls for a federal democracy.
Diversity in resistance efforts – towards a united call for federal democracy
The nationwide scale and diversity of anti-coup protests have been growing ever since the first action on February 2 when, at 8 pm, people in Yangon—and later in many other places—started to bang pots and pans to “drive out the evil spirits” (in this case, the military). On the same day, a leaderless civil disobedience movement (CDM) launched a Facebook campaign, inspiring first doctors and nurses and then many other public and private sector workers to refuse to work for the military regime. Most recently, on March 16, the powerful government-appointed State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee (Mahana), which oversees the country’s Buddhist monkhood, also decided to stop its activities in support of the CDM. The strikes have now paralyzed almost all civil services, banks, and ports, making it difficult for the military to run the country and the economy..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-03-19
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-13
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Anti-coup protesters, General Strike, Spring Revolution, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Politics, Government and Governance - Burma/Myanmar - general studies
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"The 2021 Myanmar military coup began on 1 February 2021 when the Myanmar military, Tatmadaw detained numerous government officials, including State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, President U Win Myint, and Union Election Commission (UEC) Chair U Hla Thein, as well as pro-democracy activists and politicians from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) and other parties. Since then, civil resistance efforts in opposition to the coup has been growing across the country, and security forces have been violently cracking down on the anti-coup protests.
In order to keep the international community informed about the post-coup development in Myanmar, ANFREL will closely monitor the situation and prepare weekly briefs on Myanmar for public dissemination. You may find our weekly briefs below:
Myanmar Situation Update (1 to 14 February 2021)
Myanmar Situation Update (15 to 21 February 2021
Myanmar Situation Update (22 to 28 February 2021)
Myanmar Situation Update (1 to 7 March 2021)..."
Source/publisher:
Asian Network for Free Elections (Bangkok)
Date of publication:
2021-03-01
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
The 2020 General Elections in Burma/Myanmar, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état, Anti-coup protesters, General Strike, Freedom of opinion and expression: - the situation in Burma/Myanmar - reports, analyses, recommendations
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"The day after the coup on February 1, 2021, civil servants across Myanmar launched a national Civil Disobedience Movement, consisting of multi-sector labor strikes targeting the Myanmar state’s apparatuses. By February 4, the first visible anti-coup protest in the country appeared in Mandalay, the second largest city in the country. The first visible protest in Yangon occurred on February 5. By February 11, protests and rallies started appearing in ethnic minority areas and the country’s peripheries in full force. On February 22, millions of Myanmar people joined a nationwide general strike against the coup regime in what is considered to be the largest single-day pro-democracy demonstration in the country’s history.
While the protest movements are widespread in many ethnic minority areas, ethnic minority communities disagree over how to respond to the coup. One side prefers to be quiescent and neutral bystanders; the other, particularly younger generations, insists on active resistance.
In this essay, I describe and reflect on ethnic minorities’ reactions to the coup, focusing on an emerging class cleavage in Kachin State, where I conducted research between 2017 and 2019. I have also communicated with several Kachin local residents and protesters in an informal capacity in the past weeks. It is important to note that my observations of an emerging class cleavage in Kachin communities is part of a broader trend across Myanmar. While the coup precipitated from a power struggle between the military and the National League for Democracy (NLD), ultimately, I argue that the on-going pro-democracy revolution in Myanmar is a (class) struggle, between ordinary Myanmar people and complacent elites, a struggle which cuts across entrenched ethnic, religious and political divides in the country.
To Protest or Not to Protest?
In the immediate aftermath of the coup, Myanmar’s ethnic minorities encountered a dilemma— whether or not to participate in the anti-coup protests that were spreading across the country. At the time, young ethnic minorities in Yangon and Mandalay were already participating in and organizing protests. However, in the ethnic minority states, ethnic minority politicians and businessmen and their associates urged caution. They argued that the coup is primarily a Bamar power struggle between the military and the NLD— something in which ethnic minorities do not need to get involved.
Many among the younger generations of ethnic minorities perceive the coup as a blatant assault on the country’s transition toward democracy and see the on-going crisis as an opportunity to remake Myanmar politics. They thus strongly disagree with elites’ calls to remain bystanders in this crisis. Social media posts by ethnic minority participants in the demonstrations indicate that many youth see only two abysmal outcomes if they remain quiescent: either (1) the coup-makers win, and Myanmar descends into another period of dictatorship or (2) the coup-makers retreat, and Myanmar goes back to the status quo—a political system that was hardly inclusive of ethnic minorities. So, they not only speak up against the coup but also advocate that the mainstream pro-democracy movement, including the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), recognize the interests of ethnic minorities. They collectively advocate for (1) ending dictatorship, (2) abolishing the 2008 constitution, (3) establishing a federal democracy and (4) unconditional release of those unjustly detained.[1] Their advocacy is broadly shaping the rhetoric of the mainstream pro-democracy movement in Myanmar. By early March, the Bamar public and the CRPH endorsed these demands..."
Source/publisher:
Tea Circle (Myanmar)
Date of publication:
2021-03-22
Date of entry/update:
2021-04-04
Grouping:
Individual Documents
Category:
Freedom of Opinion and Expression - tools for change in Burma/Myanmar, Freedom of Movement, violations of in Burma/Myanmar, Right to Life: reports of violations in Burma, General Strike, The Military's political role, 2021 Burma/Myanmar coup d'état
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271.14 KB
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