''In this commentary, the Union of Karenni State Youth and LAIN Technical Support Group provide a chronology of events, outlining how arrests and the government’s handling of events have compounded rather than resolved political frustrations and inter-community understandings.General Aung San is commonly known as the “independence hero of Burma”. His legacy is, however, looked upon differently by the Bamar (Burman) majority and the country’s ethnic nationality peoples. Whilst the Bamar majority consider him a hero for bringing their people independence, ethnic nationality peoples respect him for his promise to bring their people equal rights in a true union. This is a promise that remains unfulfilled to this day, a failure that goes to the heart of the current crisis. After decades of conflict and suffering, Karenni youth are attempting to use democratic rights to achieve the pledges of autonomy, freedom and equality that Aung San promised at the country’s independence in 1948. Sadly, rather than delivering peace and federal reform, the National League for Democracy government is prioritising the building of statues to Aung San in Kayah State and other ethnic nationality lands. The local peoples consider this a misuse of public funds and an attempt to erase their own history, continuing a practice of downplaying ethnic minority cultures by a policy known as Bamanisation. Based on these concerns, a course of non-violent public actions, directed towards the state government, began in June 2018. The chronology is described below...''