(Rangoon) Burma’s streets and businesses emptied on Tuesday, a silent strike to mark the first anniversary of the coup, as the UN and Washington step up pressure on the generals.
Updated at 12:30 a.m.
Rangoon, the economic capital, was deserted at the end of the morning and many shops kept their doors closed. The appeal, launched by opponents of the junta, was widely followed throughout Burma, such as in Myitkyina, capital of Kachin State, in the north of the country, or in Mandalay, in the center.
“No one goes out in my neighborhood, the security forces are patrolling,” said a resident of the city.
“Silence is the loudest cry we can send against the soldiers and their bloody repression,” wrote an opponent on Twitter.
Since the coup of 1er February 2021 against Aung San Suu Kyi, several silent strikes were carried out, including one in December which had already emptied the streets of the country.
Ulcerated, the generals warned that such actions could now be qualified as high treason. They also threatened to seize businesses that would remain closed, their supporters encouraging the population to denounce.
Tuesday, in the state newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar, junta leader Min Aung Hlaing promised to hold “free and fair” elections […] as soon as the situation is peaceful and stabilized”.
Since its passage in force, more than 1,500 civilians have been killed and nearly 9,000 are detained in regime jails, according to a local observatory which denounces cases of rape, torture and extrajudicial executions.
Faced with this spiral of violence, the international community increased pressure on the generals on Monday.
The UN has made it known that it is investigating crimes against humanity.
“International justice has a very long memory,” warned Nicholas Koumjian, head of the UN Independent Investigative Mechanism for Burma. Created by the UN Human Rights Council in September 2018, this group is building cases for criminal proceedings.
The United States has imposed, in coordination with the United Kingdom and Canada, new financial sanctions.
Seven people and two entities “linked to the military regime in Burma” are targeted. The most senior judicial officials, Attorney General Thida Oo, President of the Supreme Court Tun Tun Oo and the head of the anti-corruption commission Tin Oo, are notably targeted, according to a press release from the US Treasury.
“Not Forgotten”
“As long as the regime deprives the people of Burma of their democratic voice, we will make the military and their supporters pay for it,” warned US President Joe Biden. “I say to the Burmese people: we have not forgotten your fight”.
London “will always defend the right to freedom […] We will hold this brutal and oppressive regime to account,” promised British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.
Since the coup that ended a decade of democratic transition, Aung San Suu Kyi, 76, has been under house arrest in an undisclosed location.
The Nobel Peace Prize is targeted by a multitude of charges (violation of a law on state secrets dating from the colonial era, electoral fraud, sedition, incitement to public disorder, corruption, etc.).
On Monday, she was charged again, this time accused of having pressured the electoral commission during the 2020 legislative elections overwhelmingly won by her party.
Already sentenced to six years in prison, she faces decades in prison at the end of her trial.
The country has plunged into chaos for the past twelve months. The rebellion, led by citizen militias and ethnic factions, is intensifying, prompting the junta to further tighten its repression. This violence has already displaced hundreds of thousands.
The UN envoy for Burma, Noeleen Heyzer, pleaded on Monday for the forthcoming holding of a “humanitarian meeting” with “most of the parties” to the conflict.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of Australia, Great Britain, South Korea, the United States, Canada and the European Union urged the international community to put an end to the flow ” arms and equipment” to the military.
Statements too timid for many NGOs which urge the UN Security Council to decree a global arms embargo.