Since the end of the monsoon and the onset of the dry season, fighting has resumed in Burma. Clashes between the junta and militias are currently concentrated in the east of the country. Rebel groups, often made up of citizens, refuse to submit to the army, which seized power by force on February 1.
These clashes have caused the flight of thousands of people trying to reach neighboring Thailand. Last week, according to the rebels and an NGO on the spot, several dozen civilians were found in charred cars. The UN, which judges this information “credible”, said she was horrified and asked for an investigation “thorough and transparent”.
Since the coup, the international community has not had much leeway in trying to resolve the crisis. The junta is turning a deaf ear to appeals from the UN and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. While the health and humanitarian situation is critical, the military is blocking the delivery of aid and medical supplies to regions where resistance is strong, according to the NGO Human rights watch.
Discussions between the UN and the junta are difficult. The main interlocutor, the UN special envoy for Burma, cannot do her job. Christine Schraner Burgener had been asking for several months “very firm measures” against the military. But nothing. The junta did not even let him enter the territory. To restart the dialogue, the UN appointed a new special envoy in October, Noeleen Heyzer. For the first time on Monday, she spoke to call for a ceasefire on the occasion of the new year. Indirect response from the junta: the military closed the UN office in Burma, and did not say whether the new representative could come to the country or not.
1,300 people have died since February and 11,000 have been arrested.
Former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been under house arrest since February 1. The Nobel Peace Prize is the target of numerous accusations from the government, which finds the slightest pretext for increasing the number of legal proceedings and reducing it to silence. The junta accuses him, for example, of having illegally imported and kept walkie-talkies. The goal: to remove the figure of Burmese democracy from the political arena. She faces decades of prison. The verdict of his trial was due on Monday, December 27, but it was once again postponed. The trial is being held behind closed doors. The junta has banned its lawyers from speaking to the press and international organizations.
Earlier this month, Aung San Suu Kyi was already sentenced for public unrest and violation of health rules related to Covid. Four years in prison. A verdict strongly criticized around the world. Under pressure, the junta ended up reducing this sentence to two years. The former head of the civilian government will be able to serve her under house arrest. For specialists, this calculated gesture of the junta does not change the substance. Aung San Suu Kyi will not be able to campaign for the upcoming 2023 elections.