🇲🇲 Fresh horror on Armed Forces Day

At least 114 killed on deadliest day yet, including five-year-old child

Hello friends,

Another horrifying weekend in Myanmar and another upsetting update on the latest there.

This morning we’ll look at the fearless reporting from the country over the bloody weekend, and later in the week we’ll check in with what the world has to say. 

Stay safe out there and take a break if you need to,Erin Cook

This Thursday marks the two-month mark since the coup and I am just stunned at the stamina of Myanmar’s Civil Disobedience Movement. As crackdowns on protests become more violent and the stressors of living under such conditions (not to mention the pandemic) drag on, there is no sign of slowing down. Truly an incredible thing to witness.

I’m struggling to keep track of what figure of dead people must be exceeded for a day to be declared ‘the bloodiest yet,’ but I’m sure this weekend must do it. At least 114 people — including children as young as five — were killed on Saturday, in a dark irony on ‘Armed Forces Day.’ 

Reuters quotes civil society groups saying the day also saw the Tatmadaw conduct aerial bombings in Karen State, where fighting between an ethnic armed group and the military is heating up quickly. 

While the Tatmadaw responded to the protests with shocking violence across the country, in Nay Pyi Taw arch-villain Senior General Min Aung Hlaing indulged in a celebration of the military. He condemned the CDM and protests as “terrorism” and said in a TV address he hopes to "join hands with the entire nation to safeguard democracy.”

"Violent acts that affect stability and security in order to make demands are inappropriate,” he said, as reported by BBC, in a statement so truly infuriating I can’t think straight. 

He can say whatever bullshit he wants, I suppose. His revolting manner and the global response to it is something we’ll go into further later in the week. But I would like to leave today’s horrible update with one note. While I kinda think the Nobel Peace Prize nomination process is a bit like the TIME Person of The Year nominations (don’t you just fill in a form or something?) this time it is worth it. 

“This pro-democracy movement, especially if successful, can also have consequences outside Myanmar and inspire other non-violent pro-democracy movements elsewhere at a time when democracy is under pressure from authoritarian forces,” Norwegian academic Kristian Stokke says of the CDM after it was last week nominated for the Peace Prize. 

Reading list:

Every morning I say a prayer. I write my blood group, my emergency contact number, my weight and other credentials on my forearm. I tell my wife: if I don’t come back, you must live yourself and take care of the children. My wife is also very active in resisting the military coup. She tells me: do what you have to do, and if you die, I will be proud of you.

The largest anti-military rallies brought hundreds of thousands of people onto densely packed streets throughout February, and though most wore masks, they huddled close together while chanting slogans and singing revolutionary songs – a recipe for spreading the coronavirus, many experts worry. Meanwhile, testing to identify the virus’ spread has all but collapsed. And even if cases could be identified, most hospitals and quarantine centres capable of treating or isolating patients have shuttered, the military regime’s efforts to strong-arm staff back to work having mostly failed.

Indeed, since military rule has been the norm—rather than the exception—in Myanmar over the last half-century, history tells us where the country might be headed. From 1962 to 2011, when Myanmar was controlled by a military junta, women were marginalized in society, formally and informally excluded from positions of power, and did not receive the same educational and economic opportunities as men.

“I see the military as wild animals who can’t think and are brutal with their weapons,” said a woman from Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, who was now in the forest for a week of boot camp. Like others who have joined the armed struggle, she did not want her name published for fear that the Tatmadaw, as the Myanmar military is known, would target her.

“We have to attack them back,” she said. “This sounds aggressive, but I believe we have to defend ourselves.”

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