ALTSEAN-BURMA

219 Civil society groups, non-governmental organizations, human rights defenders and activists, and worldwide Burmese diaspora communities have jointly signed a letter urging International Financing Institutions to immediately freeze all outgoing loans to the Burmese military junta, and recall loans already disbursed to Burma or military-linked businesses and individuals.

On the 1st of February the Tatmadaw carried out a coup d'etat, overthrowing the civilian NLD government. The militarization of the government follows the militarization of Burma's pandemic response under the military-led Committee for Preventing, Containing and Treating COVID-19, which has overseen one of the worst outbreaks in southeast Asia.

Burma’s response to the pandemic has deepened economic inequalities and pushed vulnerable populations into even more precarious situations. At worst, the military (Tatmadaw) killed civilians, destroyed homes, and blocked humanitarian assistance in ethnic minority zones. At best, financial relief to civilians in non-conflict areas has been paltry.

An enormous "second wave" of COVID-19 cases threatens to overrun Burma's critically underfunded and unprioritized public health system, while the Tatmadaw systematically demolishes ethnic people's attempts to fight the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile in Rakhine State, Burma's government has at the eight month mark still failed to take effective action in implementing the ICJ's Provisional Measures, which will have increase vulnerability to pandemics and conflict for all minority people in the country.

Between 23 January and 23 November 2020, there were at least 880 armed clashes in civilian areas or direct attacks on civilians by armed actors in Burma. This is a 70.5% increase over the 516 during the corresponding period (23 Jan–23 Jun) in 2017. These took place across 11 of Burma’s 14 States and Regions, as well as the capital territory, and resulted in at least 224 civilians killed and 638 injured.

This excel sheet lists details of every incident, and is meant to complement the briefer “REPORT CARD # 2: Burma/Myanmar's insufficient action on the ICJ's provisional measures and COVID-19”. It uses data provided by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED).