ALTSEAN-BURMA

The junta, still unable to gain political, territorial or economic control in the second month of its power grab, has escalated military offensives on both the democracy movement and border-based ethnic communities. Security forces have unleashed lethal battlefield tactics and weapons on civilians throughout the country, killing scores in the towns and cities of Ayeyarwaddy, Bago, Kachin, Mandalay, Mon, Sagaing, Shan, Thanitharyi, and Yangon States and Regions.

The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) is the legitimate interim government of Burma. These 378 MPs—i.e., 76% of elected parliamentarians—stepped up to govern and officially swore themselves in on 4 February, despite the junta’s attempts to detain, incapacitate, or otherwise silence them.

Civil society organizations (CSOs) have been essential in addressing the COVID-19 pandemic in Burma, particularly in rural areas, by providing information, medical supplies, food, and financial assistance. The Burma military’s (Tatmadaw’s) escalating attacks on civil society and health workers since its 1 February 2021 power seizure are destroying local capacity and resilience against the pandemic.

A month after its 1 February 2021 coup, the military junta’s escalation of disproportionate violence and terror tactics, backed by deployment of notorious military units to repress peaceful demonstrations, underlines the urgent need for substantive international action to prevent massive, destabilizing violence.

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.