Myanmar is preparing to go to the polls for the first time since its military seized power in a coup in 2021, but with its former leader behind bars, its most successful political party disbanded and roughly a third of the country either disputed or in rebel hands, few believe claims by its military rulers that its 28 December election will be “free and fair”. “This is not for the people, this is for themselves,” says Pai, 25, who fled Myanmar after the military seized power. “They [the ruling junta]…
Tag: Myanmar coup
Xi Jinping is playing deadly games with Myanmar and North Korea | Observer editorial
Instead of acting as a responsible superpower, China is putting millions of lives at risk in the region and beyond Military coups and dictatorships rarely come to any good. But has any army takeover in recent times led to more utterly disastrous consequences than those suffered by the people of Myanmar since February 2021? For sheer, vicious stupidity and criminality, Gen Min Aung Hlaing, the junta chief, and his bloodstained associates take some beating. Yet a beating is what they are getting at the hands of Myanmar’s civilian resistance groups,…