The free world must act to hold Myanmar’s gangsters to account

The free world must act to hold Myanmar’s gangsters to account

For the past 12 months, a mafioso, criminal, violent cabal of drug-dealing rapists and mass murderers has illegally occupied Myanmar. An army should exist to defend its people and country, but instead, over the past year, Myanmar’s army — known as the Tatmadaw — has yet again overthrown an elected government, turned its guns on the people and destroyed the country.

In the early hours of Feb. 1, 2021, Myanmar’s commander-in-chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, ordered his troops to seize control of government buildings, the legislature and state media, and to arrest the country’s elected leaders.

In that single decision, Min Aung Hlaing turned the clock back by more than a decade, reversing the reforms of the previous military leader Thein Sein, undoing the path to “disciplined democracy” which was the legacy of the previous tyrant Than Shwe (himself no friend of democracy, of course, but who designed a constitutional system that would allow for limited democracy while protecting the military’s power), invalidating all the compromises Myanmar’s democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi made with the military and plunging the country back into the darkness of military dictatorship, conflict and humanitarian crisis.

The past 10 years were far from perfect — and they included Suu Kyi’s defense of the genocide of the Rohingya and continued atrocities throughout the ethnic areas — but they did offer some quasi-democracy, two credible elections, fragile ceasefires, space for civil society and independent media and some pathway to further reform.

Over the past decade, there were at least the faltering, flickering hopes of a better future for Myanmar. Now, the nightmare of military dictatorship which tormented Myanmar for much of the past seventy years has begun all over again.

For me, this torment is close at hand every day, the heartache is real, the setback is personal.

Why would the military throw away a decade of progress and a deal which protected their interests while putting responsibility on the shoulders of the civilian leader, Suu Kyi?

For more than 20 years, I have traveled regularly to Myanmar and its borders. I have crossed Myanmar’s borders illegally, slept in bamboo huts in the jungle with armed resistance soldiers, visited refugee camps, sat with landmine victims, talked with former political prisoners, taken Western democratic politicians to the region and then, as the country liberalized over the past decade, I have traveled inside the country, leading workshops with civil society groups, inter-faith activists and religious leaders. I have devoted much of my adult life to working for a better future for Myanmar. I even became a Catholic in Myanmar, inspired and received into the Church in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Yangon by my friend, Cardinal Charles Bo.

Two days before the coup, I had a catch-up with Cardinal Bo online. He was in Myitkyina and was his usual self — relaxed, inspiring, humorous and encouraging. But he casually dropped into the conversation a comment. “Can you be available over the next few days, Ben?” he asked. “There might be a coup.”

Those words were a bombshell. I had heard rumors, but I did not believe them. Why would the military throw away a decade of progress and a deal which protected their interests while putting responsibility on the shoulders of the civilian leader, Suu Kyi? They had power under the constitution which gave them the key ministries — defense, home affairs and border affairs — and a quarter of the seats in the legislature without having public responsibility. Why plunge the country back into total pariah status by a coup?

Late at night on Jan. 31, I was about to go to sleep in London when my phone flashed up with news of the coup. Surreal images of an aerobics exercise instructor on a highway in Naypyidaw appeared, with her seemingly oblivious to the tanks rolling in behind her.

Some weeks later I learned that my long-time close friend Dr. Sasa, whom I have had the privilege of knowing for the past 16 years, managed to escape, disguising himself as a taxi driver, and made it to the India border. I was glad he was safe.

He is my brother — he has come to the United Kingdom most years since 2005 and stayed both with me in London and with my parents in the English countryside every time. His charity, Health and Hope, was conceived in my parents’ sitting room. He calls my mother “Mum”; she sends him poetry every day; when my nephews were born, he said how proud he was that he and I were both “uncles”; and when my father died in 2020, not only did he send a message which I read at the funeral, he organized a memorial in Chin state. He is family.

So when Sasa, once he was safely out of the country, was catapulted into an unsought role as one of the faces of Myanmar’s new resistance, it was a surprise. Some weeks after the coup he asked for advice. Since then we have met periodically. My friend, who was an inspiring but humble Chin doctor, is now the international spokesperson for Myanmar’s government-in-exile. 

That comes with a high price. Sasa is now a wanted man, charged by Myanmar’s illegal junta with treason — simply for having worked for democracy and defended it when it was overthrown. He lives his life now in exile and in hiding, separated from his family and constantly conscious of his security.

In response to peaceful protests and rudimentary resistance, the junta has unleashed the full force of its arsenal of weaponry on the people of Myanmar

The consequences of the coup, a year on, are that Myanmar is now engulfed in a horrific humanitarian and human rights crisis. Min Aung Hlaing and his henchmen obviously underestimated the strength of opposition that would arise in response to his illegal coup, but have responded to resistance with unimaginable inhumanity. In response to peaceful protests and rudimentary resistance, the junta has unleashed the full force of its arsenal of weaponry on the people of Myanmar.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, one of the most reputable of Myanmar’s human rights groups, claims that at least 11,776 people have been arrested and 1,494 killed. Those arrested include at least 573 members of the National League for Democracy (NLD), of whom 432 remain in detention. Twelve have died in custody, including seven tortured to death during interrogation. At least 92 people have received the death sentence.

At least 114 journalists have been arrested since the coup, of whom 43 remain in jail. The Committee to Protect Journalists reports that Myanmar today ranks second only to China as a country that has jailed the most journalists. In 2020, before the coup, no journalists were jailed in Myanmar.

Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s de facto elected leader, and elected president Win Myint are in jail with a string of further fake charges designed to keep them locked up for years. Whatever you think of their failings while in government, they do not deserve this. They received a clear mandate from the people in November 2020 and deserve to be in office, not in jail.

Myanmar’s so-called army has carried out over 7,000 attacks on civilians, an increase of 664 percent from 2020. At least 100 children have been killed. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) claims that at least 330,600 people have been internally displaced since the coup.

The Tatmadaw has bombed and shelled its own people, and these attacks have been accompanied by appalling atrocities, including murder, torture, sexual violence, rape and the destruction of property. On several occasions, Myanmar’s soldiers have burned people alive. On Dec. 7, Tatmadaw soldiers bound 11 civilians and tortured them before setting them on fire in Salingyi township, Sagaing Division. The victims included five teenagers aged 14-17. A 12th victim was found the next day with a severe knife wound in her neck.

On Christmas Eve, in a village in Hpruso township in Karenni state, at least 37 people, including women and about 10 children, were massacred. Soldiers tied the victims’ hands behind their backs, forced them into vehicles and set them alight, burning them to death. Among them were two humanitarian aid workers from Save the Children.

While without doubt everyone in Myanmar is suffering, Christians have been targeted with particular intensity. Several pastors have been murdered and jailed, and many shelled and destroyed.

Failure to end impunity and hold the gangsters in Naypyidaw to account sets a dangerous precedent for other dictators

On Sept. 18, for example, Pastor Cung Biak Hum, 31, was shot by soldiers as he tried to help extinguish a blaze caused by artillery fire, which destroyed 19 homes in Thantlang township.  On Dec. 13, another Chin pastor was found dead — with bullet wounds to his head and stomach — in Kanpetlet township, having been arrested two days before.

The persecution continues of Muslims throughout the country, especially Rohingya, as the new military junta is driven by extreme Burman, Buddhist nationalism.

So one year on, Myanmar faces a dire humanitarian emergency, compounded by Covid-19 and the regime’s deliberate blocking of aid. The military has stolen, looted or obstructed humanitarian assistance, leaving hundreds of thousands without food, medicines, or shelter. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has warned that 46 percent of the population will be living in poverty in 2022. At least 14.4 million people, including 5 million children, will need humanitarian assistance this year.

It is astounding that this living catastrophe has not caused more outcry. Apart from a few sanctions and some hand-wringing statements, the democratic world has been dangerously silent — or at least tepid. It is time for the free world to step up. Failure to end impunity and hold the gangsters in Naypyidaw to account sets a dangerous precedent for other dictators. The free world must act.

We must cut the lifeline to the generals by toughening targeting sanctions and enforcing a worldwide arms embargo.

We must increase the diplomatic effort by requiring that the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres — hitherto asleep at the wheel — to wake up from his siesta and mobilize the world to seek a political and humanitarian solution.

And we must provide a lifeline to the peoples of Myanmar by delivering aid to the borders and elsewhere.

As we commemorate the first anniversary of the coup, let us not simply accept it. Let us do everything in our power to reverse it and to restore freedom to this beautiful but benighted corner of Southeast Asia. In the place where my faith was inspired, let freedom be restored.

* Benedict Rogers is a human rights activist and writer. He is senior analyst for East Asia at the international human rights organization CSW, the co-founder and chief executive of Hong Kong Watch, co-founder and deputy chair of the UK Conservative Party Human Rights Commission, a member of the advisory group of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) and a board member of the Stop Uyghur Genocide Campaign. He is the author of six books, including three books about Myanmar, especially his latest, “Burma: A Nation at the Crossroads”. His faith journey is told in his book “From Burma to Rome: A Journey into the Catholic Church” (Gracewing, 2015). The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official editorial position of UCA News.