Burma Coup Watch for Month of April 2021
This publication is produced in cooperation with Burma Human Rights Network (BHRN), Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK), Initiatives for International Dialogue (IID), International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Progressive Voice (PV), US Campaign for Burma (USCB), and Women Peace Network (WPN). BN 2021/2035: 2 May 2021 BURMA COUP WATCH FOR MONTH OF APRIL 2021: GOVERNMENT LOCKED OUT OF THE HOUSE WHILE JUNTA LAUNCHES NEW CIVIL WAR INSIDE The junta, still unable to gain political, territorial or economic control in the third month since its forcible and unconstitutional power grab, has engulfed the entire country in armed conflict. It has escalated military attacks on urban-based movements and border-based ethnic communities. Security forces, including notorious units that committed genocidal atrocities against Rohingya people, unleashed lethal battlefield tactics in towns and cities, launched airstrikes on Kachin and Karen states, and shelled villages in Chin, Kachin, Karen, Shan, and Sagaing States/Regions. During April alone, security forces killed at least 288 civilians and displaced over 27,000. The junta sentenced 26 civilians to death in military tribunals. In total, it has killed at least 845 civilians, injured thousands more, displaced over 47,000 ethnic community members, and detained at least 4,537 politicians, activists, journalists and others, in attacks against the democracy movement. The Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH) (i.e., the elected parliament) formed an ethnically diverse National Unity Government (NUG). ASEAN leaders invited junta leader Min Aung Hlaing—who illegally grabbed power on 1 February—to a meeting, rather than Burma’s legitimate civilian government. The meeting resolution contained “Five Points of Consensus,” including peaceful negotiation and cessation of violence in Burma, but not including the release of political detainees.
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