by Eugene Walker

Three years after the army staged a coup against the democratically elected government of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, there is a raging civil war in which the resistance forces now control over half of Myanmar’s territory. The resistance consists of hundreds of pro-democracy militias, ethnic armies and local defense forces.

Burma gained its independence from Britain in 1948, but there was no self-determination for numerous ethnic minorities, who soon began an insurgency. In 1962 the army staged its first coup, which ushered in almost half a century of its rule. When pro-democracy protests broke out in 1988, the army suppressed them in blood. Only in 2011 did the army allow partial political reform. This, after suppressing an earlier democratic uprising lead by Buddhist monks. A power-sharing arrangement with Aung San Suu Kyi began in 2015, until a second military coup in 2021 ended any vestige of democracy.

MANY COME TOGETHER AS THE PDF

While the insurgency has now reached a new peak, more than 20 militias representing ethnic minorities have been fighting for autonomy for decades. Many of these ethnic rebels control territories. When the army staged its 2021 coup, democracy activists sought sanctuary with the rebel groups.

“Tens of thousands of young people—among them doctors, actors, lawyers, teachers, models, Buddhist monks, D.J.s and engineers—escaped from the junta-held cities and formed more than 200 People’s Defense Forces (PDF), pledging allegiance to the shadow government. Often trained by the ethnic militias, the PDF is now fighting in more than 100 townships across the country.”

The army has responded to the insurgency with a massive campaign of aerial bombardment. Some 2.5 million people have been displaced. Out of the country’s 55 million people, some 18 million are in need of humanitarian aid.

The country has a rich ethnic diversity—well over 100 groups—which British imperialism ruled for much of the 19th and 20th Centuries. However, a million Rohingya have been rendered stateless as the army refuses to recognize them. While there is unity in resisting the military, how much that unity can forge a country with the need for multiple self-determinations remains to be seen.