Three Years of Myanmar Military Coup: Residents Go on Strike, Junta Extends Implementation of State of Emergency

Anti-coup demonstration of Myanmar's military. (Wikimedia Commons/Maung Sun)

JAKARTA - Residents in Yangon City, Myanmar staged a strike on Thursday, marking the third anniversary of the country's military coup which began in 2021, while the UN Secretary General ensured that those responsible for the military's campaign of violence would be held accountable.

Thursday's protests followed a statement by the military junta which a day earlier said it was extending the state of emergency in the country for another six months, in line with the ongoing conflict between the military and pro-democracy groups and ethnic minority militias.

Traffic conditions were lighter, while fewer people were in public places in Yangon City, when the strike started at 10 am local time. Protesters asked residents to stay at home.

"A silent strike is the only way to express my protest," said a 17-year-old high school student in the city, who said he had been arrested before while taking part in anti-military protests, reported Kyodo News, February 1.

The military staged a coup on February 1, 2021, alleging widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections, in which Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won a landslide victory. The coup led to the fall of Suu Kyi's government.

With this latest extension of the state of emergency, the deadline for holding general elections to restore civilian rule will be pushed back to February 1 next year.

Meanwhile, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management of the Myanmar National Unity Government (NUG) Win Myat Aye said his party and its ethnic minority allies had carried out attacks on the military, calling on the international community to increase pressure on the junta.

"Myanmar's spring revolution has reached a turning point," said Win Myat Aye, referring to the three-year-old resistance movement against the military dictatorship.

"This has paved the way for the people's victory," he continued.

Separately, the United States and seven other countries as well as the European Union in a joint statement said they condemned the ongoing atrocities of the military regime in Myanmar.

"The military's actions have sparked a growing humanitarian crisis with 2.6 million people displaced from their homes, and more than 18 million people in need of assistance," said the statement, which urged the military to immediately stop violence against civilians and release all political prisoners who were detained unjustly.

It is known that more than 4,400 opponents of the coup have been killed, with more than 25,900 arrested and nearly 20,000 still in detention three years into the conflict, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.