Hello everyone,
A sincere apology that this week’s Saturday deep dive is a Monday deep dive. I wasn’t well over the weekend.
When Myanmar has made international news in recent decades, it’s usually been because of Aung San Suu Kyi. The now 80-year-old spent much of her political life imprisoned by her country’s military rulers, turning her into a global icon of democracy. Awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, Suu Kyi finally came to power as de facto prime minister from 2016 - 2021.
Her tenure tarnished her moral standing, though, when she refused to speak out as the military unleashed a genocide against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya community. After a tough exchange with BBC’s Mishal Husain, she was even heard to complain that she’d been interviewed by a Muslim.
Suu Kyi is now back behind bars, sentenced to decades in prison on bogus charges after, unsurprisingly, being overthrown by the military in 2021.
Since then, Myanmar has been at war. Why? Let’s get into a Q&A.
Until next Saturday,
Barry.
How did the war start and what’s it about?
Well, though the scene had been set for years, the seeds of the war were sown when Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected civilian government was overthrown by the military in February 2021. Suu Kyi and other senior figures from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party were rounded up in surprise morning raids.
It didn’t take long for protests to erupt and, when they did, the military, the much-feared Tatmadaw, reverted to habit and cracked down viciously.
The brutality backfired, though, by galvanizing opposition to the junta. An armed resistance movement, the People’s Defence Forces, joined with ethnic rebel groups (long active on the sidelines) and went to war with the junta. Now, more than four years later, the resistance movements control significant amounts of territory and many military analysts believe the army has its back against the wall.
Some quick steers on the lack of international reporting:
The media is stretched with the conflicts in Gaza and Ukraine.
The junta has made it extremely difficult to report on the conflict. Foreign journalists are barred, and local reporters face arrest or worse, making independent on-the-ground reporting almost impossible.
Western governments have limited leverage or strategic interest compared with China, Russia and India, so Western media attention waned.
The web of ethnic armed groups, decades of conflict, and a fragmented opposition make the story hard to explain in simple terms.
The coverage is there, though, if you seek it out. And much of it is excellent. I’ll provide a reading/watching list at the end of today’s newsletter.
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