The protests in Myanmar on Saturday 27th March left 114 citizens dead, including more than five children. Unarmed protesters took to the streets after 2 months of rebelling against the successful military coup in early February, overthrowing President Aung San Suu Kyi and implementing their strict authoritarian regime. The coup was caused by the National League for Democracy (NDL) dominating open elections in the country, sparking false claims of fraudulent operations by the military. Led by Min Aung Hlaing, the army seized power in early February this year and accused the pro-democratic government of committing “unlawful acts”.
The military were roused and upset that the protestors had interrupted Armed Forces Day, named the most important military day of the year commemorating the initiation of resistance to Japanese occupation in 1945. Whilst the East Asian military leaders including Chinese and Russian officials threw a grand celebration, innocent Burmese citizens experienced the bloodiest day since the start of the coup in what has been coined “National Massacre Day”. The brave citizens were warned that if they protested, they would be shot “in the head and back”, yet devoted protestors still insist that they will “keep fighting”.
Since the beginning of the coup, over 400 civilians have been murdered in over 40 locations, including a 5-year-old boy shot in the head and a baby shot in the eye with a rubber bullet by army officers. The scenes in Myanmar are grisly and telling of the military regime. The officials’ brutality has been reported in over 40 locations across the country, wiping out any citizens that dare to voice their dislike of the authoritarian regime which has destroyed progressive efforts from the National League of Democracy Party. Shocking images have surfaced on the Internet and social media of families and locals in distress, some holding their blood-soaked loved ones after being shot in the head and with officers standing around.
International reactions have been emotional – the UN condemned the barbaric and inhumane acts of military officers. Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary of the UK has deemed it a “new low”, imposing sanctions on Myanmar along with the US and the EU.
Controversially, neither China nor Russia have commented on these terrorist attacks, leading to fears that they will veto efforts from the UN to take urgent humanitarian action. Chinese and Russian officials were present at the Armed Forces Day celebrations, with the military leader Aung Hlaing calling Russia a “true friend” for providing military resources and training to Burmese soldiers and encouraging this authoritarian movement.
The military coup in Myanmar had claimed to be an effort to restore democracy to hold new elections after the ‘frauded’ landslide of the NLD. However, the atrocities committed on Saturday express just the opposite. The extremity and overreaction to these peaceful protests, turned violent, expose the threatening military dictatorship Myanmar is currently faced with. It is apparent neither side will back down, resulting in more guaranteed
unnecessary deaths of innocent adults and children. Crucial efforts from the UN must be watched closely, also the response of China and Russia amid their own political crises. The military must be held account for the mounting death toll caused by not only Saturday’s “massacre”, but the 400 total deaths since early February under the illegitimate military dictatorship.
Facts • Balance • Context
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cloudflare | 1 month | The cookie is used by cdn services like CloudFlare to identify individual clients behind a shared IP address and apply security settings on a per-client basis. It does not correspond to any user ID in the web application and does not store any personally identifiable information. |
Cloudflare Always Online | This cookie is set by the provider Cloudflare content delivery network. This cookie is used for determining whether it should continue serving "Always Online" until the cookie expires. | |
Cookie Consent | 1 year | The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data. |
Login Paywall | 1 month | This cookie keeps track on whether the user is logged in and can view content. |
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics: Persistence | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to persist session state. |
Stripe M | 2 years | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any patment information on a server. |
Stripe MID | 1 year | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Stripe SID | 30 minutes | This cookie is set by Stripe payment gateway. This cookie is used to enable payment on the website without storing any payment information on a server. |
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google Analytics | 2 years | This cookie is installed by Google Analytics. The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookies store information anonymously and assign a randomly generated number to identify unique visitors. |
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | AWSALB is a cookie generated by the Application load balancer in the Amazon Web Services. It is used by the Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Amazon Load Balancer for Stockdio | 7 days | This cookie is used for load balancing services provded by Amazon inorder to optimize the user experience. Amazon has updated the ALB and CLB so that customers can continue to use the CORS request with stickness. It is used by Stockdio Stock Ticker. |
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Google NID | 6 months | NID cookie is a third party cookie automatically placed by Google services. To opt-out please visit https://adssettings.google.co.uk |
These cookies are used by the GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. They only store whether the user has opted in or out of other categories. They do not store any personal data.
Cookie | Duration | Description |
---|---|---|
Cookie Consent: Analytics | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Analytics". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Necessary | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Necessary". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Others | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Others". It does not store any personal data. |
Cookie Consent: Performance | 1 year | This cookies is set by GDPR Cookie Consent Plugin. The cookie is used to remember the user consent for the cookies under the category "Performance". It does not store any personal data. |