Myanmar military coup in 2021

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Myanmar military coup in 2021
Deposed State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi (left) and General Min Aung Hlaing (right)
Deposed State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi (left) and General Min Aung Hlaing (right)
date February 1, 2021
place Myanmar
reason Election victory of the NLD
consequences One year state of emergency.
Regional imposition of martial law.
Mass protests. War-like
conditions
Parties to the conflict

MyanmarMyanmarGovernment NLD
Flag of National League for Democracy.svg

Flag of the Myanmar Armed Forces.svgMilitary ( Tatmadaw ) USDP
Flag of the Union Solidarity and Development Party.svg

leader


At least 510 civilian deaths as a result of the protests and their crackdown by the military and police according to the AAPP
4 dead police officers
2600 to 3070 arrests (AAPP)
(as of March 29, 2021)

The military coup in Myanmar in 2021 is a coup by the Myanmar armed forces , led by General Min Aung Hlaing , against the democratically elected government under Aung San Suu Kyi . On February 1, when the new legislature should begin the Parliament, the military announced a state of emergency for one year, the bicameral dissolved Parliament and set the former vice president Myint Swe one as kommissarisches head of state. Election fraud was cited as the reason for the coup .

The violent breakup of subsequent nationwide anti-coup demonstrations resulted in thousands of arrests and hundreds of deaths. An escalation of violence was observed in March.

Starting position

Myanmar was only able to officially break away from a protracted military dictatorship that began in 1962 with a military coup in 2015. Aung San Suu Kyi , the daughter of Aung San , who helped bring Burma out of dependence on Great Britain in the middle of the 20th century , won the military-approved elections with her party, the National League for Democracy (NLD) Year 1990 . However, the military subsequently placed her under house arrest for 15 years and refused to relinquish the leadership of the country.

With the Saffron Revolution in 2007, the Myanmar people rebelled against the ruling military dictatorship, which put down the demonstrations and imprisoned and tortured the ideological and political leaders of the demonstrators - if not imprisoned like Aung San Suu Kyi. Three years later, in 2010, the military allowed elections in Myanmar for the first time since 1990 , which according to international assessments were neither free nor fair. With the elections held at the end of 2010, the dictatorship officially ended. Referred to as reforms, the military leaders had the Myanmar constitution written by their elected deputies in accordance with their needs and were thus able to consolidate their position of power by law. According to the Myanmar constitution, the military appoints one of the two vice-presidents as well as the heads of the defense, interior and border protection ministries. In addition, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces is not subject to any civilian control.

Nevertheless, democratic reforms also took place in Myanmar between 2011 and 2015, as a result of which the first elections rated as free took place in 2015. The parliamentary elections in Myanmar in 2015 resulted in another victory for Suu Kyi and the NLD. However, the military retained significant influence, including the right to appoint a quarter of the MPs.

On November 8, 2020, Aung San Suu Kyi or her party won the parliamentary elections again with an absolute majority, according to official information . The turnout was around 70%. The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) was far behind.

The NLD won 396 of 476 seats in parliament, an even larger number of seats than in the general election in 2015. The USDP only won 33 seats. The military claimed after the 2020 election that the vote was fraudulent. The military had denied rumors of an attempted coup just a few days before the coup.

course

Suu Kyi, President Win Myint and at least 43 other senior government officials were arrested by the military early in the morning on February 1. The Internet and telecommunications, as well as broadcasting news stations, collapsed at times. In the morning, the military announced that it would temporarily take over government and all state power and only transfer power to a civilian government after new elections. The current First Vice-President Lieutenant General Myint Swe , who had been a representative of the military in the government since 2016, was installed as the incumbent President . Under Articles 417 and 418 of the Constitution, he imposed a one-year state of emergency on the country. The parliament elected in November was dissolved. The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing , took control of the executive , legislative and judicial branches without assuming a new office. At a meeting of the National Defense and Security Council , he declared that the military wanted to abide by the provisions of the constitution and the law and was preparing new elections. On February 1, 25 ministers were dismissed from the cabinet formed by the NLD and replaced by 11 new incumbents. In the evening, a curfew was imposed and hundreds of MPs were detained in the residential complex where MPs live on days when Parliament is in session.

The National Defense and Security Council (NDSC) consists of eleven members under Article 201 of the Constitution. Three of them were deposed in the wake of the coup (President, Speaker of the two Houses of Parliament) and four replaced (Minister for Defense, Interior, Foreign Affairs and Borders); four were provided by the military anyway (first and second vice-presidents, commander-in-chief and his deputy). The NDSC is now completely under the control of the military.

Military rule was institutionalized on February 2, when an eleven-member State Administrative Council (SAC) was created by decree . The armed forces relied on Article 419 of the Constitution. The commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing took over the chairmanship of the new body. The SAC is to exercise executive, legislative and judicial powers together with its chairman.

On February 3, it was announced that the deposed State Councilor Aung San Suu Kyi would be charged with high treason. After the coup there were various protests by Burmese in Yangon and on the Internet. In the first week after the coup, protests spread to the capital Naypyidaw and the second largest city, Mandalay . There were also acts of civil disobedience, such as in the health sector. In response, the new military regime blocked social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Protests and their crackdown

Demonstration in Yangon on February 9, 2021

In the days that followed, the military temporarily imposed martial law on the capital Naypyidaw as well as the cities of Yangon and Mandalay and, with effect from February 8, 2021, prohibited gatherings of more than five people. As a result, there were mass protests in the said cities. At the end of February, the military used firearms against demonstrators. There are daily protests across the country.

At least 34 journalists were arrested by March 3. The actual number of arrests is estimated to be higher, however, as over 1,000 civilians were taken into custody on some days.

On March 4, 2021 alone, 38 people were killed by the police and the military. Police and military killings in Myanmar were also reported in the following days.

In mid-March 2021, the military junta again imposed martial law in parts of the city of Yangon , the largest in Myanmar. The feared further escalation of violence was confirmed when the military cracked down on protesters in Yangon on March 14th. There were dozens of deaths across the country on that day alone, a Sunday.

In March 2021, the military junta released more than 600 of the approximately 2,700 protesters detained from Insein Prison .

At least 114 demonstrators were killed by security forces across the country on March 27, 2021, in the bloodiest day to date since the Coup d'Etat. The day before, the junta had warned on television that protesters would also be shot in the heads and backs. Children and mourners at funerals were also shot. Reports suggest that around a quarter of protesters killed since the coup have been shot in the head.

Backgrounds and motifs

The motives of the military for this coup so far have remained unclear. The military has allegedly claimed that alleged electoral fraud threatened national sovereignty. A few days before the coup, the Union Electoral Commission, appointed by the civilian population, had categorically rejected the military's allegations of electoral fraud and criticized the lack of evidence to support the military's allegations of 8.6 million irregularities in the electoral rolls of Myanmar's 314 townships.

The coup may have been driven by the military's aim to maintain its central role in Burmese politics.

The law on military service provides for a compulsory retirement age of 65 years for the commander in chief of the armed forces. Incumbent Min Aung Hlaing would have been forced to retire on his 65th birthday in July 2021.

In addition, the constitution only authorizes the president, in consultation with the National Defense and Security Council, to appoint Min Aung Hlaing's successor, which could have given the civilian arm of the government the opportunity to appoint a more reform-minded military officer as commander-in-chief.

Hlaing's dwindling power would have exposed him to possible prosecution and accountability for alleged war crimes during the Rohingya conflict in various international courts.

Min Aung Hlaing had also hinted at a possible entry into politics as a civilian after his retirement.

The Justice for Myanmar activist group has also cited the significant financial and business interests of Min Aung Hlaing and his family as a possible motivating factor for the coup.

Min Aung Hlaing oversees two military complexes, Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanma Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL), while his daughter, son and daughter-in-law have significant business interests in the country.

A few days before the coup, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had given the Central Bank of Myanmar $ 350 million in cash as part of an emergency aid package to help fight the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The funds came with no conditions or requirements for refunds. In response to possible concerns about the proper use of the funds by the military regime, an IMF spokesman stated: "It would be in the interests of the government and certainly the people of Myanmar that these funds are actually used appropriately."

The IMF did not directly address concerns about the independence of the central bank in light of the appointment of Than Nyein, an ally of the military, as administrator.

Assessment and reactions

3000 protesters in Tokyo , Japan .

The media controlled by the military proclaimed that Article 417 of the Constitution provides that the military may take power when the unity of the country, “national solidarity” or the sovereignty of the nation are in danger. In fact, the enforcement of that article can only come from the president who was taken into custody by the military.

The US, Australia, the European Union and Switzerland are calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other politicians and a return to the rule of law. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the coup and regretted that all state power was now exercised by the military. The National Parliament of East Timor expressed its solidarity with the people of Myanmar and condemned the military coup.

Japan temporarily held Myanmar's first satellite, developed jointly with Myanmar, on the International Space Station because it was feared that it would be used by the military. Contrary to protests from human rights organizations , the satellite was released into space on March 22, 2021, but without access from the Myanmar side. The developers of the satellite claim that the use of the satellite data will be restricted to peaceful purposes.

Web links

  Myanmar: The courage of the whole people in the arte media library (12 min.), Available until February 24, 2024

Individual evidence

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  2. ↑ Myanmar: More than 500 dead in protests against the military junta. In: Der Spiegel. Retrieved March 30, 2021 .
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