Since its independence in 1948, Myanmar has faced numerous political challenges including thwarted elections, military juntas, pro-democracy attempts, and humanitarian crises.
The Rohingya are a Muslim group in Myanmar who have been highly persecuted throughout history. Discrimination against the Rohingya escalated significantly in 2012 with the displacement of over 100,000 Rohingya and hundreds killed. In 2017, over 700,000 Rohingya were ethnically cleansed and forced to leave Myanmar and thousands were killed as a result. Most of these refugees have settled in refugee camps in Bangladesh and have remained there since.
In February 2021, there was a military coup led by Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in which the Tatmadaw (military) seized power and detained senior leaders from the National League for Democracy (NLD) such as the former de facto head of state Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. This occurred following the 2020 elections in which the coup’s proxy party (the Union Solidarity and Development Party) failed to receive votes. A shadow government called the National Unity Government made up of activists and lawmakers seek to resist its control, especially in response to the junta’s violent crackdown on opposition and violations of human rights. Following the coup, protests continued for months and security forces reacted using lethal force. In 2021, there was a 620% increase in violence against civilians by state forces compared to 2020.
As a result of the military coup, Myanmar faces an economic crisis in which the health care system has collapsed, millions are food insecure, and the economy shrunk by 20% in 2021. Furthermore, Rohingya rights are threatened by the current military regime that has attacked Rohingya in the past.
Peace attempts:
In October 2015, under former President Thein Sein, a National Ceasefire Agreement was signed by ethnic armed groups in an attempt to end decades of violent conflict. Ultimately, 10 groups refused to sign the agreement and some groups were even excluded from the process, so peace talks did not resume. Since then, the government has failed to convince powerful armed groups to sign the ceasefire agreement.
In 2016, a peace conference attempted to combat the violence between the military and ethnic groups, yet did not include the Rohingya in peace talks. Under the leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi, Rohingya rights were not protected and they were not given the right to vote.
In 2018, a UN report accused the Myanmar military of carrying out war crimes and genocide against the Rohingya, and Myanmar denied these allegations. Also in 2018, the government encouraged groups to sign the ceasefire agreement if they initially refused in 2016. Unfortunately, such efforts failed and peace talks have continued to stall to this day.
