Zürcher Nachrichten - 'Living in a dark era': one year since Myanmar's coup

EUR -
AED 4.02928
AFN 75.692818
ALL 98.230283
AMD 424.526499
ANG 1.976439
AOA 998.266389
ARS 1066.001016
AUD 1.612696
AWG 1.977335
AZN 1.863965
BAM 1.944898
BBD 2.214209
BDT 131.046636
BGN 1.957257
BHD 0.413514
BIF 3181.595132
BMD 1.096996
BND 1.423434
BOB 7.577594
BRL 5.983669
BSD 1.096663
BTN 92.020037
BWP 14.505822
BYN 3.588816
BYR 21501.121252
BZD 2.21043
CAD 1.489293
CDF 3148.378983
CHF 0.942308
CLF 0.036652
CLP 1011.452275
CNY 7.733383
CNH 7.782029
COP 4584.35718
CRC 568.816783
CUC 1.096996
CUP 29.070394
CVE 109.650374
CZK 25.333254
DJF 195.277188
DKK 7.456336
DOP 65.950925
DZD 145.776338
EGP 53.031085
ERN 16.45494
ETB 131.190033
FJD 2.425439
FKP 0.835427
GBP 0.836717
GEL 2.994743
GGP 0.835427
GHS 17.348912
GIP 0.835427
GMD 75.692831
GNF 9468.015018
GTQ 8.485513
GYD 229.426084
HKD 8.520061
HNL 27.2684
HRK 7.458488
HTG 144.59084
HUF 401.139072
IDR 17173.472102
ILS 4.183339
IMP 0.835427
INR 92.160882
IQD 1436.560707
IRR 46169.818195
ISK 148.88356
JEP 0.835427
JMD 173.278717
JOD 0.777331
JPY 162.890194
KES 141.468786
KGS 92.902942
KHR 4451.09077
KMF 489.803593
KPW 987.295762
KRW 1479.34843
KWD 0.335999
KYD 0.913886
KZT 529.616158
LAK 24215.485107
LBP 98202.836496
LKR 322.077587
LRD 211.645587
LSL 19.158684
LTL 3.239144
LVL 0.663562
LYD 5.229686
MAD 10.726472
MDL 19.240327
MGA 5022.890858
MKD 61.564827
MMK 3563.000159
MNT 3727.592298
MOP 8.769524
MRU 43.41504
MUR 50.999087
MVR 16.849469
MWK 1901.558483
MXN 21.032593
MYR 4.628916
MZN 70.0706
NAD 19.158684
NGN 1804.646485
NIO 40.35417
NOK 11.695469
NPR 147.232059
NZD 1.779336
OMR 0.422397
PAB 1.096663
PEN 4.09377
PGK 4.367519
PHP 62.159157
PKR 304.313598
PLN 4.31572
PYG 8548.162703
QAR 3.998424
RON 4.976737
RSD 116.999054
RUB 104.488911
RWF 1485.785237
SAR 4.120618
SBD 9.149807
SCR 14.537392
SDG 659.844023
SEK 11.373616
SGD 1.431212
SHP 0.835427
SLE 25.063399
SLL 23003.451609
SOS 626.692896
SRD 34.226646
STD 22705.602007
SVC 9.595303
SYP 2756.235245
SZL 19.150828
THB 36.474867
TJS 11.679042
TMT 3.839486
TND 3.367816
TOP 2.569275
TRY 37.567362
TTD 7.437379
TWD 35.412153
TZS 2991.098835
UAH 45.147633
UGX 4021.494878
USD 1.096996
UYU 45.863339
UZS 13971.81084
VEF 3973925.575776
VES 40.522005
VND 27172.59048
VUV 130.237567
WST 3.068805
XAF 652.306557
XAG 0.033642
XAU 0.000412
XCD 2.964687
XDR 0.815536
XOF 652.300644
XPF 119.331742
YER 274.632862
ZAR 19.152765
ZMK 9874.314377
ZMW 28.868446
ZWL 353.232259
  • CMSC

    -0.0750

    24.665

    -0.3%

  • CMSD

    -0.0820

    24.808

    -0.33%

  • NGG

    -0.5650

    66.405

    -0.85%

  • BCC

    -0.2700

    138.02

    -0.2%

  • GSK

    0.1750

    38.545

    +0.45%

  • RIO

    -0.1800

    69.65

    -0.26%

  • JRI

    -0.0240

    13.276

    -0.18%

  • BTI

    0.1400

    35.25

    +0.4%

  • SCS

    0.2550

    12.875

    +1.98%

  • RBGPF

    -1.8700

    58.93

    -3.17%

  • RYCEF

    0.0000

    6.98

    0%

  • AZN

    -0.5400

    77.39

    -0.7%

  • BCE

    -0.1000

    33.74

    -0.3%

  • VOD

    -0.0200

    9.67

    -0.21%

  • BP

    0.5650

    33.025

    +1.71%

  • RELX

    -0.6000

    46.01

    -1.3%

'Living in a dark era': one year since Myanmar's coup
'Living in a dark era': one year since Myanmar's coup

'Living in a dark era': one year since Myanmar's coup

Hours before Myanmar's new parliament was due to convene last February, troops rounded up lawmakers in dawn raids, ending a brief democratic interlude and setting the stage for months of bloodshed.

Text size:

A year later the country's latest junta is struggling to contain the backlash unleashed by its power grab, with daily clashes and swathes of the country outside of its control.

Almost 1,500 civilians have been killed and over 11,000 arrested in its ongoing crackdown, according to a local monitor, with rights groups accusing junta troops of torture and extrajudicial killings.

But for a pro-democracy movement angered by the military's power-grab, ending its decades-long entanglement in Myanmar politics once and for all is the only option.

That means, analysts say, there is no end in sight to the crisis that has devastated the economy, emptied schools and hospitals across the country and sent thousands fleeing to neighbouring Thailand and India.

"We are still living in a dark era," said Htoo Aung -- using a pseudonym for fear of reprisal -- at a market in commercial hub Yangon.

"We have to think how we can struggle on through our daily lives under this military dictatorship rather than about our goals, our dreams in the future."

In Yangon and other cities, the junta is projecting a return to normality as traffic jams return and shopping malls slowly fill up again.

But, days before the February 1 anniversary, it is taking no chances.

Authorities recently announced that those honking car horns or banging pots and pans -- popular protests in cities following the coup -- could be charged with treason or under an anti-terror law.

But daily clashes between the dozens of "people's defence forces" (PDFs) that have sprung up across the country to fight back against the putsch show no sign of abating.

The ex-protesters and villagers that fill their ranks have dealt some painful blows to junta troops with guerilla ambushes and mine attacks, even as they struggle to secure heavy weapons.

A shadow group of lawmakers claims almost 3,000 junta troops died in fighting with PDFs between June and November -- the junta says 168 soldiers and police were killed between February and late October.

- Air strikes -

The year of conflict has taken a toll on the military, which is facing morale and recruitment problems, said International Crisis Group's Myanmar senior advisor Richard Horsey.

"But these challenges are very unlikely to force the military to capitulate or lose its grip on state power," Horsey said.

Junta troops were blamed for a Christmas Eve massacre that left the charred remains of more than 30 people on a highway in the east of the country, including two staff members of the Save the Children charity.

Earlier in January it ordered air and artillery strikes on a state capital in the east to prevent anti-coup fights from seizing ground in the town.

Myanmar's myriad ethnic armed groups have largely held back from throwing their lot in with the democracy movement thanks to a longstanding mistrust of the majority Bamar elite -- epitomised by Aung San Suu Kyi and her ousted National League for Democracy.

It is a trust deficit that a shadow "National Unity Government" dominated by lawmakers from her party, and which has widespread support, is trying to overcome.

Suu Kyi's closed-door trial in the military-built capital continues, and in the coming months she will likely be sentenced on a clutch of corruption charges -- each of which carries a maximum 15-year jail term.

- 'Knockout blow' -

With the generals shielded at the United Nations by China and Russia -- and the crisis jostling for attention with wars in Ethiopia, Yemen and Ukraine -- many in Myanmar have given up on help arriving from the international community.

The military is killing protesters almost daily "without the world noticing," said Htoo Aung.

The generals have promised a return to multiparty democracy and fresh elections by 2023.

But "it is impossible to see how they could do so given their tenuous control of much of the country," said the Crisis Group's Horsey.

It seems "very unlikely that either side will be able to deliver a knockout blow", he said.

"The stage is set for months, possibly years of violent confrontation."

U.Ammann--NZN