Conflicts & War

Myanmar junta warns it will ‘firmly appease’ resistance

Bangkok, Mar 27 (EFE).- Myanmar’s military junta coup leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing said Monday he would “firmly appease” the “terrorist” groups that make up the resistance, during a military parade for Armed Forces Day.

Specifically, the general spoke against the National Unity Government – which declares itself the legitimate authority of Myanmar and was formed after the February 2021 coup by overthrown parliamentarians – and its armed wing, which have won key areas of the country from the army in recent months.

“It is necessary to stop the violence of the (exiled government and their armed wing) completely. The (army) and the national government will firmly appease this terrorist group that is destroying the nation and murdering the people,” he said during a speech.

He spoke during a military parade in Naypyidaw for the 78th anniversary of the Myanmar Army’s founding to fight Japan’s occupation, adding that some ethnic minority organizations are supporting the rebels, whom they have allegedly helped to train and supply weapons.

Their appeal comes amid an escalation of violence by the armed forces: in the middle of the month, a rebel militia denounced the murder of about 30 people by the army near the capital, days after the death of another 15 during a military attack in the central region of Sagaing.

It is in this area where fierce fighting has taken place in recent months between the Army and the opposition guerrillas, which have gained ground from the military, who, according to security experts on the ground, control barely a quarter of the country.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres this month condemned “the brutal attacks and murders reported in the Sagaing region and other parts of Myanmar,” expressing his concern “at the continued escalation of indiscriminate attacks by Myanmar’s Armed Forces.”

The Feb. 1, 2021 coup has plunged the country into a deep political, social and economic crisis, and has opened a spiral of violence with new civilian militias that have exacerbated the guerrilla war that the country has been experiencing for decades.

Last week, Thomas Andrews, UN Rapporteur for Myanmar, said more than 3,000 civilians have been killed, 1.3 million have had to flee their homes and 16,000 have become political prisoners since the coup, including Myanmar de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

On Feb. 1, two years after the coup, the military junta said it was extending the state of emergency in which the country has been in since then for another six months, generating uncertainty as to whether elections will still be held this year, as It planned. EFE

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