Myanmar extends state of emergency day before military coup anniversary News
Mil.ru, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Myanmar extends state of emergency day before military coup anniversary

Myanmar’s ruling military has extended a state of emergency for another six months, a day ahead of the fourth anniversary of the coup that brought it to power. The move was reported by the state-owned Myawaddy Media on Friday. The military claimed that the extension is necessary to ensure the stability and peace of the nation. The military also said they intended to hold a “free and fair multi-party democratic general election.”

On January 30, Kyaw Moe Tun, permanent representative of Myanmar to the UN, commented, “Under the military junta, there will definitely be no free, fair and inclusive election. That is why the people of Myanmar, we, keep asking the international community to reject that sham election since the beginning that to be held by the military junta.”

This is not the first time the ruling military junta has extended the duration of the state of emergency by triggering Articles 415 and 417 of the 2008 Constitution which was designed in the first place to permanently secure the military personnel’s seats in the parliament. The junta has previously extended the state of emergency and postponed the election in 2023 and 2024.

Regarding the military regime’s attempt to grip power by launching retaliatory airstrikes and artillery shelling on civilian populated areas, conducting arbitrary arrests, and forcing young people into military service, UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said:

This military-created human rights crisis has caused untold suffering through indiscriminate attacks against civilians, denial of humanitarian aid, and systematic violations of human rights. Without an immediate end to this brutality and accountability for the perpetrators, civilian casualties will continue to rise and the overall situation for civilians will inevitably continue to deteriorate.

The 2021 military coup represented an effort to deny the result of the 2020 General Election, with the arbitrary detention of the democratically elected government officials including President U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), there are a total of 21722 sentenced political prisoners and at least 6,231 civilians killed by the military over the past four years.

The National Unity Government, Myanmar’s parallel government formed by the government officials who won the 2020 election, remarked on the duration of the military coup which has been more than 3 years, and highlighted the importance of ensuring “systematic resource management during the revolution period.” Also, local media shared images of people who continued protesting on the streets with the slogan “The people’s revolution has not stopped for a day,” in Salingyi Township and Yinmabin Township in Sagaing Division.

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