Burmese junta leader vows to ‘annihilate’ opponents
The head of the Burmese junta showed his determination to fight against opponents of the regime on Sunday on the occasion of “the day of the armed forces”.
Min Aung Hlaing, the head of the junta in Burma, in Naypyidaw, Sunday March 27, 2022.
AFP
Burma’s junta leader vowed to ‘annihilate’ opponents of the regime in a speech Sunday on ‘armed forces day’, the scene last year of a bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protests .
The junta “will no longer negotiate (…) and will annihilate until the end” the groups which fight to overthrow its power, declared Min Aung Hlaing in front of more than 8000 soldiers gathered in Naypyidaw, the capital built by the former junta at the beginning of the 2000s.
The army delivered a new show of force: tanks paraded on the gigantic arteries followed by trucks carrying missiles and artillery pieces, while combat planes flew over the city, displaying the yellow colors , red and green of the national flag.
Chaos
Russia’s deputy defense minister – a major arms supplier and a traditional ally of Myanmar’s generals – was due to attend the parade. He was unable to come because of “his country’s business”, the operation in Ukraine, said junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun.
The last “armed forces day”, March 27, 2021, marked the deadliest day of repression since the coup that overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021. Some 163 protesters were shot dead that day by the security forces, according to a local NGO, the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Burma has descended into chaos since the generals’ putsch. More than 1,700 civilians were killed and nearly 13,000 arrested according to the AAPP, the UN denouncing “probable war crimes and crimes against humanity”. This brutal repression put an end to the large peaceful demonstrations that shook the country in the first weeks after the coup.
Tens of thousands displaced
Since then, citizen militias supported by ethnic minorities have taken up arms against the regime in several regions. The soldiers retaliate in particular by burning down houses, violence which has displaced tens of thousands of people.
The junta takes advantage of the divisions of the international community. On the one hand, the United States announced new sanctions against the army on Friday, a few days after having officially qualified as “genocide” the abuses carried out in 2017 by the Burmese military against the Muslim minority of the Rohingyas.
On the other hand, Beijing and Moscow continue their murky game, continuing to supply weapons – including fighter jets and armored vehicles – to the junta, according to UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews.
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