Anti-coup protesters shout slogans at
approaching security forces as smoke rises from burning car tires in Yangon,
Myanmar, on March 28, 2021. Stringer/Getty
Images
Feb. 1 marks one year since Myanmar’s
military overthrew the country’s elected government, imprisoned key political
leaders, and unleashed a brutal campaign of terror, detaining and massacring
civilians calling for democracy. Under the leadership of Senior Gen. Min Aung
Hlaing, the military has launched airstrikes on
villages and internally displaced people’s camps and carried out brutal
sexual and gender-based attacks on women and girls across the country.
That was just the beginning of a
campaign of systematic violence that United Nations High Commissioner for Human
Rights Michelle Bachelet has said may amount
to crimes against humanity and war crimes. Over the past year, the junta has
killed at least 1,500 people and arrested nearly 12,000 nationwide.
Nevertheless, fearless and resilient,
my country’s people remain more committed than ever to taking down the junta and
ending this human rights catastrophe. Demonstrators have taken to the streets
for months on end, key workers in state sectors have engaged in a sustained
civil disobedience movement, and duly elected officials—alongside human rights
activists and other leaders from diverse ethnic minority communities—have
formed the National Unity Government (NUG), which seeks to overthrow the junta.
Yet while more and more of us have come together to call for justice, freedom,
and democracy, the international community has failed to truly stand in
solidarity with us, issuing lofty statements of
condemnation but taking few practical steps to protect our lives.
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