+The Collapse of Nepali...

the potential to destabilize the wider Horn of Africa region” (CNN). Myanmar’s Shadow Government Calls for Uprising Against Military Dictatorship

Last week, Duwa Lashi La, the acting president of the National Unity Government (NUG), formed by the elected legislators who were deposed in a February 1 military putsch, has called for a nationwide uprising.

He said forcefully: “With the responsibility to protect the life and properties of the people, the National Unity Government...[has] launched a people’s defensive war against the rule of the military terrorists led by Min Aung Hlaing in every corner of the country” (Al Jazeera, Sep. 7). This has prompted a flare-up in fighting in the country’s borderlands, as several powerful ethnic groups expressed support for the call to arms.

The NUG’s call was followed by reports of a flare-up in fighting with several ethnic groups, including from the Shan, Kayin and Kachin states expressing solidarity with the shadow government. The NUG’s call for a ‘people’s defensive war’ has received an enthusiastic response on social media, but its actual impact on the ground is hard to measure. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent organization that keeps detailed tallies of people killed or detained by the military government, there have been 1,058 activists and bystanders killed since the army takeover (AP/ Associated Press, Sep.11).