Myanmar state of emergency extended
YANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar’s military authorities announced on Wednesday it was extending its state of emergency by six more months, effectively delaying elections that the junta had pledged to hold by August, as they battle anti-coup fighters across the country.
The Southeast Asian nation has been in turmoil since the army’s power grab on Feb. 1, 2021, and a subsequent crackdown on dissent has sparked fighting across swathes of the country while tanking the economy.
Junta chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing acknowledged that more than a third of Myanmar’s townships are not under full military control, in comments reported by state media on Wednesday.
The admission came on the second anniversary of the putsch, as the National Defense and Security Council agreed to prolong the state of emergency declared when the generals toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
The “state of emergency will be extended for another six months starting from February 1,” Acting President Myint Swe was quoted as saying by state media.
The extension pushes back the date by which elections must be held, according to the country’s constitution.
The army ruled Myanmar for decades after gaining independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, and dominated the country’s economy and politics even before the coup.
And while Min Aung Hlaing reiterated a pledge to work toward nationwide elections, he made it clear that the military would maintain its prominent role.
The military will always be the “guardian of the interests of the state and people ... under whichever government comes,” he said, according to MRTV.
Deserted streets
The announcement came as streets were empty and shops closed across Myanmar in protest on the anniversary, with Western powers launching a fresh broadside of sanctions against the generals.
Streets in the commercial hub
Yangon were largely deserted from late morning, Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents said, after activists called for people across the country to close businesses and stay indoors.
Roads leading to the famous Shwedagon pagoda — a Buddhist shrine that dominates the former capital’s skyline and is usually thronged by worshippers — were largely deserted.
About 200 supporters of the military marched through Yangon’s historic downtown in the early afternoon, while in Thailand some 400 anti-junta protesters staged a noisy rally outside Myanmar’s embassy in the capital Bangkok.
The empty roads were in contrast to the huge protests seen in the weeks after the 2021 coup, which petered out in the face of a bloody crackdown by security forces.
Min Aung Hlaing said that while the street demonstrations were gone, “violence is still here,” accusing anti-junta groups of hampering election plans.
“Terrorists are terrorizing, disturbing, killing and destroying,” he said, according to MRTV.
Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch told AFP the extension showed that “Min Aung Hlaing only cares about holding tight to power, and the rights and suffering of the Burmese people be damned.” Burma is Myanmar’s old name.
The United States echoed his remarks, with US State Department spokesman Ned Price saying Washington “strongly opposes” the extension, as it prolonged “the military’s illegitimate rule and the suffering it inflicts upon the country.”
The military justified its power grab with unsubstantiated claims of widespread fraud in elections that democracy figurehead Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide.
The state of emergency was due to expire at the end of January and the military had been widely expected to announce on Wednesday that it would prepare for the polls.
More than 2,900 people have been killed in the military’s crackdown on dissent since it seized power and more than 18,000 have been arrested, according to a local monitoring group.