Myanmar refugees fear for loved ones in coup
Burmese refugees in Milwaukee were shocked by this month’s military coup in their native Myanmar that deposed the country’s civilian government and provoked fears the country would descend into the violence they fled.
Many Burmese Americans are worried about the safety of their friends and family back in Myanmar, also known as Burma, where the military seized power Feb. 1, ousting leader Aung San Suu Kyi and preventing recently elected lawmakers from opening a new session of Parliament.
Communication blackouts following the military takeover cut off many Burmese Americans from loved ones back home. The ouster reversed nearly a decade of progress toward democracy following 50 years of military rule and has led to widespread protests in cities around the southeast Asian country, the Associated Press has reported.
May May Latt, of Glendale, was part of the 1988 student-led uprising against military rule in Myanmar that was met with deadly force by the military.
“This has triggered me a lot,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to be killed in Burma.”
Latt, who came to the United States in 1997, is worried about family members back in Myanmar. She remembers how her late uncle, a prominent peace activist and musician in Myanmar, was jailed for months more than a decade ago, before democratic reforms began.
“He was in my mind, and I remember how he struggled for that,” she said.
She worries the country she still considers home is going backward.
“I am really worried for them, especially the younger generation,” Latt said. “We fought in 1988 for them, and they have to fight again right now for their generation and the next generation. That’s not really fair.”
Wisconsin is home to thousands of relatively new refugees from Myanmar. Since fiscal year 2010, Wisconsin has received more than 5,300 refugees from Myanmar, more than from any other nation, according to the U.S. State Department. Most resettled in Milwaukee.
At the White House on Wednesday, President Joe Biden said he was ordering new sanctions against Myanmar’s military regime and that more measures were to come. He said the sanctions would prevent Myanmar’s generals from accessing $1 billion in Burmese funds being held in the U.S.
Biden called on the military to release detained political leaders, including Suu Kyi, and relinquish the power it seized.
The coup came the day newly elected lawmakers were supposed to take their seats in Parliament after November elections. The generals have said that vote was marred by fraud — though the country’s election commission has dismissed that claim, the Associated Press reported.
“The people of Burma are making their voices heard, and the world is watching,” Biden said. “We’ll be ready to impose additional measures, and we’ll continue to work with our international partners to urge other nations to join us in these efforts.”
Ye Lwin, a Burmese refugee who lives in Milwaukee and is a U.S. citizen, supports the sanctions.
“We love it, and we want more strong action,” he said.
He and other Burmese refugees in Milwaukee plan to hold a demonstration next Tuesday outside City Hall, across from the Pabst Theater where Biden is set to participate in a CNN town hall that evening.
They’re calling for the United States and the international community to ramp up pressure on the Myanmar military to return power to the deposed civilian government and to free Suu Kyi and other detained leaders.
Biak Tha Hlawn, 17, came to the United States in 2010 as a refugee with her family. She and her family left Myanmar and fled to Malaysia, where she said they lived in hiding for two years while seeking refugee status.
She said her father, who lived in a small village, was forced to perform labor for the military. It was that kind of oppression they wanted to escape.
“If the United States is the face of democracy, then we need to make sure that democracy is lived throughout different countries in the world,” she said. “Right now that’s not” happening in Myanmar.
Since Feb. 1, multiple protests have sprang up in Milwaukee against the military takeover.
On Feb. 6, more than 100 people, many of them Burmese refugees, lined the sidewalk on the western edge of Mitchell Park in Milwaukee. They chanted “Burma, Burma, free, free” and held signs with Suu Kyi’s picture saying, “We stand with our leader.” Other signs said, “Free Myanmar,” “Without democracy, there cannot be peace,” and “No more dictatorship.”
They waved American flags and the flag of the National League for Democracy, the political party led by Suu Kyi that won landslide victories in the country’s November election. Some wore Myanmar’s flag draped over their shoulders or the flag of one of the country’s myriad ethnic groups. Some stamped their feet on posters of Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the coup.
Sang Chin Par, 28, who belongs to the Chin ethnic group and is originally from Myanmar, was at the protest on Feb. 6.
Par was cut off from loved ones back in Myanmar when lines of communication were disrupted the week of the coup. For days, she could not reach her grandfather, whose health has been declining and who is like a father to her. She worries a communication blackout could happen again.
“This is just the beginning,” she said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen . ... I’m afraid that things could get worse.”
Par, who came to the United States about 10 years ago, says her home country deserves better.
“Being here ... I have tasted how great (it is) to have freedom of our own,” she said. “I want that for my people. I want that for my family. I want that for my friends.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Sarah Volpenhein is a Report for America corps reporter who focuses on news of value to underserved communities for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Email her at svolpenhei@gannett.com. Please consider supporting journalism that informs our democracy with a taxdeductible gift to this reporting effort at JSOnline.com/RFA.