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Why Myanmar’s War Matters, Even if the World Isn’t Watching
A devastating, yearslong civil war is heating up, but it still hasn’t attracted broad international notice.
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Fighters from the Karen ethnic group patrol next to an area destroyed by Myanmar’s airstrike in Myawaddy, on the Thai border this month. In recent weeks, Karen fighters captured a trading town. Credit...Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters
By Mike Ives
Mike Ives reported from Myanmar several times in the years before the country’s 2021 military coup.
April 20, 2024Updated 5:27 a.m. ET
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An escalating civil war threatens to break apart a country of roughly 55 million people that sits between China and India. That has international consequences, but the conflict hasn’t commanded wide attention.
Over the past six months, resistance fighters in Myanmar’s hinterlands have been defeating the ruling military junta in battle after battle, stunning analysts. That raises the possibility that the junta could be at risk of collapsing.
The resistance now controls more than half of Myanmar’s territory
Areas of control
Largely military junta control
Largely resistance control
Contested
INDIA
CHINA
BANGLADESH
Mandalay
MYANMAR
LAOS
Naypyidaw
Bay of Bengal
Yangon
THAILAND
Areas of control
Largely military junta control
Largely resistance control
Contested
INDIA
CHINA
Mandalay
MYANMAR
Naypyidaw
Yangon
THAILAND
Bay of Bengal
Source: Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M)
By Weiyi Cai
The war is already a human rights catastrophe. Myanmar’s implosion since a 2021 military coup has wrecked its economy, throwing millions of people into extreme poverty. Its reputation as a hub for drugs, online scam centers and money laundering is growing. And its destabilization has created strategic headaches for China, India, the United States and other countries.
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Here’s a primer.
A coup opened the path to disaster. Myanmar is not a democracy. The junta allowed elections more than a decade ago, enabling Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of an assassinated independence hero, to sit in Parliament. She later led a civilian government. But the junta controlled key levers of power through a military-drafted Constitution.
In 2021, the generals arrested Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi — who by then had lost her halo as a human rights icon — and staged a coup. That set off demonstrations, a brutal crackdown on mostly peaceful protesters, and waves of resistance from armed fighters.
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Mike Ives is a reporter for The Times based in Seoul, covering breaking news around the world. More about Mike Ives
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