Thousands of people have been displaced amid renewed clashes between Myanmar's army and a rebel group in the country's remote northeast. One militiaman said it was the worst violence the region had seen in five decades.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/Labram Hkun Awng
Advertisement
A flare-up in fighting between government troops and ethnic insurgents in Myanmar's northern Kachin province has prompted thousands of people to flee, a United Nations official has warned.
More than 4,000 people have been driven from their homes in the last three weeks, Mark Cutts, head of the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told AFP late Friday. An additional 15,000 people have left since the beginning of the year.
"We have received reports from local organizations saying that there are still many civilians who remain trapped in conflict-affected areas," he said.
"Our biggest concern is for the safety of civilians — including pregnant women, the elderly, small children and people with disabilities. We must ensure that these people are protected."
Aung San Suu Kyi: From freedom fighter to pariah
Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi had the global community rooting for her when she was the world's most famous political prisoner. But in recent years she was accused of standing by while soldiers massacred Rohingya Muslims.
Image: Reuters
Darling of democracy
Aung San Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar's assassinated founding father Aung San, returned to her home country in the late 1980s after studying and starting a family in England. She became a key figure in the 1988 uprisings against the country's military dictatorship. Her National League for Democracy (NLD) was victorious in 1990 elections, but the government refused to honor the vote.
Image: dapd
Military rule
Suu Kyi spent 15 of the 21 years between 1989 and 2010 under house arrest. After 1995, the rights advocate was barred from seeing her two sons and husband, Michael Aris, even after the latter was diagnosed with cancer. Aris, seen here displaying an honorary doctorate awarded to his wife, died in 1999.
Image: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP
'The Lady'
Suu Kyi's determination to bring democracy and human rights to her country won her international renown, including the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize. She was so popular that in 2011 famous French director Luc Besson made a biopic of her life starring Malaysian actor Michelle Yeoh. Suu Kyi was often called the world's most famous political prisoner.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Seven Media/Doha Film Institute
Sworn in as lawmaker
Decades of campaigning finally paid off, and in 2012 Suu Kyi was allowed to run in free elections. She won a seat in parliament as Myanmar began its transition away from military government. After general elections in 2015, she became the country's de facto civilian leader, although officially she held the post of foreign minister and state counselor — a role akin to prime minister.
Image: AP
Persecution of the Rohingya
Rohingya, a mostly Muslim ethnic group, had their citizenship revoked by Myanmar's Buddhist-majority government in 1982. Long persecuted, their plight intensified in 2016 when Myanmar's military began what it called "clearance" of illegal immigrants. Groups such as Human Rights Watch have described it as "ethnic cleansing." Thousands have died, and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.
Image: Reuters/D. Siddiqui
Fall from grace
When she became state counselor in 2016, Suu Kyi set up a commission to investigate claims of atrocities against the Rohingya in Rakhine state. Suu Kyi accused the Rohingya of spreading "a huge iceberg of misinformation," and said she was concerned by the "terrorist threat" posed by extremists. Her stance sparked protests in Muslim-majority countries around the world.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/J. Laghari
Nobel no more?
Due to her handling of the Rohingya crisis, Suu Kyi was stripped of various honors and lost much of her international support. The Nobel committee was forced to issue a statement saying that her peace prize could not be revoked. Fellow Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai called on Suu Kyi to "stop the violence." Suu Kyi said that outsiders could not grasp the complexities of the situation.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
A controversial election
In 2020, Myanmar's ruling National League for Democracy party won the November 8 general election, with enough seats to form the next government. However, the military's proxy party, the Union Solidarity and Development party, claimed fraud and demanded a new election supervised by the military. With that came comments alluding to a possible coup. Supporters of the party also marched in protest.
Image: Shwe Paw Mya Tin/REUTERS
Military detains Suu Kyi
Myanmar's civilian leader, along with several of her political allies, were detained in an early morning raid on February 1, 2021 led by the military. The move came amid escalating tensions between the civilian government and army, which had been in control for decades.The junta claimed electoral fraud, announced a yearlong state of emergency and named a former general as acting president.
Image: Franck Robichon/REUTERS
9 images1 | 9
Recent spike
A 17-year-old ceasefire between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government forces broke down in 2011. There have been frequent clashes since then, but in early April local civil society groups reported an escalation in the conflict.
KIA spokesman Naw Bu told Reuters the military had deployed reinforcements, including 2,000 infantry troops, fighter aircraft and helicopters.
"The army is sending more troops from the lower part of Myanmar and that's why the fighting will be more intense," he said, adding that the clashes were "the worst conflict" since Kachin soldiers started fighting the government in the early 1960s.
The US Embassy in Yangon said it was "deeply concerned" by the fighting. In a statement posted to Twitter, it urged the government and military to "protect civilian populations and allow humanitarian assistance," to affected towns.
Nobel laureates decry Rohingya 'genocide'
02:05
This browser does not support the video element.
Sluggish progress towards peace
Myanmar's de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, said making peace with the country's ethnic minorities was her main priority when she took office in 2016, but progress has been slow.
Several ethnic armed groups are demanding autonomy and power in the Buddhist-majority country, where most political and military positions are occupied by Myanmar citizens.
Besides unrest in Kachin, the country has also seen violence in western Rakhine province, from which almost 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled.
