THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Nava Thakuria
When the global community observed World Refugee Day on 20 June, a dark reality surfaced from Myanmar (also known as Burma or Brahmadesh), where the military-controlled regime in Naypyitaw emerged as a primary actor in creating refugees in their country. Various global actors claim that over 5.3 million Myanmarese people are now living in distress as the UN High Commissioner for Refugees recently revealed that over a million had already fled to the neighbouring countries namely Bangladesh, Thailand, and India (precisely north-eastern States of Manipur and Mizoram). Internally displaced around 3.7 million residents continue to live in border areas with no regular access to food, healthcare and shelter. In fact, chronic poverty now affects nearly 80% of its total 55 million population. The southeast Asian nation’s ruling quasi-democratic regime has simply worsened the scenario with its nationwide inhuman drive against their own civilians.
Since the last military coup on 1 February 2021, when the pro-democracy icon Daw Aung San Suu Kyi-led democratically elected government was ousted by the then top military commander Min Aung Hlaing, the situation only deteriorated as hundreds of villages were deserted by the residents to escape the military persecution engineered by relentless airstrikes, burning of houses and targeted killings. Hlaing, now becomes the President of Myanmar following a disputed national polls in December 2025 and January 2026, lately started preaching for peace and development in the Buddhist majority country. With two recent official visits to India and China as the civilian head of Myanmar, Hlaing has earned some credentials too. Prior to Beijing, New Delhi welcomed Hlaing with red carpets following strategic and business interest (especially Kaladan and tri-national highway projects) in the Land of Golden Pagodas, but the ground reality under the junta aligned administration remains the same (read pathetic).
Currently, the regime controls barely 30 percent of Myanmar’s territory, whereas the ethnic resistance organizations and people’s defense forces run their administrations in 40 % areas. The rest remains on constant armed conflicts between the junta forces and local armed entities. Two years back, the anti-junta forces launched a combined offensive which put the country in a severe political, economic and humanitarian crisis akin to a civil war. One of the powerful resistance groups named Arakan Army (AA) today occupies and rules over 70% of the landmass of Rakhine State. After occupying 14 Rakhine townships (out of total 17), the AA fighters are currently targeting to capture and control the State capital (Sittwe).
The ongoing conflicts have resulted in heavy casualties across the country, where the United Nations earlier estimated the deaths of over seventy-five thousand people in the last five years. Recently, a conflict monitoring group named Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) came out with statistics that more than 100,000 people have been killed across Myanmar since the 2021 military coup. The ACLED found that over one thousand distinct armed groups are engaged in the civil war creating Myanmar as a severely fragmented conflict zone. It argued that Myanmar emerged as the second-most conflict-hit area in the world last year, just behind the Palestinian territories.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights recently stated that the Rakhine region and central Myanmar continue facing the brunt of military atrocities, where the civilians have suffered the most. The junta forces, often after testing defeats to the pro-democracy rebels on the battlegrounds, make it a habit to use fighter jets, drones, and paramotors to drop explosives on civilian areas, even not sparing the schools, hospitals, and refugee camps.
The students remain silent sufferers across the country because of the civil war and prevailing economic crisis. Over six million children and young people in Myanmar will stay out of schools in the 2026-27 academic year. Thus almost half of the country’s estimated school-going children (around 13 million) are now deprived of formal education. The healthcare sector in the country also collapsed as many doctors and health workers were killed in repeated aerial attacks on the clinics. Some important private hospitals were also shut down by the administrations. The media fraternity also faced the most critical period since its independence.
With thousands of political prisoners, 215 media workers were also targeted in the last five years. According to the Geneva-based global media safety and rights body, Press Emblem Campaign, over 15 journalists are still languishing under detention. PEC president Blaise Lempen disclosed that the operating licences of three news outlets namely Myaelatt Athan, Red News Agency, and Asia Citizens were recently cancelled by the authorities to increase the list of victim media groups up to 97 which are witnessing legal harassment for years. He demanded the government to allow all media groups to perform their duties in a free and fair atmosphere.
The National Unity Government (formed after the coup by the lawmakers primarily belonging to Suu Kyi’s party National League for Democracy) recently issued a strong statement asking the international investors in Myanmar to maintain the transparency, accountability and respect to local communities. Functioning as a parallel civilian administration, the NUG while continuing its demand for unconditional release of Suu Kyi along with all other political prisoners, also asserted that any economic and investment agreements made with the junta authority, under virtual control of coup leader Hlaing, lacked legitimacy and such arrangements may even be subjected to legal, financial, and operational risks.
Probably it will take more time than assumed for the dust to settle there.
The author is a senior journalist and writer from Northeast India.
