Myanmar's Anti-Junta Government Establishes Defense Force

Myanmar’s junta government has used violence to cope with nationwide protests (Wikimedia Commons).

Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup last February, detaining civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In order to restore accountable authority and build a “federal democratic union,” ousted members of parliament and protest leaders formed the National Unity Government in April. The National Unity Government declared on May 5 that it had established the People’s Defense Force to combat the junta’s increasingly violent responses to nationwide demonstrations. 

The junta government has deployed security forces and deadly force against protests that have raged since early February. According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group monitoring the Myanmar situation, security forces have used lethal weapons including live ammunition and hand grenades, killed at least 769 people, and destroyed civilian property. The junta has issued arrest warrants for the leaders of the unity government, charging them with treason, which carries the death penalty. 

The National Unity Government said in its statement that by launching the People’s Defense Force, it aims to stop the military attack on its supporters and end the seventy-year-long civil war. “This is the state force of the NUG to subdue the junta forces [currently] committing war crimes and crimes on people,” expressed Deputy Defense Minister Daw Khin Ma Ma Myo of the unity government. The government also explained that the defense force would eventually morph into the Federal Union Army.

However, the National Unity Government did not offer details regarding the force’s structure or how it plans to end the violence. This led to confusion as local fighting forces from across the country tried to coalesce their capacities with the central body. Khu Oo Reh, vice-chair of Karenni National Progressive Party, a regional armed group, remarked, “I have no idea what their intentions are.”

In response to the increasing tension between the junta and the National Unity Government, China’s U.N. ambassador Zhang Jun urged stronger efforts at resolution, warning that the current situation could produce a full-blown civil war. Reliefweb, a humanitarian information portal, foresees just such a conflict in the imminent future.