Myanmar's Civil War: Military Coups, Ethnic Rebellions, and the Battle for Democracy

Myanmar’s civil war has been called ‘the forgotten war,’ because while the world’s eyes are fixed on other armed conflicts around the globe, a brutal civil war rages within the borders of Myanmar, fueled by ethnic disputes and religious rivalries. Entire towns have been razed to the ground, indiscriminate airstrikes have been carried out on civilian population centers, and a refugee crisis is shaping up to be one of the worst in history. What makes this war difficult to report on is not just the complete ban of foreign journalists in the conflict zones, but also its incredibly complicated history.

Despite officially beginning in 2021, the prelude to this war, and that of several other conflicts in the nation, stretch back almost 80 years. This muddy history — of military coups, rebellions, protests, and a decades-long battle for democracy that the people refuse to lose — demands close examination.

From British Colony to Independence Fiasco

Before it was renamed Myanmar, this country in southeast Asia was known as Burma. Since the 1820s, Burma had been a colony of the British Empire, though rule of the nation momentarily fell to the Japanese during World War 2, who invaded and annexed the country. The Japanese were aided by several local militias who traveled to Japan for training, such as the Burma Independence Army, as many people believed that if they found favor with Japan in kicking out the British, they could eventually be granted independence.

Unfortunately, however, this was misguided, and under Japanese occupation an estimated 250,000 civilians were killed. Japanese occupation came to an end in May 1945 when the Allies liberated the nation. Following the war, as with dozens of other nations around the globe, it was decided that colonial rule would finally come to an end, and Burma was granted its independence, which it officially declared in January 1948.

Rallying the entire country behind a new central government was no easy task. The nation was, and still is, incredibly diverse, home to dozens of ethnic groups and several languages. These obstacles were tackled largely thanks to a man named Aung San, who had fought for the Japanese before switching sides.

Aung San came to an agreement with the leaders of the several ethnic minorities that guaranteed their support for a central government on the condition that ten years in the future their respective regions would be able to vote on the topic of independence. This secured enough support to stabilize the country for a moment, but the deal was not honored, as Aung San was assassinated shortly afterward, and the new leader had no interest in allowing parts of the nation to secede. This immediately strained relations between the Bamar people, the ethnic majority, and everyone else.

Almost immediately, several armed groups were organized and began fighting against the government. Among these, the Karen National Union, representing the Karen people, and the Communist Party of Burma, who, at its peak, commanded about 15,000 soldiers. These groups saw some initial success, but the tides quickly turned when the military began carrying out collective punishments against anyone accused of aiding the insurgents.

The 1962 Military Coup and the Rise of the Tatmadaw

Despite the rebellions, the government managed to stay in a somewhat stable form, transitioning peacefully between three different parliamentary elections. But this all came to an end in 1962, when the military, known as the Tatmadaw, took over the government in a coup d’etat and established a military junta, led by its general, Ne Win. This quickly began resembling a dictatorship, complete with all the human rights abuse accusations that usually accompany such forms of government.

This change only intensified the various insurgencies, and though the junta did initiate peace talks on numerous occasions, they were never able to achieve successful negotiations with any of the rebel groups, as the rebels always demanded a federal system with autonomous, ethnic republics, and the junta refused to budge on the subject. Soon, the Burmese Socialist Programme Party, or BSPP, was founded, set up to be the single political party for the nation. Under this party, Burma became a hermit kingdom, horribly underdeveloped compared to the nations around it, and was perpetually swallowed up in armed conflict.

To make matters worse, the economy was plummeting. In the mid-1980s, on two occasions General Ne Win suddenly decided that several denominations of currency were invalid, demonetizing them overnight. It is estimated that between 60 and 80 percent of all citizens lost their entire savings during these events, which the General claimed were implemented to combat black market trade.

Instead, all he did was anger much of the population, and time was ticking.

The 1988 Uprising, Suu Kyi, and Another Coup

In March 1988, large protests began forming, organized by students in the city of Rangoon. Protestors were demanding the end of totalitarian rule, a movement which quickly spread across the entire nation. Lawyers, doctors, and monks joined the cause, as activists contacted and recruited people from all walks of life.

Eventually, the protests were so popular, and the demonstrations so massive, that the military began responding with violence. In Mandalay, for example, a large strike organized by farmers and lawyers was fired upon by authorities. General Ne Win ordered that the guns “not shoot upwards,” implying that the protestors were to be shot, which they were.

In response, the crowd began throwing Molotov cocktails, homemade poison darts, knives, and anything else they could get their hands on, including sharpened bicycle tire spokes. In one city, protestors raided a police station, burning it to the ground and murdering four police officers that tried to flee. At the same time, soldiers surrounded and opened fire on Rangoon General Hospital, killing several doctors and nurses that had been treating wounded protestors.

Martial law was declared, and chaos was enveloping the nation. By late August, a demonstration of over 100,000 people had gathered, and at this point, the protests were getting so large that they were hard for the organizers to keep under control, leading to unnecessary violence. The immense scale of all this was starting to terrify the government.

They knew they couldn’t just mow down the entire population; agreeing to their demands was shaping up to be the only option. It was during this turbulent period that a prominent figure rose to fame. Aung San Suu Kyi joined the political scene, giving a powerful speech in front of 500,000 people at the Great Dragon Pagoda.

Kyi instantly found favor not just with the majority of the nation, but also with the rest of the world, transforming overnight into an icon of democracy and the struggle for freedom. Her message was one of non-violence, urging protestors to avoid harming the police and military, yet also one of determination, inspiring the nation to stand strong no matter how difficult the path ahead seemed. By the time September 1988 rolled around, the government was at an impasse.

Ninety percent of party delegates were calling for the end of the single-party system and the immediate resignation of the entire BSPP, who outright refused, while the tension in the streets was reaching a boiling point. General Ne Win was finally ousted, and the government at last agreed to adopt a multi-party system. But the military was not going to let their power slip away so easily.

Soon after Ne Win’s resignation, another coup d’etat was carried out, this time by a faction of the military calling themselves the State Law and Order Restoration Council, or SLORC, reaffirming the army’s grip on the nation. Immediately, they took to the streets and began breaking up the protests with whatever level of violence they pleased. Throughout the country, the military fired indiscriminately on protestors, sending them fleeing back to their homes and ending the movement in short fashion.

Estimates for the death toll of 1988 range from the government’s official number of just a couple hundred, up to more neutral international estimates of five to ten thousand. The military was known to cremate as many bodies as possible to hide the total number of casualties, and propaganda campaigns had instantly been put in place to keep the true numbers away from the public.

Stolen Elections, House Arrest, and the Junta’s Grip Through the 2000s

When the SLORC had taken power, they announced that they were doing so simply to bring order back to the nation, and that they planned to hold free democratic elections in 1990. They also renamed the country Myanmar, signifying its transition into a new period of history. However, at the same time, they captured Suu Kyi and placed her under house arrest.

Regardless, the party she endorsed, the National League for Democracy, won the 1990 elections in a historic landslide, securing 81% of all governmental seats. But just as things were ready to transition to a new peaceful government, the military decided to void the election, claiming it was fraudulent — probably because they had not won. Suu Kyi would remain under house arrest for several years to come, and the military turned its attention to the insurgencies in the countryside, which had been joined by thousands of new, angry recruits.

The 1990s saw the military junta do everything it could to consolidate the power it had just stolen. Chief among priorities was putting an end to the rebellions, most of which were raging in the mountains. Villages were raided, rebel bases were destroyed, and civilians were killed or imprisoned if they were deemed even remotely connected.

Between 1990 and 2011, Suu Kyi was imprisoned for a total of 15 years, solidifying her position as the voice of the oppressed and even earning her a Nobel Peace Prize. Throughout the early 2000s, the government came down hard on the insurgencies, turning a blind eye to massive civilian casualties as long as the rebel groups had been damaged in the process. One operation against the Karen National Liberation Army leveled entire towns, leaving hundreds of thousands of people displaced.

Another operation was against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, and featured such brutality that it forced 30,000 people to flee across the border into China. Around 2008, the ruling junta suddenly introduced a new constitution, one which included several government reforms as part of what they called a “roadmap to democracy.” In these new plans, the nation was divided into five self-administered zones and one self-administered division, with borders drawn up based on ethnic population majorities.

This was intended to give some level of independence to many of the warring regions and hopefully bring down the level of violence while still holding the country together. It was a good start, but it did not have much of an effect on the insurgencies, who saw the move as little more than a political gesture, and armed conflict continued to rage. In 2015, a conference was held with the central government and the leaders of the 15 largest rebel groups, during which the majority found common ground and signed a nationwide ceasefire agreement.

Then, in 2016, elections were held again, and this time, Aung San Suu Kyi finally found herself placed in a position of significant power. It was not the seat of President, as the constitution forbade her from joining due to a couple of odd clauses, such as one that bars widows from running for President, which was clearly added just to keep her away from the seat. However, the newly elected president promoted her to a new position, the State Counsellor of Myanmar, essentially the equivalent of Prime Minister, making Kyi the de facto leader of Myanmar.

Buddhist-Muslim Hostility and the Persecution of the Rohingya

While the history of insurgencies and government crackdowns in Myanmar is long, the issue of religion — specifically, the hostility between Buddhists and Muslims — adds another devastating layer. Myanmar is a majority Buddhist country, and has been for a long time; however, the western Rakhine State is a majority Muslim region. Long ago, when the area was under British colonial rule, the British incentivized residents from modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh to move into the area to begin cultivating the farmland, which is how Islam came to be dominant in the region.

People from this region are generally referred to as the Rohingya, and like many others, the Rohingya were promised independence but never received it. Ever since the independence of Myanmar, the Rohingya have been the subject of intense discrimination, including a 1982 law that officially stripped them all of citizenship. Their schools and healthcare are significantly behind the rest of the country, the military routinely stole their land and gave it away to Buddhist settlers, and there were even limits as to how many children they could have.

Essentially, the government of Myanmar believes that the people of Rakhine State are nothing more than foreigners illegally living on stolen land. The situation for the Rohingya was made even worse by the rising activity of Buddhist nationalists. The most notable Buddhist nationalist group is the 969 movement, with the three digits allegedly symbolizing the virtues of the Buddha, Buddhist practices, and the Buddhist community.

But instead of promoting Buddhism’s teachings of peace and love, the 969 movement claims that Muslims are a parasite in their nation and are doing everything they can to purge them. Their leader calls for boycotting of Muslim businesses and the banning of marriages between spouses of the two different religions, and despite repeatedly claiming that it is anti-violence, the movement continues to physically attack Muslims around the country. In 1997, 1,500 Buddhist monks burned and looted Muslim businesses in Mandalay, ultimately destroying 18 mosques.

In 2001, more anti-Muslim riots broke out, this time in response to pamphlets that had been distributed called “The Fear of Losing One’s Race” that claimed Islam was trying to take over the entire country. About 200 Muslims died and 11 more mosques were destroyed in the ensuing riots, and 20 of the casualties were men that were captured while praying, dragged into the streets, and beaten to death by the mob. Widespread persecution and violence continued throughout the years, but 2015 was the year it all came to a head.

With mosques burning in several cities and even children not safe from the violence, Muslims across Myanmar began fleeing, either to Rakhine State or across the border into Bangladesh. At the same time, a new rebel group formed, the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which began striking back at the military. In the same year that peace accords were made with several of the largest insurgencies, a brand new one appeared, meaning that nationwide peace was still nowhere in sight.

State-Sponsored Genocide and the World’s Largest Refugee Camp

Before 2015, there were already an estimated 140,000 Rohingya that were internally displaced due to the violent, nationwide riots, but once the military got involved, nowhere was safe. The military viewed the entire Rakhine State as supporters of the armed insurgency, and were essentially granted permission to deal with the region as they pleased. In November of 2016, Human Rights Watch released video footage of over 1,000 homes burning, and helicopter gunships firing on fleeing civilians.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya began crossing the border into Bangladesh with no money, no possessions, and often, no family. It became obvious to the international community that what was happening here was a state-sponsored genocide. The United Nations presented evidence of incarcerated children, systemic sexual violence, and indisputable massacres.

One horrifying scene occurred near the border of Bangladesh, where fleeing refugees were forced to turn around upon encountering a minefield, but upon returning south they were gunned down by helicopters in what was described as a genocide zone. All of these atrocities have resulted in the creation of the world’s largest refugee camp, the Kutupalong Camp, located in Bangladesh, which in 2017 housed around 100,000 people, and this number has since grown nearly sixfold. Despite all of this, one figure remained oddly silent: Aung San Suu Kyi.

For years, she had been completely silent on the anti-Muslim riots and violence, and in a 2015 interview with BBC, denied that any ethnic cleansing was occurring, and refused to even condemn the violence. As the de facto leader of the nation and face of the people, it was concerning that she not only refused to take sides, but even openly admitted that she did not believe the Rohingya could be true citizens of Myanmar. According to many analysts, she refused to take a strong position so as not to upset her majority voting bloc, but in doing so, she essentially condoned an ongoing genocide.

She also refused to attend several UN meetings discussing the topic, leading to many activists worldwide calling for her Nobel Peace Prize to be revoked. In 2017, two Reuters journalists were arrested in Myanmar for attempting to cover the situation in the conflict zone. They had uncovered evidence of unreported mass graves and were thrown in prison as a result, sentenced to seven years.

Suu Kyi publicly defended the sentencing. These journalists were eventually released after two years, but with no thanks to Suu Kyi.

The 2021 Coup and the Eruption of Full-Scale Civil War

Regardless of the controversy, Suu Kyi once again secured her votes and won another election in 2020. But with all of this going down, and seeing how the military was ruthlessly exterminating the Rohingya, many of the insurgency groups that had previously stepped away from the fight decided to take up arms once again. The Northern Alliance, consisting of four primary factions, began attacking border posts and captured several towns, and though the military threatened all-out war if they continued, they pressed on nonetheless.

Then, on February 1, 2021, the Myanmar military initiated yet another coup d’etat, taking over the government and once again imprisoning Suu Kyi. They declared the results of the 2020 election fraudulent and claimed to be taking control to restore stability to the nation. Mass protests erupted once again, as the people at this point are no stranger to taking matters into their own hands, but this time things were different.

With the military quickly resorting to intense violence to quell the riots, thousands of protestors gave up on the peaceful demonstrations and instead traveled to the border regions and started training with rebels. Seven groups that had signed the original ceasefire announced in 2021 that they would be resuming hostilities toward the military junta, with thousands of their members supporting the newly formed National Unity Government, made up of fairly elected officials who had been ousted in the recent coup. Even communist fighters returned after 30 years of inactivity, crossing over from China and joining the fight.

In late 2021, the National Unity Government declared a state of emergency and called for a people’s war against the junta, marking what many consider to be the official beginning of the Myanmar Civil War — a war which many believe the junta may be losing. A 70-year history of bloody military coup d’etats, mass protests, and state-sponsored violence. An icon of peace who refuses to condemn violence, dangerous religious extremists, and thousands upon thousands of innocent lives lost.

But despite it all, the fire of democracy in Myanmar refuses to be snuffed out, and the result of the ongoing civil war will determine the future of the nation for many years to come.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did armed insurgencies begin almost immediately after Myanmar’s independence in 1948?

Aung San, the leader who secured broad ethnic support by promising the minorities a vote on independence after ten years, was assassinated shortly after independence was declared. The new government had no intention of honoring that promise, which immediately alienated ethnic groups such as the Karen and fueled armed resistance that has persisted ever since.

How did General Ne Win’s economic policies contribute to unrest?

In the mid-1980s Ne Win abruptly demonetized several currency denominations overnight, wiping out an estimated 60 to 80 percent of all citizens’ savings. He claimed the move was aimed at curbing black-market trade, but it devastated ordinary Burmese and deepened public anger toward the junta, helping to ignite the massive 1988 pro-democracy uprising.

What happened to the results of Myanmar’s 1990 election?

The National League for Democracy, endorsed by Aung San Suu Kyi, won the 1990 elections in a historic landslide, securing 81 percent of all governmental seats. The military simply voided the result, claiming fraud, and kept Suu Kyi under house arrest; she would spend a total of 15 years imprisoned between 1990 and 2011.

Who are the Rohingya and why have they faced such severe persecution?

The Rohingya are a Muslim people concentrated in western Rakhine State, whose ancestors were encouraged to settle there by the British during the colonial era. Since independence they have faced systematic discrimination, including a 1982 law stripping them of citizenship. Buddhist nationalist groups such as the 969 movement have driven waves of violence against them, and the military’s 2016 campaign — documented by Human Rights Watch as including over 1,000 homes burned and helicopter gunships firing on fleeing civilians — caused hundreds of thousands to flee to Bangladesh.

What triggered the full-scale civil war that began in 2021?

On February 1, 2021, the military launched another coup, imprisoning Suu Kyi and declaring the 2020 election results fraudulent. Unlike previous crackdowns, mass protests this time gave way to armed resistance on a new scale: thousands of protesters traveled to border regions to train with rebel groups, seven ceasefire signatories resumed hostilities, and the National Unity Government declared a people’s war against the junta in late 2021.