CENTRAL NEWS – On 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup in the dead of night, hours before the newly elected parliament was due to convene for the first time. The military alleged voter fraud in the November 2020 election, when its proxy party was trounced by the National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, which won a landslide re-election victory. A few days after the coup, mass protests erupted in Yangon and across the country. While there were some isolated incidents of violence, security forces largely allowed peaceful demonstrations to take place throughout the month of February. But towards the end of the month, the junta deployed increasingly violent tactics, from water cannon, beatings and rubber bullets to live ammunition.
The ethnic ‘problem’
Within the way in which the nation-state and its “unity” mentality operates, ethnic, social, cultural, and historical differences must be set aside in the name of national unity. Rêber APO explains the character of the nation-state in a brochure entitled “Democratic Confederalism”:
“The nation-state in its original form aimed at the monopolisation of all social processes. Diversity and plurality had to be fought, an approach that led to assimilation and genocide. It not only exploits the ideas and the labour potential of society, and colonises people’s heads in the name of capitalism. It also assimilates all kinds of spiritual and intellectual ideas and cultures in order to preserve its own existence. It aims at creating a single national culture, a single national identity and a single unified religious community. Thus it also enforces a homogeneous citizenship. The notion of citizen has been created as a result of the quest for such a homogeneity. The citizenship of modernity defines nothing but the transition made from private slavery to state slavery.”
In this sense, the peoples of Kurdistan and the peoples living in the territory of Myanmmar have both been subjected to genocidal and assimilationist policies of the nation-states involved in the area comprise of such peoples. While in the case of the Kurds their territory was divided among 4 nation-states, Myanmar (also known as Burma) is an ethnically diverse nation with 135 distinct ethnic groups officially recognized by the Burmese Government. These are grouped into eight “major national ethnic races”:
Bamar (being the majority, with about 68%), Chin, Kachin, Karen, Kayah, Mon, Rankine and Shan.
In 2017 the well known Rohingya genocide was a series of ongoing persecutions and killings of the Muslim Rohingya people by the Burmese military. The genocide has consisted of two phases to date: the first was a military crackdown that occurred from October 2016 to January 2017, and the second has been occurring since August 2017. The crisis forced over a million Rohingya to flee to other countries. Most fled to Bangladesh, resulting in the creation of the world’s largest refugee camp. In August 2018, a study estimated that more than 24,000 Rohingya people were killed by the Burmese military and local Buddhists since the “clearance operations” which had started on 25 August 2017.
Burma’s history is also marked by a strong presence of military coups and counter-revolutions. The formation of the state and its nationalist character forced ethnic minority groups to organize and form national liberation movements. Some dating their formation date as early as 1947! Among the ethnic armed groups that exist in Burma are:
- Karen National Defence Organisation – 1947
- Karen National Liberation Army – 1949
- Pa-O National Army – 1949
- Karenni Army – 1950
- Mon National Liberation Army – 1958
- Kachin Independence Army – 1961
- Wa National Army – 1969
- National Socialist Council of Nagaland – 1980
- All Burma Students’ Democratic Front – 1988
- Chin National Army – 1988
- Kuki National Army – 1988
- Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army – 1989
- United Wa State Army – 1989
- National Democratic Alliance Army – 1989
- Ta’ang National Liberation Army – 1992
- Shan State Army – South – 1996
- Zomi Revolutionary Army – 1997
- Arakan Army – 2009
- Democratic Karen Buddhist Army – Brigade 5 – 2010
- Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army – 2016
- Shanni Nationalities Army – 2016
The vast majority of such organizations are organized to the left of the political line, due to their nationalist and independence aspirations, inflected by the concepts and other struggles of national liberation movements. This is a difference that can be pointed out between the paradigm of the Kurdish movement and the current struggle in Burma, since the Kurdish movement has abandoned the Marxist-Leninist line of these theories and has developed its own paradigm (although it retains many characteristics and concepts).
In addition, it is almost impossible to know what numbers of militants each organization has. Between all this process of forming guerrillas, parties and liberation movements, there has been conflict between such organizations and periods of war among one another.
The coup of 2021
The situation started to change in Burma after the most recent coup, which has left at least 11,787 people were unlawfully detained in Myanmar in that period, including 8,792 who remain in custody, U.N. human rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said. As the military junta advanced, massive protests took place throughout the country against the coup. Youth played – and still plays – a prominent role in these protests and movements.
However, the state crackdown had been super repressive and relied on all its available apparatus. Peaceful demonstrations were shamelessly attacked, which led to the organization of the famous frontlines (self-defense tactics adopted worldwide during demonstrations) and the creation of organizations with revolutionary aspirations to overthrow the military government and install a more democratic model. However, the police and the armed forces repressed the demonstrations with even more violence and the use of lethal ammunition – which caused the death of dozens in a single day.
Soon after the physical escalation of the repression, the government did not take long to begin a real crackdown on those who were in charge of such organizations and their supporters, which led to the political imprisonment of thousands of people. The youth, analyzing the reality around them, decided then to join the already existing armed organizations that fought against the Myanmmar state.
The formation of the People’s Defense Forces (PDF)
The People’s Defence Forces is the armed wing of the National Unity Government (NUG), a body of democratically-elected legislators and officials that is widely accepted by the civilian population to be the legitimate government of Myanmar. The armed wing was formed by the National Unity Government with Myanmar youths and pro-democracy activists on 5 May 2021 in response to the coup d’état. Despite having a large amount of support from the people of Myanmar, the military junta designated it as a terrorist organization on 8 May 2021. In October 2021, the NUG’s Ministry of Defence announced it had formed a central committee to coordinate military operations across the country, under a single chain of command.
According to the statement made by the NUG, the PDF is divided into five divisions (Northern, Southern, Middle, Eastern and Western Divisions), each having at least three brigades. Each brigade consists of five battalions, which are further divided into four companies. On 13 July 2021, the NUG’s minister of defense Yee Mon stated that the strength of the newly-formed militia was expected to reach 8,000 by the end of the month. Some estimates that the PDF’s numbers at 50,000 in February 2022.
Myanmar and Rojava
Besides the similarity between being minority peoples attacked and exposed to the genocidal policies of the nation-state, the Kurdish people and the people of Burma are fighting on the front lines not only for a free life in which their rights and guarantees are protected. But also for a reality that is in accordance with human ethics and morality, where the plurality, multiculturalism, and the different beliefs of the peoples of the territory are respected.
Most importantly, such revolutionary processes have as their main agent the people themselves, organized in communes, communities, centers, autonomous organizations. In both places the driving force of the struggle is the youth and their hope in building another world.
From the very beginning of the revolution in Rojava, the participation of youth, women and people has always been the basis of all the success of its actions. Beyond the experience in Rojava, the liberation struggle of the Kurdish people all over Kurdistan has always counted on the huge popular participation in large demonstrations, general strikes, autonomy processes, armed struggle and student organizations. Such actions can be seen again in Burma, where there are in the front lines of demonstrations and armed struggle, young women and men up to old ladies and gentlemen who are dedicating their lives to the struggle.
Both experiences have their process ignored by the international media, since they take place in the South-Eastern world. While the conflict between the hegemonic powers of Russia-Ukraine-NATO escalates, the people of these regions continue to resist the oppressive and inhumane offensives of their states. More than ever, it is necessary to bring out such struggle and resistance and show support beyond solidarity. It is necessary to act.
