Myanmar after the military coup – How can/should external actors support popular resistance against the army’s re-consolidation of power? 

SPEAKERS
Matilda Ernkrans, Sweden’s Minister for International Development Cooperation
Nyi Nyi Kyaw, Kulturwissenschaftliches Institut Essen/Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities, Germany
Elisabeth Olivius, Department of Political Science, Umeå University

ABSTRACT

More than a year of civil resistance against the military take-over of political power, the cruel and asymmetric conflict between the army (known as the Tatmadaw) and people in Myanmar continues. We have witnessed accounts of serious human rights violations, including extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, illegal arrests, torture, and sexual and gender-based violence against pro-democracy activists and human rights defenders. To date, more than 13,000 people have reportedly been arrested and almost 2,000 killed. The conflict has gradually transformed and is assuming a more complex nature. Any form of reconciliation seems far-fetched as at least two incompatible political trajectories stand against each other: a road towards democratization and another path towards re-consolidation of military-rule. According to many, the people of Myanmar has been abandoned, or even betrayed, by ‘the international community’. In this seminar we focus on three pertinent questions: What are the possibilities for external actors to support a positive development in Myanmar, what support is requested by the movements themselves, and what can we say about effects of such international support so far?

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