Striking workers have played a leading role in resistance to the military coup, and the military is cracking down hard. Yesterday became the bloodiest day so far with reports of between 20 and 50 people killed in Hlaing Tharyar Township alone. This is a factory zone in Yangon/Rangoon, where hundreds of thousands of workers have joined anti-coup protests. Local people described the scene as a bloodbath.
We still don’t have the answer to the question people in Burma keep asking.
“How many of us have to die before the international community helps us?”
More than 100 peaceful protesters shot or tortured to death obviously isn’t enough.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President Biden, and Chancellor Angela Merkel still don’t seem to think there is any need to move quickly to take action to try to stop the killings.
We are still waiting for the British government to stop British companies doing business with Burmese military companies.
We are still waiting for the British government to try to get other countries to impose arms embargoes.
Evidence to the US Senate
We are a UK based organisation but we campaign all over the world. Last week our Campaigns Officer, Wai Hnin Pwint Thon, gave evidence at a hearing of the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, calling for much stronger action by the US government and Congress.
Arms Embargo and Military Training
While the UK, USA and EU still dither and delay about what to do, we did see two welcome steps in the past week. Korea announced that it will impose an arms embargo, and Australia announced it will suspend its programme training the Burmese military. It’s a programme which should never have happened in the first place.
12 countries are still training the Burmese military and 150 countries still don’t have arms embargoes. We are working on new campaigns to stop the supply of equipment and training to the Burmese military. We’ll be in touch about these soon.
