Myanmar’s Crisis & the World
An established Myanmar ethnic armed organization (EAO)’s administrative body, the country’s parallel civilian government and a veteran student leader have made a collective call to the world to give the country’s anti-regime resistance movement the kind of international assistance it has given to Ukraine.
In their appeal to the world, Lieutenant General Sumlut Gun Maw, vice chairman of the Kachin Independence Council—the administrative body of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), one of Myanmar’s oldest ethnic armies—U Yee Mon, defense minister in the shadow National Unity Government (NUG), and veteran student leader Ko Min Ko Naing, a key figure in the historic 8888 pro-democracy movement, said Myanmar is as deserving of international aid as Ukraine, given the current unprecedented unity among the anti-junta resistance groups in their pursuit of democratic change.
Myanmar has seen unprecedented nationwide armed resistance against the regime since the military staged a coup in 2021. The junta has responded with indiscriminate air strikes, arbitrary killings, raids and arson attacks as it struggles to control the country. Unlike Ukraine’s effort to repel the invading Russian army, Myanmar’s fight against the junta has received barely any material assistance internationally and has so far relied on support from Myanmar people at home and abroad.
Tuesday’s call for international help comes more than two years into the war against the junta. In the past, such pleas have come from the NUG alone; this is the first issued jointly by various resistance organizations and figures. In their appeal, they said international assistance could help shorten their war against the junta to months from years.
“Even a small fraction of the aid Ukraine has gotten to repel Russian aggression could dramatically affect the struggle to unseat Myanmar’s military dictators,” they write.
Following the coup, the NUG was formed by elected lawmakers from the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) and their ethnic allies. It formed the People’s Defense Forces (PDFs) as its armed wing to launch armed resistance against the regime. The majority of Myanmar people consider the NUG and PDFs as their legitimate government and army.
In collaboration with EAOs like the KIA, the Karen National Union (KNU) and others, the NUG has provided military training and arms to anti-regime resistance groups. However, it admits that it is still not able to fully equip the resistance groups due to insufficient support, especially from outside.
Making matters worse, observers say, is that the fight against the junta comes at a time when global interest in Myanmar, especially among Western democracies, is on the wane amid China’s growing regional supremacy and the war in Ukraine. Even the US, a longtime supporter of Myanmar’s democracy movement, is no longer taking the front-seat role it used to, the observers say, pointing to the fact that Washington has so far merely offered support for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)’s attempts to solve the Myanmar crisis—an effort that has so far been in vain.
Last year, the US Congress authorized non-lethal assistance to Myanmar’s resistance movement after the NUG’s repeated cries for outside assistance. However, many see this as insignificant compared to the nearly US$42 billion in support Washington has offered to Kiev since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, with the latest installment—$325 million worth of US arms and equipment—approved on Tuesday.
In light of this, Lt-Gen Sumlut Gun Maw, U Yee Mon and Ko Min Ko Naing point out in their appeal that the collaboration among the country’s EAOs represents an “unprecedented unity”, saying the current resistance movement is unique in Myanmar’s history and worthy of international support.
“We have received very little in the way of materiel support. A mere 1 percent of the aid going to Ukraine would prove instrumental in the Myanmar revolution’s ability to achieve a decisive victory in a matter of months instead of the years-long struggle we face against such lopsided combat power,” they said.
They added that regardless of the international support, the Myanmar people will not waver in their determined struggle against the regime.
“However, if international support reinforces the struggle, the will of the people is sure to triumph over the military dictatorship in a shorter time span, leading to a swifter emergence of a peaceful federal democratic union and the restoration of stability in both the country and the region,” their statement reads.