U.S. warns Myanmar’s military it’ll be punished
for coup
The crisis is a challenge to Biden's vision.
By NAHAL
TOOSI
01/31/2021
10:46 PM EST
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/31/myanmar-coup-464252
The Biden
administration warned Myanmar’s military officials Sunday that it will “take
action” if they proceed with an apparent coup against the country’s civilian
leaders.
The crisis
in Myanmar, also known as Burma, is unfolding just days after President Joe
Biden took office, and in some ways it challenges the very heart of Biden’s
foreign policy vision.
The new
president has promised to stand up for democracy and human rights around the
world, including against communist-led China. A Myanmar military coup would
derail significant progress the Asian country has made toward democracy in
recent years. The country’s armed forces have also been accused of genocide and
other atrocities against minority groups. At the same time, one reason the
United States has encouraged democracy in Myanmar is to draw it out of the
orbit of China, its neighbor to the northeast.
According
to reports from the region, the Myanmar military has taken into custody several
top civilian leaders, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel Peace Prize
laureate and democracy activist whose political party has won recent elections.
In a televised statement, the military said that it had taken control of the
country and declared a state of emergency for one year.
The
military has been unhappy with the outcome of elections in November in which
Suu Kyi’s party did well, while the military-backed party fared relatively
poorly. The military is alleging voter fraud. Myanmar’s new parliament was due
to convene Monday for its first session.
In a
statement late Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the United
States is “alarmed” by the reports.
“The United
States opposes any attempt to alter the outcome of recent elections or impede
Myanmar’s democratic transition,” Psaki said, adding that the U.S. “will take
action against those responsible if these steps are not reversed.”
Biden has
been briefed on the situation by his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan,
Psaki said.
Psaki did
not specify what types of action the United States may take if Myanmar’s
military does not heed its warnings. Odds are, however, that the administration
would turn to economic sanctions as it has in the past.
Secretary
of State Antony Blinken also weighed in, with a somewhat softer statement that
did not promise punishment.
“The United
States stands with the people of Burma in their aspirations for democracy,
freedom, peace and development,” Blinken said. “The military must reverse these
actions immediately.”
Myanmar was
ruled for decades by a military junta, which imprisoned thousands of democracy
activists, scholars and journalists. In the 2000s, the country began taking
steps toward opening up its system and paving the way for limited civilian
rule. It has held relatively free general elections in the past decade and
taken many other steps to allow for more free speech and commerce.
Myanmar’s
progress toward democracy was hailed and heavily encouraged by the Obama
administration, during which Biden served as vice president. Then-President
Barack Obama lifted numerous economic sanctions on Myanmar to further encourage
democratization.
But the
military has nonetheless retained key levers of power, including effectively
controlling some ministries, and has never fallen under civilian control. Suu
Kyi, who spent many years under house arrest before the democratic reforms, has
been the de facto civilian leader in recent years, but she’s always had to
balance that with the military’s continued power.
The
military, which like most of the population is dominated by Buddhists, has a
brutal track record in Myanmar, engaging in long-running battles with the
country’s ethnic minorities. In 2017, it waged a vicious crackdown on the
long-persecuted Rohingya Muslims, killing thousands and pushing some 700,000
into neighboring Bangladesh.
Suu Kyi has
refused to speak out in a meaningful way against that mass atrocity, which some
officials and experts have labeled a genocide; her largely non-commital
approach to the massacres and forced expulsions of the Rohingya has badly
tarnished her international image.
Former
President Donald Trump’s administration has called what happened to the
Rohingya an ethnic cleansing. But Trump’s second secretary of State, Mike
Pompeo, would not go so far as to call it genocide.
State
Department officials have in the past indicated that was partly because he did
not want to push Myanmar more into the arms of China, which has long been a key
patron of the country.
During his
recent confirmation hearing, Blinken, the new secretary of State, said he would
review the situation of the Rohingya to determine if a genocide was committed.
Blinken, and Biden, meanwhile, have said they believe that China has committed
genocide against Uighur Muslims on its territory.
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