It is pretty clear that the Burmese military regime is taking advantage of the fact that all eyes are (rightfully) on Ukraine right now.
In Shwebo township, Sagaing, regime soldiers burned the entire Hnamazayit village to the ground. 15 Resistance fighters have been killed while defending the village.
A mother and two of her teenage daughters (13 and 16 years old) have been killed and burned by regime soldiers in Chuangkhuah yesterday and 2 more civilians have been burned in Sagaing.
Yesterday it has been reported that in Kawlin 4 civilians have been killed, including two women who have been raped.
Since the coup last year, the Burmese military has been alternating episodes of shocking violence against civilians, such as the Armed Forces Day massacre (around 90 innocent civilians killed), or the massacres in Hpruso (35 civilians burned), Bago (80 victims), Hlaing Thar Yar (around 20 victims), Salingyi (10 burned alive), Gangaw (18), Tabayin (40) and Kani (40) with periods of relative “peace” in which few victims have been reported.
While these absurd acts of violence serve as a warning to deter civilians form opposing the military regime, the days with a lower level of violence are designed to avoid a meaningful response from the international community.
Meanwhile conflicts between the Burmese military and Resistance groups/ethnic armed groups continue on a daily basis, but they never end up on the news, since the international community seem to find this type of violence more acceptable.
The fact that western democracies failed to defend a European country and to act decisively against Putin, is surely emboldening other authoritarian regimes who may feel that they can’t get away with pretty much anything.
What is happening in Ukraine and what is happening in Myanmar or in Afghanistan or in Taiwan may not seem connected, by they are. They are in part a byproduct of the inability of western democracies to defend the values they should uphold. These countries are too busy protecting their own privileges and economic interests, and dictators around the world know it. Useless statements of condemnation won’t stop dictators. Privileged countries are choosing to protect their own well-being and economies over the lives of innocent people. It happens with refugees. It happens with Covid vaccines. And it happens now.
The fact that they can’t even agree on economic sanctions on Russia (i.e. Germany and Italy don’t support SWIFT sanctions on Russia) or Myanmar (i.e. arms embargo and sanctioning the oil and gas industry), is a sign of what their priorities are. We are literally leaving people in Myanmar, Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc…fight by themselves.
We have to rethink our politics and diplomacy, because it is clear it is failing to protect us from the Putins, the Xi Jinpings and the Min Aung Hlaings of this world. If we choose to ignore a single tree burning in the distance, we may soon be trapped in a forest on fire.
Forget about an armed intervention, or R2P. Forget about NATO and the UN, they are dead and empty entities. The biggest problem here, is the lack of values like empathy, real solidarity and sacrifice.
We will rediscover those values when it will be too late. On that day, the sound of bombs could be closer than we can imagine, and we will only have ourselves to blame.
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