BANGKOK: Martial law was declared in several areas of military-run Myanmar on Thursday (Feb 2), each day after authorities announced that a situation of emergency has been prolonged throughout the country, that is wracked by violence that some EL experts have described as a civil war.
State-run MRTV television transmitted an announcement by Aung Lin Dwe, secretary of the military’s State Administration Authorities, imposing martial law in 37 townships across eight of the country’s 14 areas and states.
Eleven of the impacted townships are in Sagaing region and 7 in Chin state, areas in the northwest where fighting has been fiercest between the army and guerrillas owned by pro-democracy People’s Protection Forces and their own allies in ethnic minority militias.
The army continues to be struggling to include a nationwide insurrection simply by opponents of army rule who took up arms after peaceful protests against the army’s Feb 1, 2021, seizure of power were suppressed with lethal force.
The military provides declared martial law before, most notably in early 2021 in Yangon, the country’s greatest city, after which assault escalated against protesters. According to the Assistance Organization for Political Criminals, an independent watchdog team that tracks killings and arrests, a minimum of 2, 948 civilians have been killed since the army takeover.