Surrounded by tanks and missile launchers, the head of the Burmese junta promised on Monday not to relax the ongoing repression against his opponents, reaffirming that elections will be organized when peace returns.
Burma has been in chaos since the military overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi more than two years ago after making unsubstantiated allegations of electoral fraud.
The coup reignited fighting with ethnic rebels and spawned dozens of
anti-junta "
people's defense forces " (PDF).
Whole sections of the country are ravaged by fighting and the economy is in ruins.
Decisive measures
The military will take '
decisive action
' against its opponents and the ethnic rebels who support them, Min Aung Hlaing tells an audience of around 8,000 servicemen attending the annual Armed Forces Day parade in the military-built capital , Naypyidaw.
“
The acts of terror by the NUG and its lackeys, the so-called PDFs, must be fought for good
,” he said, referring to the “
national unity government
,” a body dominated by political leaders. former deputies of the party of Aung San Suu Kyi - for many in exile -, which federates the opposition to the junta.
"
Free and fair elections
" will be held when the state of emergency ends, he said.
In February, the army announced the extension of the state of emergency for two years and the postponement of the elections which it had promised to organize before August, because it did not control the country enough for a vote to be able to take place. take place.
During the parade, planes flew over the country belching smoke in the yellow, red and green colors of the national flag and five Russian-made Sukoi Su-30 jets also flew.
A escalating disaster
Two years after the coup, the situation in Burma is a "
worsening catastrophe
", UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in early March, adding that the military is acting in any “
impunity
”.
According to a local organization, more than 3,100 people have been killed in the military crackdown on dissent since the coup.
More than a million people have been displaced by the fighting, according to the United Nations.
In December, the junta sentenced the former head of government to 33 years in prison in a river trial that rights groups condemned as a sham.
