Myanmar has been under military rule since it won independence from Britain in 1948. Though nearly all former colonies, this one included, experienced a violent interregnum, the people of Myanmar have endured more than seven decades of post-colonial instability, autocracy, and violence. Free elections in 2015 led to a government headed by Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2017, Myanmar’s army drove more than half a million Rohingya Muslims into Bangladesh, in what the UN called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. The military, which retook power last month, continues to rule with an iron rod, indifferent to international norms or censure.

Source: Irish Examiner March 29, 2021 07:07 UTC