YANGON, July 31, 2023 (AFP) – Myanmar’s junta announced a six-month extension to a state of emergency Monday, signalling a delay to elections they had pledged to hold by August.
The Southeast Asian nation has been ravaged by deadly violence since a coup deposed Aung San Suu Kyi’s government more than two years ago, unleashing a bloody crackdown on dissent.
Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured as the junta battles a clutch of new and established rebel groups opposed to military rule.
Acting president Myint Swe told a meeting of the junta-stacked National Defence and Security Council (NDSC) that the “state of emergency period would be extended another six months starting from August 1st, 2023”.
Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 constitution, which the junta has said is still in force, requires authorities to hold fresh elections within six months of a state of emergency being lifted.
The junta had previously promised fresh polls by August of this year.
Army Chief Min Aung Hlaing explained to the council meeting that fighting and attacks were still happening in Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Tanintharyi regions as well as Karen, Kayah and Chin states.
“We need for a time to continue our duty for systematic preparation as we shouldn’t hold coming elections in a rush,” he told the gathering.
– ‘Not yet normal’ –
The junta had already extended the emergency ordinance this year, a day after the NDSC said that the situation had “not returned to normalcy yet”.
Min Aung Hlaing said at the time that the military did not “fully control” more than a third of Myanmar’s townships.
Anti-coup “People’s Defence Forces” that sprang up to overturn the coup have surprised the junta with their effectiveness, analysts say, and have dragged the military into a bloody quagmire.
Junta groups have torched villages, carried out extrajudicial killings and used air strikes and artillery bombardments to punish communities opposed to its rule, opponents and rights groups say.
Min Aung Hlaing hinted in July the military might further extend a state of emergency and delay promised elections, saying greater efforts were needed to end unrest.
After her government was deposed, Suu Kyi, 78, was convicted in a series of trials that rights groups slammed as a sham, and sentenced her to 33 years in prison.
Thailand’s foreign minister said this month that he met with Suu Kyi, her first known meeting with a foreign envoy since the 2021 coup.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict led by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc have stalled, with the military refusing to engage with its opponents.
The military’s crackdown on dissent has killed more than 3,800 people and seen more than 24,000 arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
The junta says more than 4,000 civilians have been killed by “terrorists” since it seized power.
