1 February will mark five years since the military re-took control in Myanmar in a coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The military celebrated the anniversary by declaring a sweeping win for their political party in a general election, widely denounced as a sham. But according to Mark Farmaner, director of Burma Campaign UK, in an interview with France 24, the five years since the coup have gone “horrifically wrong” for the military junta, which has lost control of vast swathes of the country to armed rebel groups.
Mark Farmaner calls for support for the bottom-up democracy being built by local administrations in the border areas, and for the UK government to impose more targeted sanctions on the military, for which there is cross-party support.