The military coup in Myanmar has already killed at least 6,300 civilians. This is evident from a report published Tuesday from the Oslo Peace Research Institute (OPRI). The researchers point to the junta as the main culprit for the violence, but anti-junta troops would also have “a lot of blood on their hands,” according to the researchers. The report comes with a stark warning: if violence continues to escalate in Myanmar, the country threatens to slide further into the abyss with the systematic elimination of political opponents. The conflict has gripped the country for more than two years now, without any intervention from the international community.
Since the beginning of the coup, civilians in particular have paid a horrific price for the uprising against the regime. In February 2021, the army took power after the ouster of democratically elected leader and Nobel Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi and the arrest of several ministers. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) party allegedly falsified the election won a year earlier, the army’s justification said. In response, citizens took to the streets en masse to protest against this coup. Since then, the junta has been orchestrating a large-scale campaign against critical voices.
Human toll
The OPRI counts 6,337 civilian fatalities, who died “for political reasons”. It would be the period between February 1, 2021, the start of the coup, and September 30, 2022. The number of injured came to 2,614. According to the study’s authors, the results show that the human toll of the conflict is higher than previously reported. The institute holds the regime, which includes the army, police and militias, responsible for at least half of the victims. More than 2,000 deaths can be attributed to violence by armed opponents. The cause of many fatalities is unknown.
It is complicated to record accurate numbers of civilian deaths in the chaotic context of the civil war. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a Myanmar interest group, speaks of more than 3,500 citizens who had been murdered by the regime since the start of the coup. According to previous UN figures, 1.2 million of the approximately 55 million citizens have been displaced. Half of the population lives below the poverty line.