25th, July 2022
Since February 2021 coup, the Myanmar military has been terrorizing its people to instill fear as a strategy for its rule. For over a year, it has deployed all kinds of cruel oppressive methods including the use of the horrendous tactic of rape as a weapon to contain and control the people who resist its rule in favor of democracy. Yet they have failed in doing so as the people have responded with sheer determination that “they shall not rule” and have united to successfully establish their own democratic government further reducing the status of the military to an illegitimate organization and a mere terrorist armed group.
We, the people of Myanmar, have engaged in a resistance movement to put an end to the military’s violent oppression and gross human rights violations including crimes that amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide that have been going on for decades. We have risked and lost our homes and lives in this fight to uproot the dictatorship and establish a federal democratic country.
Since February 2021, the fascist military organization has killed over 2,000 civilians; unlawfully arrested, tortured, or detained over 14,000 democratically elected political leaders[1], civil society members and activists; and displaced over one million people[2]. Moreover, due to the military’s intentional and inhuman act of violence targeting civilians, the people have been suffering from anxiety, terror, and mental and physical violence, in addition to other disasters such as hunger. More details can be learned in the information attached with this letter.
The multidimensional crisis in Myanmar is not an internal affair of our country. Its impact extends beyond its borders. This is a political struggle between “democracy and military dictatorship” and a collaborated attempt to undermine and diminish a democratic movement with the backing and corporation of the like of China, Russia and other pro-military junta countries. The outcome of ongoing Myanmar’s democracy movement will undoubtedly have an impact on other democracy supporters around the world.
Similar to India and other countries fighting for democracy and human rights, we have, for many decades, been facing general oppression on farmers, workers as well as on religious, ethnic and social groups and many more to a point where widespread corruption and repeated collapse of electoral democracy practices have forced us to risks our homes and lives to engage in a resistance movement, which has gained momentum, to end the brutal military dictatorship once and for all.
However, to date, The Government of India as Myanmar’s world’s biggest democratic neighbor have not stood up for Myanmar’s people in their struggle for democracy. Worse, it has provided arms and political legitimacy to Myanmar’s fascist military regime. India’s security forces have also engaged in increased arrests of members of Myanmar’s democratic forces. Furthermore, while many other democratic countries have imposed economic sanctions on Myanmar’s military, The Government of India continues to operate its business projects inside Myanmar in collaboration with the military regime enabling the flow of blood money to them.
In April 2022, India’s new ambassador Shri Vinay Kumar, who was appointed in November 2021, said that India would support and collaborate with the Myanmar junta’s election commission for the next election to be held in Myanmar under the control of criminal Myanmar fascist military that has been killing civilians and engaged in mass arson attacks daily. This is an act of support to perpetrators of international crimes and blatant ignorance of the suffering of the Myanmar people.
We the people of Myanmar, strongly believe that “India people’s solidarity is the key to Myanmar’s democracy movement” and as we maintain good faith in people-to-people collaboration, we have created and operated India for Myanmar campaign to acquire support from the people of India. Therefore, we respectfully urge civil society organizations and political parties of the people of India to take the following actions to support the Myanmar people.
We believe that with the corporation and support from the people of India, we will be able to successfully advocate for the Government of India to take the action mentioned above. We would like to express our profound gratitude to all people of India who, through the recognition and support for the fight of Myanmar people, have advanced democracy and human rights values spreading them from India to Myanmar and to the rest of the world.
The above letter is signed by the following 116 civil society organizations, students’ unions, political coalitions, and nationwide strike committees. The other 67 organizations and individuals signed in anonymously due to security risks. In total (183) national and regional Organizations working for Myanmar raised their collective voice to the Civil Society Organizations and Political Parties of India.
Contacts for the Open Letter:
[1] https://aappb.org/?lang=en
[2] https://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/myanmar-humanitarian-update-no-19-28-june-2022
And 67 anonymous Civil Society Organizations and Individuals.