SAWT BEIRUT INTERNATIONAL

| 19 April 2024, Friday |

Myanmar’s post-coup crisis in numbers

Myanmar commemorated one year on Tuesday when the military deposed an elected government and took control of the country, which has been controlled by generals for five of the last six decades.

The coup, which ended the previous junta’s ten years of fragile democracy, has wrecked Myanmar’s economy and resulted in widespread displacement due to conflict between armed groups and the military.

The following are significant figures in the year-long crisis:

– 1,503 is the number of the junta’s opponents killed since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a non-profit group which tracks the military’s crackdown and is cited by the United Nations. The military says those numbers are exaggerated.

– 11,838 coup opponents have been arrested by authorities, AAPP says.

– 160 people were killed in a single day on March 27, when the junta marked the annual Armed Forces Day, the bloodiest day in its crackdown on democracy activists

– 320,000 people have been displaced by fighting, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

– 30 is the percentage by which Myanmar’s economy has shrunk as a direct consequence of the coup, the World Bank says.

– 18 is the percentage contraction the World Bank has forecast for Myanmar’s economy in the fiscal year that started April 1, 2021

– 173 is the total number of years in prison that deposed Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi faces if given the maximum sentences in the remaining legal cases against her.

– 2.8 billion dollars of economic losses may have incurred as a result of internet shutdowns in Myanmar in 2021.

– 3.8 billion dollars of foreign investment has been approved, according to the military government.

– 1 head of government has visited Myanmar’s generals, Cambodia’s Hun Sen, the current Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) chairman

– 6.2 million people will need urgent humanitarian assistance in Myanmar this year, OCHA says.

– 25 is the percentage of value lost from the kyat currency against the dollar since the coup. Its value had halved from Feb. 1 to late September.

– 1 million Myanmar jobs are likely to have been lost in the past year, the World Bank says.

    Source:
  • Reuters