Crisis Chronology | Myanmar (formerly Burma)

MYANMAR (FORMERLY BURMA)

12/14/2023

Continued fighting in the north displaces hundreds of thousands.

11/16/2023

The Arakan army captures another town in northern Myanmar.

11/13/2023

The Chin National Army gains control of a military base on the border with India. The Arakan Army claims that it has gained territory. Resistance forces have now seized border towns on both sides of the country after the offensive, known as Operation 1027, was launched by the ethnic Brotherhood Alliance on Oct. 27. The alliance, known as the Three Brotherhood Alliance and comprising the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) and the Arakan Army (AA), has seized dozens of townships in northern Shan State on the border with China. The resistance offensive has also spread to upper Sagaing Region, where the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), AA and PDFs seized the district-level town of Kawlin on November 6. Elsewhere, Karenni resistance forces launched Operation 1107 in support of the offensive, attacking junta bases in Kayah State’s Loikaw and Mese and southern Shan’s Moebye town.

11/02/2023

Rebels gain control of important town on the border with China. Chinshwehaw is a major hub for trade between Myanmar and China and a significant loss for the military junta.

08/01/2023

Government announces partial pardon for Daw Aung Suu Syi, reducing her 33-year sentence by six years. Win Myint also receives partial pardon, reducing his 12-year sentence by four years.

07/12/2023

Thailand outgoing foreign minister Don Pramudwinai travels to Myanmar in secret, holding a meeting with internationally ostracized coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing and visiting jailed elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, just days before a regional summit focused on the turmoil in the country.

05/07/2023

Fierce fighting between about 30 tribal groups and the non-tribal ethnic majority Meitei over the economic benefits and reservation status extended to some tribes in the state of Manipur, bordering Myanmar.

03/28/2023

Military government dissolves 40 political parties, including Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), for failing to meet re-register as required by a new electoral law.

02/01/2023

Government extends state of emergency six months on anniversary of the coup. Western nations impose new sanctions.

12/21/2022

UN security council passes resolution calling for release of all political prisoners and mitigation of violence and humanitarian crisis.

12/15/2022

UN blocks Myanmar’s military junta from appointing the country ambassador to the UN. The current ambassador, appointed by Suu Kyi, therefore remains in the seat.

11/16/2022

Government releases 6000 prisoners, including some from other countries. It is becoming increasingly isolated and facing increasing pressure from nearby countries.

10/11/2022

As government continues its judicial persecution of Suu Kyi, a court convicts her of corruption and extends her prison time to 26 years.

09/22/2022

For weeks, Myanmar has been firing guns and sometimes mortars into the border region with Bangladesh. The attacks may be an attempt to push more Rohingya into Bangladesh, which already has taken in more than a million Rohingya.

09/02/2022

Suu Kyi is sentenced to three additional years in prison, at hard labor. Her total sentence is now at twenty years. She is 77.

07/25/2022

Government executes four pro-democracy advocates, the first executions in thirty years.

06/07/2022

Local armed groups widely assassinating local leaders appointed by the military government.

04/27/2022

Court sentences Suu Kyi to five years in prison.

04/24/2022

Fighting between military and insurgents intensifies in Yangon.

03/21/2022

US declares that Myanmar government’s treatment of Rohingya has committed genocide.

02/01/2022

On the anniversary of the military coup, many workers defy the government and stage a one-day strike.

01/10/2022

Suu Kyi found guilty in second trial and four years are added to her sentence.

12/27/2021

Escalating attacks on anti-government civilians and militias, including a recent massacre of thirty in Kayah state.

12/27/2021

Court postpones sentencing in second case against Suu Kyi.

12/10/2021

Protestors hold “silent strikes,” in which no one goes to work or school, as protests against the government.

12/10/2021

US imposes wide-scale sanctions on individuals and entities related to Bangladesh, China, North Korea, and Myanmar for human rights violations.

12/06/2021

Suu Kyi is sentenced to four years in prison.

12/06/2021

Suu Kyi is sentenced to four years in prison.

11/30/2021

Verdict in Suu Kyi’s case, scheduled for today, is delayed until 12/6.

11/16/2021

Election commission announces that it is prosecuting Suu Kyi and fifteen others for fraud in the 11/20 election.

10/27/2021

Suu Kyi, testifying in court, denies charges of inciting public alarm.

10/25/2021

ASEAN nations begin their annual meeting and exclude Myanmar from attending.

10/20/2021

Tatmawdaw indiscriminately and brutally attacking villages in area considered to be strongholds of the People’s Defense Force, such as Chin State. Consequently, there are large populations migrating to neighborind countries, India and Thailand.

10/18/2021

Government to release more than 5000 political prisoners “for humanitarian reasons.”

09/13/2021

Suu Kyi unable to appear in court due to health problems.

09/07/2021

Duwa Lashi La, acting president of the National Unity Government declares war on military regime, in alliance with Karen fighters and others forming People’s Defence Forces (PDF). Fighting breaks out in several regions.

08/01/2021

General assumes prime ministership

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing declares himself prime minister. He promises to hold free and fair multiparty elections by 2023.

07/02/2021

COVID-19 cases rise sharply as government controls distribution of vaccine without regard to health organization guidelines.

06/09/2021

Government brings new corruption charges against Suu Kyi and her government.

06/08/2021

UN warns of mass deaths from starvation and disease as well as government attacks. More than 100,000 have fled the attacks in Kayah State.

06/07/2021

Military making airstrikes on several towns in the south, fighting a local militia known as the Karenni People’s Defense Force.

05/24/2021

Suu Kyi appears in court for her trial.

05/07/2021

Resistance continues, but the government also continues to arrest many people and block the internet. Nearly 800 have been killed. The National Unity Government, in hiding, says it will form an armed militia.

05/02/2021

Largest protests in recent days. Eight more are killed.

04/15/2021

Protests continue and military continues arresting and killing protestors.

04/07/2021

More are killed in continuing protests. There are reports that the military is shifting its focus to rural areas but is losing control of the country.

03/30/2021

Death toll officially tops 500 as protests continue.

03/28/2021

Bloodiest day so far in attacks on protestors with more than 100 killed over the weekend.

03/19/2021

Protestor is killed during continuing protests against coup.

03/16/2021

A second charge if filed against Suu Kyi. Although details are not clear, it is based on the Natural Disaster Law, which has been used to charge people for COVID-19 violations.

03/16/2021

Government imposes martial law on parts of Yangon.

03/14/2021

Ousted speaker of parliament Mahn Win Khaing Than, in hiding, appears in a speech on Facebook says he continues to fight and is eading a group of opposition figures called the CRPH, or Committee for Representing the Union Parliament. He says that their goal is a federal democracy.

03/11/2021

Military continues to kill protestors.

03/08/2021

Nationwide strike begins. Two more protestors are killed, bringing the total to more than fifty. Military occupies hospitals and universities and continues nighttime arrests.

03/03/2021

Military continues to crack down harder on protestors.

02/28/2021

Eighteen protestors are killed by the military. Suu Kyi appears in court and two more charges are brought against her.

02/26/2021

Myanmar UN ambassador appeals at the UN for international action against the junta’s coup in his country. Although the military says he is fired, he remains in his post the UN.

02/22/2021

Massive protests across the county and businesses shut down.

02/11/2021

US imposes sanctions on military leaders.

02/07/2021

Police use water cannons to disperse protestors.

02/04/2021

Widespread protests against the military takeover. NLD leader Win Htein is arrested and charged with sedition.

02/03/2021

Suu Kyi has been charged with importing communication devices and police are seeking to hold her until 2/15.

02/01/2021

Military resumes control

Military resumes total control of government in a bloodless coup, declaring a state of emergency for one year, an action sanctioned in the 2008 constitution. Suu Kyi and President U Win Myint are detained along with the cabinet and many officials of the NLD. The military cancels all air travel and takes over all media, suspends telephone and internet and closes banks. Soldiers are deployed in the streets. Army chief Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing becomes head of government.

12/02/2020

Military party, the Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP), calls for new elections over irregularities in voting and “unfair campaigning.”

11/15/2020

Fifteen Asia-Pacific nations sign the world's largest free-trade agreement, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership in Vietnam. It replaces the Trans-Pacific Partnership, from which the US withdrew the United States in early 2017. The countries are: Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.

11/09/2020

Suu Kyi’s party claims election win

National League for Democracy claims victory with at least 322 seats of the 642-seat body.

11/08/2020

Voting for the parliament. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy is expected to win a majority.

09/28/2020

Yangon placed under stay-at-home order due to COVID-19 pandemic. Political parties are calling for delay of the November elections, but Suu Kyi has kept them in place.

04/15/2020

Despite COVID-19 pandemic, the military (known as the Tatmadaw) increases attacks against armed ethnic groups in Rakhine, Karen, and Shan states.

03/10/2020

Parliament rejects Suu Kyi’s constitutional amendments that would phase out the military’s influence on government.

02/20/2020

It is reported that the Australian ambassador met with the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar armed forces. Some criticize the meeting as legitimizing the oppression of the Rohingya.

01/23/2020

UN International Court of Justice orders Myanmar to protect Rohingya.

01/17/2020

China Pres Xi visits Myanmar, expecting to sign various agreements related to the China-Myanmar Economic Corridor, which will link China to the Indian Ocean from Kyaukphyu in central Rakhine state. A port and a high-speed rail link are also part of the plan.

12/10/2019

At International Court of Justice, Gambia (representing other Muslim countries) argues that the court must act to stop Myanmar’s “genocide of its own people,” the Rohingya.

12/07/2019

Aung San Suu Kyi travels to the Hague where the International Criminal Court is expected to charge her government with genocide in the case of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar.

08/23/2019

Of 750,000 Rohingya immigrants, only a few thousand have returned.

01/08/2019

After the Arakan Army separatist militants attack police posts in western Myanmar over the last month4,, government says it will “crush” the group.

11/15/2018

Bangladesh says it will not force Rohingya to return to Myanmar.

11/08/2018

International aid groups protest continuing plans by Myanmar and Bangladesh for repatriation of Rohingya, saying that the camps are not ready and would be dangerous for the Rohingya. The movement of people is planned to begin 11/15.

10/04/2018

India deports seven Rohingya to Myanmar, to criticism by rights groups. PM Modi has called for all 40,000+ Rohingya in India to be returned to Myanmar.

09/13/2018

Suu Kyi defends court decision jailing journalists.

09/03/2018

Two journalists are convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison in what is generally considered a political trial by Myanmar. They reported on the ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya.

08/17/2018

US sanctions Myanmar security officers as complicit in “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya.

05/31/2018

UN and Myanmar announce they have agreed on a plan to repatriate the Rohingya "in safety and dignity" at some point in the future, without any further details.

01/19/2018

Rohingya refugee leaders in Bangladesh issue a set of demands for Myanmar government that must be met before repatriation can begin. They ask for citizenship, their land returned, their villages rebuilt, and the military held responsible for crimes, among other things.

01/12/2018

Army admits for the first time that Rohingya have been killed.

01/04/2018

Pres Htin Kyam calls for reform of the constitution and justice for all minorities under a federal system. His proposal has no force of law, but is a significant step.

11/23/2017

Myanmar and Bangladesh agree to the repatriation of Rohingya.

11/19/2017

China proposes a three-step solution to Rohingya crisis, including a ceasefire and repatriation of Rohingya. Myanmar and Bangladesh reportedly support the plan.

11/15/2017

Myanmar bans protests about Rohingyas in Yangon.

11/14/2017

US calls for an independent investigation into the Rohingya situation in Myanmar.

11/02/2017

Suu Kyi visits Rakhine state, home of Rohingya.

10/27/2017

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh more than half a million; UN reports that many may have been killed in Myanmar.

10/11/2017

UN reports that Myanmar has systematically destroyed Rohingya homes, crops, and villages to make them unusable.

09/11/2017

Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh now in the hundreds of thousands.

09/06/2017

Bangladesh protests landmines placed at Myanmar border by military.

09/05/2017

Aung Suu Kyi widely criticized for silence about the Myanmar Rohingya, says “misinformation” is distorting the news about them to favor “terrorists.”

09/03/2017

Tens of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh ahead of government military campaign.

08/27/2017

Continuing battles between Rohingya rebels and government security forces.

03/27/2017

Suu Kyi increasingly criticized for lack of progress in human rights in Myanmar.

03/27/2017

Suu Kyi increasingly criticized for lack of progress in human rights in Myanmar.

03/04/2017

UN to send fact-finding mission to Myanmar about persecution of Rohingya Muslim minority.

12/06/2016

Government stops issuing permits for work in Malaysia, likely targeting the Rohingya.

12/04/2016

There are reports that as many as 20,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.

11/13/2016

Increasing violence between Rohingya and military. Suu Kyi has declined to intervene, despite international calls for her to do so.

10/10/2016

Outburst of violence between government and Rohingya Muslim minority

After an attack on police outposts in western Myanmar, Rohingya villagers in Rakhine State are killed in a counterattack by police and army.