Myanmar's year of turmoil, from junta coup to jailing of Aung San Suu Kyi

Myanmar's military seized power on February 1 last year, ousting the civilian government and arresting its de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi. Nearly 1,500 people have since been killed and thousands of others arrested as the junta wages a bloody crackdown on dissent.

Looking back at the year since the military's latest power grab, which ended a decade-long experiment with democracy after half a century of military rule, it has been one of turmoil.

Soldiers detained Suu Kyi and her top allies during pre-dawn raids on February 1 ahead of the opening of the new parliament. The generals claimed fraud in the November 2020 election, which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party won by a landslide.

Their actions sparked global condemnation, from Pope Francis to US President Joe Biden. Resistance to the coup began with people banging pots and pans -- a practice traditionally associated with driving out evil spirits.

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The junta blocked social media platforms including Facebook, which is hugely popular in Myanmar. Nightly internet blackouts were later imposed.

Popular dissent surged over the weekend of February 6 and 7, with huge crowds gathering on the streets, calling for the release of Suu Kyi. In the following weeks, these protests swelled to hundreds of thousands of people in cities and villages around the country.

Workers began a nationwide strike on February 8. A 19-year-old woman is shot in the head when police fire on crowds in the capital Naypyidaw the next day.

Washington soon announced sanctions against several military officials, including junta chief Min Aung Hlaing. More sanctions followed from Britain and the European Union. Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, the woman shot 10 days earlier, died on February 19 after becoming a national symbol of opposition to the junta.

Violent crackdowns on street protests escalated and by March 11, Amnesty International said it documented atrocities by the junta, including the use of battlefield weapons on unarmed protesters. A day later, a UN rights expert on Myanmar accused the military of crimes against humanity.

More than 100 civilians were killed in protest crackdowns on March 27, which is Armed Forces Day, the military's annual show of strength. It was the deadliest day since the coup. Over the next month, ousted civilian lawmakers who were forced into hiding announced the formation of a shadow "National Unity Government".

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Danny Fenster, an American editor at a local outlet Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon's airport as he attempted to leave the country on May 24. Following a trial inside a prison in Yangon, he was jailed for 11 years in November for unlawful association, incitement against the military and breaching visa rules. Three days later, he was pardoned and freed, and flew home to be reunited with his family at New York's JFK airport.

In June, more than four months after she was detained, Suu Kyi went on trial in a junta court. She faced an eclectic mix of charges, including illegally importing walkie-talkies and flouting Covid-19 restrictions during the 2020 elections.

Coronavirus infections surged across Myanmar from late June, with many pro-democracy medical staff on strike and the public avoiding military-run hospitals. People defied curfews to queue for oxygen cylinders for their loved ones and volunteers took up the grim task of bringing out the dead for cremation.

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In July, the World Bank forecasted that Myanmar's economy would contract by 18 per cent in 2021 as a result of the coup and the coronavirus outbreak, with the poverty rate to double from 2019 levels. In late July, the junta cancelled the results of the 2020 polls, claiming more than 11 million instances of voter fraud.

Six months to the day since the military seized power, junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said that new elections will be held by August 2023. On December 6, Suu Kyi was jailed for four years for incitement against the military and breaching Covid regulations. The sentence was later cut to two years.

On January 10, she was sentenced to another four years in prison after being convicted of two charges related to illegally importing and owning walkie-talkies and one of breaking Covid rules. She will be held under house arrest in Naypyidaw while she faces a host of other charges in court, which could see her jailed for decades.

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