"Yangon feels, on the surface, like a normal, bustling city. In downtown areas, commuters stream past roadside sellers and diners perch beneath parasols. Packed buses and cars chug along the roads. At sunset, young people stop to pose for photos opposite the famous Sule pagoda, as it gleams against a pink-blue sky. But almost five years on from the military seized power in a coup, ousting and imprisoning then de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, life for local people feels anything but stable."
"The UN and western governments have called the process, which will be held in three phases ending on 25 January, a sham. We are always living in fear, says a commuter, stopping briefly to speak. [Before the coup] we had such hope for the future. We were not at all afraid of our government. Now all that has changed, she says. We cannot speak our voices to others freely, she adds."
Yangon appears bustling, with commuters, roadside sellers and people posing opposite Sule pagoda, but everyday life is unstable after the 1 February 2021 military coup that ousted and imprisoned Aung San Suu Kyi. The junta is holding elections in three phases ending 25 January that many international actors call a sham. Many citizens live in fear and avoid speaking openly. Large-scale protests erupted after the coup and were crushed with deadly force; hundreds were killed and tens of thousands arrested. Opposition fighters and ethnic armed groups formed resistance networks, and by late 2023 war spread across two-thirds of the country. Yangon remains relatively detached from the fiercest fighting and daily air and drone strikes occurring elsewhere.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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