Police launch tear-gas grenades during a crackdown on an anti-coup rally in Yangon, Myanmar.
This project documents the first month of protest in Yangon, Myanmar’s former capital and largest city. The photographer is using an alias for protection.
On 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military leaders carried out a coup deposing its democratically elected government and shattered a decade of political and social development. Over the course of the first week under this new military junta, protests grew from small acts of defiance to a nationwide peaceful uprising that protesters referred to as the Spring Revolution. The military met protests with deadly force and mass detention. International media organizations and a UN official reported that the military were firing live ammunition at civilian protesters and into people’s homes. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners reports more than 9,400 people arrested and 1,500 killed by junta forces in the months following the coup. Journalists attempting to cover the situation faced intimidation, harassment and violence from military authorities. According to Reporters Without Borders (RSF), 115 journalists were arrested in Myanmar in 2021 while covering protests or after being tracked down by the intelligence services, and three have been killed. By the end of the year, the military was still in power, although a parallel opposition government and its armed division prevented the military from consolidating complete control over the country, and resistance continued.