In a press release, Myanmar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned “every person is equal before the court and no one is above the law.”

It criticized the UN and others for making a “one-sided judgment against the decision of the court which falls within the domestic jurisdiction of a sovereign country.” Myanmar’s navy spokesperson didn’t reply to CNN’s request for extra remark.

The nation’s future is now being determined by the folks — amongst putting staff, fighters taking on arms in opposition to the navy and idealists drafting roadmaps of what an inclusive, federal Myanmar will appear to be.

“What’s happening in Myanmar right now is certainly much, much bigger than a movement revolving around Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,” mentioned Matt Smith, CEO and co-founder of non-profit Fortify Rights. Resistance in opposition to the navy’s rule, he mentioned, “is really being driven by the tens of millions of people and their desire for freedom and their desire for rights to democracy.”

Who is Aung San Suu Kyi?

The main opposition determine emerged throughout Myanmar’s 5 a long time of navy rule and was lauded as an icon within the West for her non-violent wrestle in opposition to the junta, having famously spent 15 years underneath home arrest.

Known as “Mother Suu” to her supporters, Suu Kyi’s occasion received a lansdslide in 2015 elections — broadly thought-about the primary free and honest vote in a long time — changing into Myanmar’s state counselor and de facto chief.

But analysts say she dominated by means of a cult of character and was reluctant to contemplate various factors of view. Myanmar is an especially various nation with greater than 135 official ethnic nationalities. Many felt she dominated for almost all Buddhist Bamar, did not take nationwide reconciliation significantly, or guarantee ethnic minorities had any political sway.

“I think her biggest fault is that she didn’t empower democracy from the grassroots up — it was imposed down. She didn’t see democracy as the strengthening of institutions to be accountable, independent, and functional,” mentioned David Mathieson, an unbiased Myanmar analyst. “A good democrat actually builds coalitions, and actually tries to see the other side, she had absolutely no interest in that.”

“Her government failed to cooperate with international investigators at the time, which is deeply concerning on a number of levels. We were pushing for the government to do more to to engage with international justice mechanisms to do more to demonstrate not only an acknowledgment of the atrocities that were unfolding, but to actively do something to stop them. And that, of course, did not happen,” mentioned rights advocate Smith.

Despite her fall from grace within the West, she remained immensely widespread in Myanmar and the next 12 months her occasion received one other landslide in November 2020 elections — a outcome that humiliated navy leaders and set off the chain of occasions resulting in the junta retaking energy.

Resistance goes past Suu Kyi

Since February’s coup, the navy has tried to say its energy over the folks by means of bloody drive.

Junta forces have killed greater than 1,300 folks and arrested over 10,000, in response to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

“A lot of young professionals, for example, who prior to the coup would not have considered themselves activists, let alone soldiers. And many of them find themselves in those roles now,” mentioned Smith, from Fortify Rights.

Suu Kyi will “be relevant, regardless of what happens. And of course, she should be released immediately,” Smith mentioned. “But what we’re seeing now is not a movement driven by a cult of personality, but rather a bottom up pro-democracy revolution.”

The worldwide neighborhood constructed up Suu Kyi as a figurehead in opposition to navy rule however Myanmar democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi mentioned “democracy doesn’t work that way.”

“The people are the leaders of the movement now,” she mentioned. “We need collective leadership.”

The resistance, she mentioned, is “unstoppable by any person. It can’t be controlled by any person, it’s all dynamic and it comes from diverse backgrounds all for the same goal,” she mentioned. “It’s a kind of revolution that we never experienced in the past — everyone is getting involved, everyone is determined to overthrow the dictatorship, not just for one party or one person.”

To an amazing extent, the anti-junta motion has succeeded in unifying most of the disparate teams in Myanmar in opposition to one widespread enemy: the navy. But the resistance itself is extraordinarily various.

Meanwhile, a whole lot of hundreds of bizarre folks proceed to help the Civil Disobedience Movement, a large-scale act of defiance that goals to destabilize the junta by means of financial disruption, mass boycotts of military-affiliated companies, walkouts and basic strikes, on-line campaigns, and defections of police and navy personnel. Thinzar Shunlei Yi calls the CDM the “backbone of the revolution.”

The National Unity Government, made up of ousted lawmakers and ethnic minorities exiled overseas or working underground, is trying to achieve worldwide recognition because the reliable authorities of Myanmar and cease the world from recognizing the junta.

“Not everyone is picking up a gun,” mentioned Mathieson, the Myanmar analyst, including there are lots of people who find themselves “working behind the scenes to slowly whittle away at the military.”

Suu Kyi’s sentencing comes at a important time for Myanmar and people against the coup because the navy junta digs its heels in, in response to Fortify’s Smith. Arbitrary arrests of people that form opinion within the nation, like politicians, artists, writers, filmmakers, and docs, are systematic. Reports of navy offenses, together with shelling and raids on villages, arson and displacement of individuals within the ethnic states of Chin, Karenni, Karen and Sagaing area, amongst others, are widespread.

“They’re worried, they’re scared, they’re weak, in many ways, and the fact that they’re resorting to such horrifically brutal tactics is an indicator of their political weakness in the country. It’s the only tool they have, it’s the only tool that they can use to maintain power right now,” mentioned Smith, referring to the navy.

While a part of Suu Kyi’s worldwide attract was tied to her credo of Ghandian non-violence, the state of affairs inside Myanmar has modified — with many now calling for lively resistance.

“Some of the international (community) and diplomats in Myanmar say that we cannot support the (People’s Defense Forces) because they use violent methods. Well this yardstick is totally irrelevant — it doesn’t apply to our situation,” mentioned Khin Zaw Win, director of the Yangon-based assume tank the Tampadipa Institute. “If you don’t resist, they will massacre you. Are we supposed to lie down and take it, when kids are being killed on their father’s laps?”

Khin Zaw Win likened the violent parts to the French and Polish resistance throughout World War II.

“In the beginning people looked to the United Nations to come to our aid,” he mentioned, including that the assistance didn’t come. “It just gravitates to the population to defend themselves … it has a great deal of public support.”