Updates on Burma with Charmaine Craig, Tamara C. Ho, and Emily Hue

<p>SWANA collective members David Lloyd and Soraya Zarook cover the military coup in Burma that began a year ago on February 1, 2021. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar’s military seized power over the government in a coup d’état by arresting the nation’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and members of her party, the National League for Democracy. Following the coup, civilians, activists, and journalists have engaged in uprisings and acts of civil disobedience which were first met by the military with restraint and then increasingly with violence, resulting in hundreds of civilian deaths. The internal strife in Burma, and particularly the 2012 and 2017 military-led crackdown on the Rohingya population, has led to an estimated 1 million Rohingya escaping killings, torture, rape and arson by fleeing into one of the world’s largest refugee camp across the border in Bangladesh. To help us understand the larger historical context to this coup and the wider issues it raises today, we welcome <strong>Charmaine Craig, Tamara C. Ho, and Emily Hue.</strong>&nbsp;</p> <p>To donate to mutual aid efforts in Burma, please visit <a href="https://www.mutualaidmyanmar.org/" target="_blank"><u>Mutual Aid Myanmar</u></a>, a collection of activists, academics, and policy makers working to support the democracy movement in Myanmar. For reflections and analysis about media in post-coup Myanmar, you can follow <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Myanmar-Media-in-Transition-2022-105546281608409/" target="_blank"><u>Myanmar Media in Transition 2022</u></a> on Facebook.&nbsp;You can also support by registering for the <a href="https://bsbff.eventive.org/welcome" target="_blank"><u>Burma Spring Benefit Film Festival</u></a>, which will stream online February 1-13. A donation in any amount (or no amount) and registration gives you access to forums and over 30 films about Burma for the duration of the Festival. Donations will go to support the non-violent democracy movement in Burma. They raised nearly $50,000 in 2021, and are hoping 2022 will generate more