Maung Saungkha | |
|---|---|
မောင်ဆောင်းခ | |
 Maung Saunghkha in 2018 | |
| Born | January 5, 1993 [1] |
| Occupation(s) | Army commander, poet, activist |
| Organization | Bamar People's Liberation Army |
Maung Saungkha, alternatively romanized as Maung Saung Kha, is a Burmese poet, human rights activist and chief commander of the Bamar People's Liberation Army. [2] [3]
In 2012, Maung Saungkha joined the National League for Democracy as a youth working group representative. [4]
In 2016, he was sentenced to six months in prison for publishing "a poem about having a tattoo of [President Thein Sein] on his penis." [5]
On 15 January 2018 Maung Saungkha founded Athan ('voice'), an activist organisation to "promote freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Myanmar." In December 2018, this organisation received an award from the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands for their contribution to "the promotion of freedom of expression in Myanmar." [6] He also resigned from the National League for Democracy citing disagreement with Aung San Suu Kyi about the government's actions on protecting the freedom of press and treatment of minorities. [4] He became a leader of the 2021–2022 Myanmar protests. [7]
On 17 April 2022, he co-founded the Bamar People's Liberation Army, an ethnic armed organisation that strives for ethnic federalism in Myanmar, in which he serves as a commander. [8]
Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a country in Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and has a population of about 55 million. It is bordered by Bangladesh and India to its northwest, China to its northeast, Laos and Thailand to its east and southeast, and the Andaman Sea and the Bay of Bengal to its south and southwest. The country's capital city is Naypyidaw, and its largest city is Yangon.
Myanmar operates de jure as a unitary assembly-independent republic under its 2008 constitution. On 1 February 2021, Myanmar's military took over the government in a coup, causing ongoing anti-coup protests.
The Tatmadaw is the military of Myanmar. It is administered by the Ministry of Defence and composed of the Myanmar Army, the Myanmar Navy and the Myanmar Air Force. Auxiliary services include the Myanmar Police Force, the Border Guard Forces, the Myanmar Coast Guard, and the People's Militia Units. Since independence in 1948, the Tatmadaw has faced significant ethnic insurgencies, especially in Chin, Kachin, Kayin, Kayah, and Shan states. General Ne Win took control of the country in a 1962 coup d'état, attempting to build an autarkic society called the Burmese Way to Socialism. Following the violent repression of nationwide protests in 1988, the military agreed to free elections in 1990, but ignored the resulting victory of the National League for Democracy and imprisoned its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The 1990s also saw the escalation of the conflict between Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State due to RSO attacks on Tatmadaw forces.
Ne Win was a Burmese politician and military commander who served as Prime Minister of Burma from 1958 to 1960 and 1962 to 1974, and also President of Burma from 1962 to 1981. Ne Win was Burma's military dictator during the Socialist Burma period of 1962 to 1988.
The history of Myanmar covers the period from the time of first-known human settlements 13,000 years ago to the present day. The earliest inhabitants of recorded history were a Tibeto-Burman-speaking people who established the Pyu city-states ranged as far south as Pyay and adopted Theravada Buddhism.
The Anti-Fascist People's Freedom League (AFPFL) was the dominant political alliance in Burma from 1945 to 1958. It consisted of political parties and mass and class organizations.
The Bamar, are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Myanmar. They are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group of approximately 35 million people who constitute Myanmar's largest ethnic group, accounting for 68% of the country's population. The geographic homeland of the Bamar is the Irrawaddy River basin. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar, as well as the national language and lingua franca of Myanmar.
The nats are god-like spirits venerated in Myanmar and neighbouring countries in conjunction with Buddhism. They are divided between the 37 Great Nats who were designated that status by King Anawrahta when he formalized the official list of nats. Most of the 37 Great Nats were human beings who met violent deaths.
The Karen National Liberation Army is the military branch of the Karen National Union (KNU), which campaigns for the self-determination of the Karen people of Myanmar. The KNLA has been fighting the Burmese government since 1949. The KNLA was reported to have had a strength of approximately 20,000 in 1980, 3,000 in 2001, 5,000 in 2006, 6,000 in 2012, and 7,000 in 2014. As of early 2021, the KNLA is estimated to have at least 15,000 troops. The army is divided into seven brigades and a 'Special Force' reserved for special operations.
The 8888 Uprising, also known as the People Power Uprising and the 1988 Uprising, was a series of nationwide protests, marches, and riots in Burma that peaked in August 1988. Key events occurred on 8 August 1988 and therefore it is commonly known as the "8888 Uprising". The protests began as a student movement and were organised largely by university students at the Rangoon Arts and Sciences University and the Rangoon Institute of Technology (RIT).
Paw Oo Tun ; better known by his alias Min Ko Naing, is a leading democracy activist and dissident from Myanmar. He has spent most of the years since 1988 imprisoned by the state for his opposition activities. The New York Times has described him as Burma's "most influential opposition figure after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi".
Bo Hmu Aung was a Burmese military officer and a member of the legendary Thirty Comrades who trained in Japan in the struggle for independence from Britain and regarded as one of the founders of the Tatmadaw. He also served as Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, was the lower house of the bicameral Union Parliament of independence Burma.
Myanmar (Burma) and the United States had a diplomatic contact prior to the British colonial period. They established formal diplomatic relations in 1947 in anticipation of Burma’s independence.
The All Burma Students' Democratic Front is an opposition group in Myanmar. It was founded on 1 November 1988, after the 8888 protests in Yangon. The group's leadership consists mostly of former student exiles.
Dobama Asiayone, commonly known as the Thakhins, was a Burmese nationalist group formed around the 1930s and composed of young, disgruntled intellectuals. Drawing their name from the way in which the British were addressed during colonial times, the party was established by Ba Thaung in May 1930, bringing together traditionalist Buddhist nationalist elements and fresh political ideals. It was significant in stirring up political consciousness in Burma, and drew most of its support base from students.
Thiri Pyanchi Min Thu Wun was a Burmese poet, writer and scholar who helped launch a new age literary movement called Khit-San in Burma. He is the father of Htin Kyaw, president of Myanmar from 2016 to 2018.
The Communist Party of Burma (CPB), also known as the Burma Communist Party (BCP), is a clandestine communist party in Myanmar (Burma). It is the oldest existing political party in the country.
Freedom Collection is a digital repository sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute at the George W. Bush Presidential Center on Southern Methodist University's campus in Dallas, Texas. The collection documents major players in human rights and freedom movements around the world during the 20th and 21st centuries through video interviews and documents. Contributors include former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Syrian dissident and author Ammar Abdulhamid, former president of Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic Václav Havel, Chinese civil rights activist Chen Guangcheng, former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo, and Egyptian author Saad Eddin Ibrahim. At its launch on March 28, 2012, the collection consisted of 56 interviews. As of 2022, the Freedom Collection website was last updated in 2016 and its YouTube channel, where video interviews are available to watch, was last updated in October 2015. It is unclear if the project is still active.
Tattooing in Burma was a widespread custom practiced by various ethnic groups, including the Bamar, Shan, and Karen, until the 20th century. Tattooing was a distinguishing cultural marker and a symbol of strength, courage and intimidation for Lethwei fighters.
The Bamar People's Liberation Army (BPLA) is an ethnic armed organisation in Myanmar.