Mizzima/AFP-Feb 2
Myanmar’s junta called on Sunday for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists”. After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience. Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides. “Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offence, as well as those who had committed offences but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the junta’s National Defense and Security Council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper. After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest. The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike. Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group. Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved. Read more at: https://eng.mizzima.com/2026/02/02/30874
