'Living in a dark era': one year since Myanmar's coup
India Today
Analysts say, there is no end in sight to the crisis in Myanmar that has devastated the economy, emptied schools and hospitals across the country and sent thousands fleeing to neighbouring Thailand and India.
Hours before Myanmar's new parliament was due to convene last February, troops rounded up lawmakers in dawn raids, ending a brief democratic interlude and setting the stage for months of bloodshed.
A year later, the country's latest junta is struggling to contain the backlash unleashed by its power grab, with daily clashes and swathes of the country outside of its control.
Almost 1,500 civilians have been killed and over 11,000 arrested in its ongoing crackdown, according to a local monitor, with rights groups accusing junta troops of torture and extrajudicial killings.
But for a pro-democracy movement angered by the military's power-grab, ending its decades-long entanglement in Myanmar politics once and for all is the only option.
That means, analysts say, there is no end in sight to the crisis that has devastated the economy, emptied schools and hospitals across the country and sent thousands fleeing to neighbouring Thailand and India.
"We are still living in a dark era," said Htoo Aung -- using a pseudonym for fear of reprisal -- at a market in commercial hub Yangon.
"We have to think how we can struggle on through our daily lives under this military dictatorship rather than about our goals, our dreams in the future."
