On February 1, 2021, Myanmar military illegally overthrew a democratically elected government of the country based on trumped-up claims of voter fraud and detained cabinet members including president U Win Myint and State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, opposition politicians, writers, and activists and trialed under make-up charges. On February 2, 2021, doctors and nurses from 300-bedded Childre
n Hospital from Mandalay refused to work in a way of protest against the coup, widely known as “Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM)”. The movement clearly declared that democracy must be restored, and state power returned to elected legitimate civilian government. Thousands of civil servants across the country joined the CDM on the following days which almost stopped the functions of ministries and government offices. On Feb 4, 2021, a group of youths started protesting peacefully in front of University of Medicine Mandalay and it spread to the whole country on the days that follow. But the military brutally cracked down on those peaceful protesters, and unlawfully detained many, just as they did in the 1988 uprising. (Note**The crackdown had left 1803 civilians killed, 13526 detained as of May 2, 2022 according to Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) and there could be even more which are not in the AAPP’s list.) CDM Support Team Mandalay (CSTM) was formed on February 4, 2021 with community leaders, doctors, teachers, students, activists, and civil society organizations, after having initiated two wings for the resistance against the coup; CSTM and Peaceful Protests. We aim at supporting CDMers and their families financially including foo, health care and safe shelters as they join the movement by losing their jobs. Hundreds of them are currently on the run, thousands have been unlawfully forced out of state-provided housing, and tens of thousands are facing financial difficulties. CSTM has supported thousands of CDMers including police and military officers mainly in Mandalay Region and some across the country since the coup. We have established several community-based emergency response centers in Mandalay with the help of healthcare professionals as state-run hospitals were shut down due to mass CDM. We also created a network of CDM Support teams in the region and regularly hold online meetings to discuss, analyze, and make strategic decisions on supporting, cooperating, and sharing information among the teams in future. It is estimated that there are over 50,000 civil servants in the Mandalay region alone, and over 30,000 of them have joined CDM. As the junta has been forcefully firing CDMers, those who live in state-provided housing have to move out, leaving both the house and the job behind. All do not have income now, and a large percentage of them face financial difficulty for their basic needs. They are in urgent need of financial support to survive and to continue their resistance against military coup. Your help, now matter how big or how small, has a huge impact on our cause for democracy and freedom!
