Myanmar’s Junta Fired on Anti-Coup Crowds. Five Years Later Min Aung Hlaing Made Himself President
NAYPYITAW, MYANMAR — On February 1, 2021, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s Tatmadaw detained Aung San Suu Kyi and the elected civilian government, declared a state of emergency, and called it a correction. Within days the streets filled. By February 9, police in Naypyitaw were using water cannon, rubber bullets, and live fire on crowds that wanted the elected leader released. Reuters photographer Stringer caught an officer leveling a weapon at the line. That is the image on this page.
The coup did not stay a protest story. Lethal force against the Civil Disobedience Movement ignited a civil war that has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions, and wrecked the economy. Independent monitors have put the combined combatant and civilian death toll well past 100,000. Aung San Suu Kyi was convicted in a sequence of closed-court cases and kept off the board. The junta ran a tightly staged election, then converted the general into a civilian title.
From coup leader to president on paper
Min Aung Hlaing stepped down as military chief, then on April 3, 2026 a pro-military parliament elected him the country’s 11th president with 429 of 584 votes. He took the oath on April 10 and installed a Union Government packed with the same ministers. The BBC, Al Jazeera, and Reuters all described the vote as the formalizing of a grip he had held since the coup. The International Crisis Group called the new administration military consolidation, not a transition.
The AEGIS Alliance does not confuse a parliamentary rubber stamp with legitimacy. The man who ordered troops onto the streets in 2021 now has a civilian letterhead. The war did not end when he changed clothes. Related coverage sits with our International News desk, the Politics file, and earlier reporting on how security states handle dissent, including the UK spycops inquiry.
