Caught Between Bombs and Ballots: Myanmar's Junta Escalates Offensive Ahead of Sham Election

The Lead

Myanmar's military junta has launched a fierce campaign of airstrikes and ground assaults in rebel-held territories, forcing thousands of civilians to flee for their lives. According to BBC reports, this brutal offensive aims to recapture territory ahead of a widely condemned election starting December 28, leaving citizens caught between indiscriminate attacks and a vote many describe as a complete sham.

Late one night in November, Iang Za Kim heard explosions in a neighboring village in Myanmar’s western Chin State. “We were terrified. We thought the junta's planes would bomb us too,” she recounted. “So we grabbed what we could – some food and clothes and ran into the jungles.” She is one of thousands who have fled in recent weeks, with many crossing the border into India's Mizoram state to escape the violence.

For these displaced civilians, the threat isn't just the bombs. It's also the ballot. “If we are caught and refuse to vote, they will put us in jail and torture us,” Iang says. “We've run away so that we don't have to vote.” Her sentiment reflects a widespread view that the upcoming election is merely a tool for the military, which seized power in a February 2021 coup, to legitimize its rule.

A War on Civilians

The junta's offensive appears to make little distinction between military and civilian targets. The Chin Human Rights Organisation reports that since mid-September, junta airstrikes have targeted at least three schools and six churches in Chin State, killing 12 people, including six children. The BBC independently verified one such attack on October 13, when bombs struck a school in Vanha village, killing two students, aged seven and 12, during their lessons.

Last week, the offensive targeted a hospital in Rakhine State, where rebel groups claim at least 30 people were killed and more than 70 injured. Myanmar's military government did not respond to the BBC's requests for comment on these allegations.

“We're afraid of our own government. They are extremely cruel,” says Ral Uk Thang, 80, who has been forced to flee his home for a second time since the coup. “Their military has come into our and other villages in the past, they've arrested people, tortured them, and burned down homes.”

“How Can There Be Genuine Democracy?”

Rebel groups have dismissed the election as a farce designed to entrench military rule. “This election is only being held to prolong military dictatorship. It's not about the people's choice,” says Sui Khar, Vice Chairman of the Chin National Front (CNF), the state's most prominent rebel group. He notes the junta hardly controls much of the area, questioning how a credible election could even be held.

According to Sui Khar, the military is advancing with columns of hundreds of soldiers from four directions, supported by airstrikes, artillery, and drones. At the CNF base hospital, the human cost is stark. Young fighters, many of whom were schoolboys at the time of the coup, are being treated for life-altering injuries. Si Si Maung, 19, who recently had a leg amputated after stepping on a landmine, remains defiant. “I've lost a leg, but even if I've to give up my life I'm happy to make the sacrifice so that future generations have a better life,” he says.

It's this resolve from tens of thousands of young people that has fueled the resistance against a far more powerful military. Yet for the older generation, the future looks bleak. Ral Uk Thang hopes to return home after the election but is not optimistic about what he will find.