In many towns in Burma, the streets have become war zones.
Two months after Min Aung Hlaing's coup, images of the peace protests in early February, when thousands of people jointly banged on pots and pans in protest against the coup, have now given way to scenes of an incredible violence where the soldiers fire live ammunition at the demonstrators.
Day after day, the balance sheet continues to grow.
More than 500 people have died in Burma in the crackdown on the protest.
Thursday April 1, the association for assistance to political prisoners (AAPP) identified 536 victims since the coup d'état, including many students, adolescents and young children.
Hundreds of others, held incommunicado, are missing.
"There is a real risk of bloodshed in this face-to-face meeting between the determined civil disobedience movement and the military," warns Sophie Boisseau du Rocher, a specialist in South-East Asia at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri), contacted by France 24.
Ethnic minorities join the movement
The conflict between the junta and this civil disobedience movement experienced, Saturday March 27, the bloodiest day since the beginning of the movement.
Nearly 140 people, including ten children, died on this "day of the armed forces", while the military paraded with great pomp in the capital Naypyidaw to celebrate the victorious rebellion against the Japanese occupation during the Second World War. global.
This violence against civilians in particular sparked anger among some 20 rebel ethnic factions in Burma.
Among them, the Army of Arakan in the northeast of the country, the Army for Kachin Independence (KIA) or the Karen National Union (KNU).
The KNU seized a military base in south-eastern Karen state last Saturday, prompting army airstrikes, the first in 20 years in that region.
These air raids left several injured and displaced people to neighboring Thailand.
The army had in recent years concluded a ceasefire with several of these groups fighting against the government but, since the putsch, a few of them have supported the popular uprising and resumed arms, or threatened to do.
Faced with this upsurge in violence, the UN envoy for Burma, Christine Schraner Burgener, warned on Wednesday during an emergency meeting behind closed doors against "a risk of civil war in an unprecedented level ", urging" to consider all the means at its disposal to (...) avoid a multidimensional disaster in the heart of Asia ".
“We must remain cautious about 'the risk of a civil war' because this is precisely the argument used by the army to justify its role and its takeover of the country,” however qualifies Sophie Boisseau du Rocher.
"A united front against the military"
"It seems to me that there are today discussions between the governments of ethnic minorities to try to find a solution and to form a united front against the military. Today, we have about twenty groups who have decided to to work together. And I believe that it is precisely to avoid these excesses ".
The coup d'etat provoked an unprecedented mobilization in the country, the Burmese unanimously rejecting the junta of Min Aung Hlaing.
Demonstrations take place almost daily in all cities of the country and in processions, all religions and all ages mix.
And now, a majority of ethnic groups are taking part.
"The opposition to this coup d'etat is almost visceral," explains Sophie Boisseau du Rocher.
"The Burmese had already suffered a lot from the fifty years of military rule where the country was isolated and impoverished. The last ten years seemed like a window and even if everything, far from it, was not settled, the future seemed to go away. in the right direction. With the coup, it darkens again. "
"The army has now understood that there is real resistance to the coup," continues the researcher, who recalls that the primary objective of the military "is to control the federal process underway in the country".
Upon coming to power in 2016, Aung San Suu Kyi pledged to lead the country, plagued by ethnic conflicts since its independence in 1948 "on the road to national reconciliation".
In order to ease tensions between the army and ethnic groups, it planned in particular to offer ethnic groups fairly privileged access to their resources.
Raw materials that the army exploits.
"It seems that the army is currently going back on these discussions and thinking about a new constitution, with new bases for the relations between the ethnic groups, their resources and the central government", she concludes.
Despite what appears to be an attempt at appeasement, the military appeared to be preparing for new massive operations in cities and on ethnic fronts on Thursday, especially in Karen state.
In the evening, the junta had also ordered access providers to suspend wireless internet connections "until further notice".
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