tirsdag 29. juni 2021

The junta overthrew the government they represented. What happens next for Myanmar's diplomats in limbo?

In a beige stone townhouse on a leafy New York street, a political coup thousands of miles away has split an office in two. Downstairs in the dimly lit building, staffers at Myanmar's Permanent Mission to the United Nations receive orders from the military junta, which overthrew the country's elected government on February 1

Upstairs, charismatic ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun is leading what is effectively an underground diplomatic corps, part of an attempt to wrestle back control of the country. His conference room is decorated with portraits of a long line of his military-aligned predecessors, reminders of what he's up against.
Staffers at Myanmar's dozens of diplomatic posts around the world have been faced with a predicament since the coup. Stay in their roles and be forced to represent the military junta that has killed hundreds of pro-democracy protesters and locked up the democratically elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Speak out and risk being fired and placing themselves and their families in Myanmar in danger.