Tatmadaw: Myanmar's notoriously brutal military

Since it overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically elected government in a coup one year ago, Myanmar's military - known as the Tatmadaw - has gone on to shock the world by killing hundreds of its own civilians, including dozens of children, in a brutal crackdown on protesters.

For Myanmar's citizens, it has been a year of indiscriminate street killings and bloody village raids. Most recently in December 2021, a BBC investigation discovered the Tatmadaw carried out a series of attacks that involved the torture and mass murder of opponents. More than 1,500 people have been killed by security forces since the coup in February 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma).

But how did the Tatmadaw become so powerful and why is it so brutal?

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