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

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. At least 21 staffers across multiple regions — including Kyaw Moe Tun — have decided they won’t cooperate with the military-controlled foreign ministry. Instead, they are quietly using their connections and relative safety abroad to counter messaging from Myanmar’s military. To many of their former colleagues, they are defectors — people who have turned their backs on duty and the chain of command. Several diplomats who spoke to CNN insisted they are actually loyalists to the democratic government that was overthrown in February.The issue is getting other countries to see them that way.They have already had a win — the United Nations has allowed Kyaw Moe Tun to retain his seat and rejected a military-approved replacement. That makes him the only openly anti-coup Myanmar diplomat to remain in office.That alone won’t be enough. Myanmar’s military rulers could try again to replace him at any time — and the longer the military remains in power, the harder it will be for underground diplomats to secure international recognition.A military coupIn Berlin, Chaw Kalyar, 49, had stayed up late to watch Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) government be sworn in.The NLD had been reelected in a landslide vote last year and February 1 was meant to be the day parliament opened. Instead, the country woke up to find men in green military uniform swarming the capital Naypyidaw. Television channels went black. In the days to come, members of Suu Kyi’s government would be hunted down or arrested.It was heartbreaking, said Chaw Kalyar, third secretary at the Berlin Embassy. As a 16-year-old, she had joined the country’s historic 1988 protests against military rule, and seen friends killed in the ensuing government crackdown. She joined the foreign ministry more than 23 years ago, when Myanmar was under another brutal military dictatorship. When February’s coup unfolded, Chaw Kalyar immediately knew she could not cooperate with the military junta — she remembered how much people had suffered. “We could not just sit by this time,” she said.As she talked with other embassy staffers in Berlin about publicly supporting the burgeoning civil disobedience movement, Chaw Kalyar was cautious that others in the embassy may support the military.’);$vidEndSlate.removeClass(‘video__end-slate–inactive’).addClass(‘video__end-slate–active’);}};CNN.autoPlayVideoExist = (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === true) ? true : false;var configObj = {thumb: ‘none’,video: ‘business/2021/02/03/myanmar-exercise-video-coup-moos-vpx.cnn’,width: ‘100%’,height: ‘100%’,section: ‘international’,profile: ‘expansion’,network: ‘cnn’,markupId: ‘body-text_19’,theoplayer: {allowNativeFullscreen: true},adsection: ‘const-article-inpage’,frameWidth: ‘100%’,frameHeight: ‘100%’,posterImageOverride: {“mini”:{“width”:220,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-small-169.jpg”,”height”:124},”xsmall”:{“width”:307,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-medium-plus-169.jpg”,”height”:173},”small”:{“width”:460,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-large-169.jpg”,”height”:259},”medium”:{“width”:780,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-exlarge-169.jpg”,”height”:438},”large”:{“width”:1100,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-super-169.jpg”,”height”:619},”full16x9″:{“width”:1600,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-full-169.jpg”,”height”:900},”mini1x1″:{“width”:120,”type”:”jpg”,”uri”:”//cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210202205434-exercise-video-myanmar-coup-small-11.jpg”,”height”:120}}},autoStartVideo = false,isVideoReplayClicked = false,callbackObj,containerEl,currentVideoCollection = [],currentVideoCollectionId = ”,isLivePlayer = false,mediaMetadataCallbacks,mobilePinnedView = null,moveToNextTimeout,mutePlayerEnabled = false,nextVideoId = ”,nextVideoUrl = ”,turnOnFlashMessaging = false,videoPinner,videoEndSlateImpl;if (CNN.autoPlayVideoExist === false) {autoStartVideo = false;autoStartVideo = typeof CNN.isLoggedInVideoCheck === ‘function’ ? 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the military chiefs put in place a plan that would permit the country to hold elections, liberalize the economy, and transition into a semi-democracy while still maintaining their authority. Suu Kyi’s NLD election win in 2020 was only the second democratic election held since direct military rule ended. The party appeared to be leading the country, but in reality the military remained a powerful force. The diplomats and embassy staff who denounced the coup were resisting a return to past repression. Chaw Kalyar knew that if she spoke out against the coup, and the movement against the junta was unsuccessful, she would likely never be able to go home. Despite the risks, she decided to act. “It’s like all our life has endured this military dictatorship,” she said. “We have to join this movement, and we think this movement can bring down this military coup, and we can finally eradicate this military brutality.”

“We think this movement can bring down this military coup, and we can finally eradicate this military brutality.”Chaw Kalyar

Thet Htar Mya Yee San, 29, a junior diplomat at the Myanmar embassy in Washington, remembers an emotional conversation with like-minded diplomats in two European cities. Although she was on her first foreign assignment, she and other young diplomats decided they should “give up everything” to support the civil disobedience movement or CDM, which has seen people across Myanmar stop going to work to prevent the country from operating as normal under its new de facto rulers.But isolated in foreign countries, fearful for their families at home and uncertain of what would come next, they didn’t take action immediately. That would come after a key moment a few weeks later.A symbolic gestureOn February 26, Kyaw Moe Tun left his office in Manhattan’s Upper West Side with two statements to give to the United Nations — one prepared and approved by the military junta, the other he’d secretly written himself. When it was his turn to address the 193-member UN General Assembly, Kyaw Moe Tun made a shocking break from diplomatic norms, raising the three-finger salute — a gesture from the “Hunger Games” films adopted by the resistance movement in Myanmar — and calling for the world to restore democracy in his country using “any means necessary.””In addition to the existing support, we need for the strongest possible action from the international community, to immediately end the military coup to stop oppressing the innocent people, to return the state power to the people, and to restore the democracy,” said the 27-year veteran of Myanmar’s foreign service, whose default expression is a gentle smile. After his statement, military leaders in Naypyidaw contacted Kyaw Moe Tun’s staff in the UN Mission, telling them not to engage with the rogue ambassador, he told CNN. Of the 14 workers at the New York mission, five would soon quit and return to Myanmar.The following day, he says, the military dismissed him from his post — and sent a notice to every Myanmar embassy around the world instructing them to shun him.But it was too late. News of his speech rippled through Myanmar embassies and consulates. The fallout forced the UN to choose between allowing him to remain at the body or accepting the credentials of a new representative put forward by the military — an act that would have signaled acceptance of the coup.The UN chose to back Kyaw Moe Tun, even though the civilian government that appointed him is now largely in detention or in hiding. And around the world, his speech was inspiring others.In Berlin, Chaw Kalyar couldn’t hold back tears. Days later, on March 4, she and two of her six consular colleagues announced on Facebook they were joining the resistance movement. “If we fail, we won’t be able to go back home … but we cannot carry out their work,” she wrote. More than 10,000 people liked her post. Six days later, she was fired for insubordination.
Chaw Kalyar, the third secretary at the Myanmar Embassy in Berlin, announced on Facebook on March 4 that she was joining the revolution.
In Washington, Thet Htar Mya Yee San had already decided to quit her job. She didn’t want to send documents on behalf of the military to Congress or the State Department, as she had done for the democratically-elected government. Kyaw Moe Tun’s speech emboldened her. “All CDM diplomats started thinking that we could do something. We can contribute to something and we can be helpful to this pro-democracy movement,” she said.At the end of April, she wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post, explaining why she refused to recognize the military as Myanmar’s leaders.

“Normally, diplomats are representing the government outside the country. But we don’t recognize it as our legitimate government, because it kills its own people.”Thet Htar Mya Yee San

“Normally, diplomats are representing the government outside the country. But we don’t recognize it as our legitimate government, because it kills its own people,” she said. CNN has requested comment from Myanmar’s military.Thet Htar Mya Yee San was dismissed on May 4. She says she hasn’t spoken to her father since she declared her support for the pro-democracy cause — she believes he’s angry with her for getting caught up in the struggle. Both have now joined the dispersed network of so-called “CDM diplomats,” led by Kyaw Moe Tun, which is working to keep foreign governments informed of the country’s ongoing resistance movement and of alleged human rights violations within the country.They are also pushing their foreign counterparts to recognize the nascent National Unity Government of Myanmar or NUG — a shadow cabinet formed from the ashes of Suu Kyi’s government, which seeks to restore civilian leadership in the country.How Myanmar’s parallel government worksKyaw Moe Tun’s unique toehold at the United Nations offers a potentially invaluable opening for NUG as it pushes for international recognition, in the same way Venezuela’s opposition movement has been globally recognized — though, so far, with little success.The NUG has said it wants to remove the junta, restore democracy and rebuild the country to create a better place for everyone, regardless of their ethnicity. It appears to have broad support within Myanmar, but some — including several armies representing Myanmar’s ethnic groups — are skeptical.For decades, the country’s myriad ethnic minorities have been persecuted by successive military governments, subjected to state-sanctioned discrimination, conflict, land grabs, and human rights abuses. That did not stop when Suu Kyi’s NLD came to power.Suu Kyi was internationally condemned for her response to the military’s campaign of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya Muslim community in western Rakhine state in 2016 and 2017 that forced almost 1 million people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh. The military claimed it was targeting terrorists, and in 2019, Suu Kyi defended its actions at the International Court of Justice against allegations of genocide. The NLD government refused to even recognize the term “Rohingya” and continued to deny the group citizenship, effectively making them stateless. Representing Suu Kyi’s government in November 2020, Kyaw Moe Tun himself publicly rejected a UN draft resolution on human rights for the Rohingya.Today, there is no Rohingya representative in the NUG, a fact that is increasingly proving to be an obstacle in its search for recognition abroad. During a May 2021 hearing of the US House Committee on Foreign Affairs, California Representative Ted Lieu said he could not support the NUG — and would oppose its recognition — over its failure to represent the Rohingya.