By Moe Nya / MPA
YANGON — Myanmar citizens have flooded the US Embassy’s social media pages with calls for Washington to arrest Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, drawing parallels to recent US actions against the Venezuelan leadership.
The surge in online activism coincided with Myanmar’s Independence Day on 4 January. Protesters and netizens are urging the international community to take decisive action against the military council leader for crimes including airstrikes on civilians, mass killings, and alleged genocide.
The campaign gained momentum following recent US legal moves and arrest warrants targeting Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Myanmar activists are now demanding similar accountability for the junta chief, who seized power in a 2021 coup.
“We hope the US and the international community will move swiftly to arrest Min Aung Hlaing, who is killing his own people, just as they did with the dictator Maduro,” read a widely shared comment on the embassy’s page.
Public anger has been further fueled by the junta’s enforcement of a mandatory conscription law and its plans to hold what critics describe as “sham” elections to maintain a grip on power.
Political analysts argue that the situation in Myanmar should no longer be viewed as a conventional civil war or a conflict between two balanced factions.
“What we are seeing is a ‘People’s Revolution’ where the entire nation is united in its opposition to military rule,” one analyst noted.
An activist involved in the movement told MPA: “We don’t just want international sympathy. We need practical action and the arrest of war criminals who are killing innocent civilians daily.”
The youth-led activist group OCTOPUS has been encouraging citizens to use their collective voice on social media to highlight the “ground reality” of Myanmar to US officials and the global community.
“Using real accounts to speak directly to US State Department officials through the embassy page is a strategically effective political move,” a political observer said. “Every citizen who opposes the dictatorship should participate.”
In its Independence Day statement, the US Embassy in Yangon reaffirmed that the United States “stands with the people of Myanmar.”
However, activists warn that the junta’s continued existence poses a broader threat. An activist currently taking refuge in Mae Sot, on the Thai-Myanmar border, highlighted the link between the military council and transnational crime.
“Unless Min Aung Hlaing and his associates are neutralized, the ‘Kyat-Phant’ (online scam) syndicates operating in Myanmar and the region will never be eradicated,” the activist said. “Like a cancer, these criminal networks will eventually erode international security. That is why the entire group must face justice.”
