The military junta in Myanmar is not fit to govern. Mounting resistance to its overthrow of Myanmar’s lawfully elected government shows that the public neither supports the military nor is cowed by its brutal and murderous tactics.

The government’s response has been to warn protestors that they could be shot “in the back and the back of the head.” That is not an idle threat: The nationwide death toll has surpassed 500 and more than 2,500 people have been detained. The coup and the junta must be condemned and punished.

Gen. Min Aung Mlaing, head of the Tatmadaw (Myanmar’s military), overthrew the lawfully elected government Feb. 1, charging that the November 2020 national elections were flawed. The landslide win for the National League of Democracy (NLD), which had ruled in partnership with the Tatmadaw, surprised military officials. Min Aung Mlaing concluded that the loss ended his hopes of becoming president, which would end his patronage networks. The military rightly worried that the scale of the win could also allow the NLD to rewrite the constitution, ending protections that had been built in to protect military power and privileges.