Myanmar regime escalates surveillance and cracks down on Aung San symbols ahead of Martyrs’ Day

The regime in Naypyidaw has ordered heightened surveillance and a crackdown on public commemorations ahead of Myanmar’s 79th Martyrs’ Day on July 19.

According to sources within the regime’s General Administration Department (GAD) under the Ministry of Home Affairs, officials have been instructed to tightly monitor public spaces and online activity to prevent any anti-regime demonstrations or flash mob protests.

The date holds immense historical weight in Myanmar, marking the July 19, 1947 assassination of independence hero General Aung San—the father of jailed State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi—alongside seven other pre-independence cabinet members and a security guard.

A crackdown on commemorations

For decades, the public holiday has been a focal point for national mourning and, increasingly, pro-democracy sentiment. In response, the regime is deploying an array of tactics to suppress any public displays of reverence:

• Undercover Operations: “Soldiers, police and administration officials will be deployed at public spaces and road junctions in plainclothes,” an official inside Yangon Region’s Mingalardon Township regime administration told DVB on the condition of anonymity.

• Digital Monitoring: The source confirmed that authorities will also be actively monitoring social media comments and posts for dissenting viewpoints or calls to protest.

• Targeting Traditions: In a micro-level crackdown on tradition, ward administrators have been instructed to specifically monitor households that distribute boiled peas and flatbread to passersby. This simple meal was reportedly a favorite of General Aung San and is traditionally shared on Martyrs’ Day as a tribute to his humble lifestyle.

Meanwhile, Aung San Suu Kyi remains held incommunicado by the regime in Naypyidaw. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has been barred from her traditional practice of paying tribute to her father at the Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon every July 19 since the military coup on February 1, 2021.

The broader campaign of erasure

Activists argue the surveillance on Martyrs’ Day is part of a much broader, systematic campaign orchestrated by regime leader Min Aung Hlaing to entirely erase General Aung San’s legacy and dismantle symbols of the pro-democracy movement.

• Statue Demolitions: DVB has documented that at least 16 statues of General Aung San have been removed or destroyed nationwide since the 2021 coup. In early July, regime authorities demolished statues in Yangon’s South Okkalapa and Thaketa townships, reportedly cutting power to the areas and deploying heavy machinery under the cover of darkness.

• Regime’s Defense: Regime spokesperson Khaing Khaing Soe claimed on July 10 that the statues were not being banned, but rather, “substandard” statues with “incorrect proportions and shapes” were being removed under the Protection and Preservation of Ancient Monuments Law (1962).

• Legal Pushback: The Burma Lawyers’ Council (BLC) has challenged the regime’s defense, telling DVB that Khaing Khaing Soe’s claims “lack legal clarity,” as she failed to provide any objective criteria used to deem a statue “substandard.”

• Targeting the NLD: The campaign extends beyond statues. In June, authorities stripped National League for Democracy (NLD) symbols from the party’s headquarters and removed a portrait of Aung San from the exterior walls of 54 University Avenue in Yangon—the historic family residence where Suu Kyi spent 15 years under house arrest.

As the regime continues its aggressive campaign to rewrite the nation’s history, the heavy surveillance ahead of Martyrs’ Day underscores its fear of the enduring power of General Aung San’s image.