A Licnese to Torture ? torture, gang rapes, and other violence.19 Despite the fact that international organizations and independent media outlets expressed evidence-based mass violations by the Myanmar military, for instance, the UN’s Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar (IIFFMM) published a comprehensive report detailing the human rights violations by the Myanmar military in Kachin State, Shan State and Rakhine State with impunity, the Myanmar military was still immune to international justice and effective actions. 10 years after political transition entered into force in 2010 through the military-drafted roadmap, the Myanmar military led by Min Aung Hlaing, the incumbent army chief and predecessor of Than Shwe, staged a coup attempt by ousting a democratically elected government led by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party, illegally detaining government leaders, senior officials of NLD and prominent politicians, activists and human rights defenders on February 1, 2021.20 The junta established by the military shortly after the illegal coup attempt claimed there was a huge “electoral fraud” in the 2020 General Elections whereby NLD won a landslide victory again, to justify the putsch.21 Initially after the illegal coup, the military junta expected peaceful protests calling for the end of the coup and reinstation of power to the civilian government would gradually fade. Despite that, the collective movement of Myanmar people demanding democracy and human rights grew in a stronger, more widespread and ubiquitous manner across the country. In response to the unprecedentedly massive public outcry, the military junta employed several forms of violence in order to impede the peaceful protests and campaigns including the civil disobedience movement (CDM), initiated by civil servants and largely followed by all kinds of labors including those working in private sectors such as the banking sector, boycott of military-linked products and services, peaceful protests and other different kinds of peaceful resistance against the coup and military junta. The atrocities of the military took many forms in killing people in different places and circumstances including peaceful protests on the roads, military raids on living communities and interrogations and police lock-ups across the country. On February 19, 2021, Mya Thwe Thwe Khaing, a 20-year-old female civilian was shot in head by police force, while participating in a peaceful protest in Naypyidaw, thus fell as the very first martyr of 2021 Spring Revolution.22 16 19 Amnesty International, We Will Destroy Everything: Military Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity in Rakhine State, Myanmar, 2018 20 “Explainer: Why did the military stage a coup in Myanmar?”, Associated Press, February 3, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/military-coup-myanmar-explained-f3e8a294e63e00509ea2865b6e5c342d (accessed June 10, 2023) 21 “Myanmar junta charges Suu Kyi with fraud during 2020 polls”, AFP, November 16, 2021, https://www. france24.com/en/live-news/20211116-myanmar-junta-charges-suu-kyi-with-fraud-during-2020-polls (accessed June 10, 2023) 22 “First Myanmar Protester Death Galvanizes Anti-Coup Demonstrators”, RFA, February 19, 2021, https://www.rfa.org/english/news/myanmar/protester-death-02192021182555.html (accessed June 10, 2023) Equality Myanmar