Pro-Democracy Violence: Myanmar’s Anti-Regime Movement SYNOPSIS COMMENTARY Trends, Targets and Strategies

The authors’ views are their own and do not represent the official position of the S. [...] While the government-in-exile ─ the ‘National Unity Government’ (NUG) ─ claims ownership of these militias, the reality is that there is little centralised coordination between the groups, resulting in a wide variation of modus operandi. [...] While some in the anti-regime movement might justify such ‘grey-area’ collateral due to the victims’ continued association with regime-affiliated family members or workplaces, it does raise questions over the extent to which these spouses, children and workers are able to disassociate from the targets. [...] However, given that PDFs have admitted to causing collateral casualties in at least 35 of the remaining 179 incidents, and that the attacks do result in significant disruption to the regime’s daily operations, it is likely that a substantial portion of the 831 unclaimed incidents are indeed carried out by the anti-regime groups. [...] The variation in tactics by PDFs, the nuances of how collateral casualties are defined, and the murky justifications of attacks highlight the growing complexity of the anti- regime movement in Myanmar.