The Swiss Peace Council, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary next year, publishes a peace calendar annually with tear-off postcards and international peace dates. The 2020 peace calendar, which was published at the end of October and marks the 24th edition of the calendar, includes 12 postcards featuring topics relating to Myanmar. Board Member Francine Perret visited the country back in 1993 shortly after it opened its borders: “We discovered an Asia that had otherwise been long lost – ox carts on the street where only the sounds of cyclists ringing their bells could be heard, colorfully dressed women and men in their lungis, and only very few tourists. It was a secret world and a land for travelers with the spirit of discovery – a country in which time had stopped still.” In spring 2019, she traveled to the country for a second time. In 2011, the government had initiated democratic reforms, which was reason enough for Perret to travel to the country once again and take lots of photos.

To mark the release of the 2020 peace calendar on Myanmar, the September 2019 edition of the Peace Council’s PEACE MAGAZINE (edition no. 30) focused on this topic. In this edition, you can find critical background reports on the current situation in Myanmar, including in the article ‘Ein Land, drei Namen und zwei konträre Sichtweisen: Myanmar – Unrechtsstaat oder Shangri La?’ (‘One country, three names and two opposing points of view: Myanmar – an illegitimate state or Shangri La?’), or in ‘Krieg in den Köpfen und auf dem Schlachtfeld: Der andauernde Unfrieden in Myanmar hat sehr tiefe Wurzeln’ (‘War of the minds and out in the field: the ongoing tension in Myanmar has very deep roots.’) The articles are completed with a report by Georg Winterberger, Executive Director of the Department of Social Anthropology at the University of Zurich, on a research project to secure livelihoods in Myanmar.