YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Large crowds protesting against the military takeover in Myanmar on Wednesday defied a ban on protests again, even after security forces increased the use of force against them and the headquarters of the deposed political party leader Aung San Suu struck Kyi.
Witnesses estimate that tens of thousands of protesters, if not more, showed up in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s largest cities. Meetings also took place in the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere.
The protesters are demanding that power be restored to Suu Kyi’s ousted civilian government. They are also seeking freedom for her and other ruling party members, as the military detained them after they blocked the new session of Parliament on 1 February.
‘As part of Generation Z, we choose first. This is also the first time we are protesting, ‘said one student, who declined to comment for fear of harassment. ‘They have denied our votes, and that’s completely unfair. We do not want it. We hope they release our leaders and implement a true democracy. ”
The military says it acted because the November election, which won Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in a landslide, was unremarkable. The Electoral Commission refuted the allegation.
Some protesters in Yangon have gathered at foreign embassies to seek international pressure against the coup.
A small group outside the Japanese embassy held signs and chanted: “We want democracy, we get dictators!” They sat in several children’s baths, three or less per pool, in a tongue-in-cheek manner to show that it complied with an emergency law banning gatherings of more than five people.
Others marched through the city singing and waving the flags of Suu Kyi’s party.
Another group dragged a fake coffin as part of a mock funeral for senior general Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief who is the country’s new leader.
Civil servants in many areas risked their jobs to march with the protesters, and even some police turned their backs on the opposition. In a dramatic video shot Wednesday in a small town in the state of Kayah in eastern Myanmar, a group of 42 policemen declared their allegiance to the ousted elected government and the requests of a senior officer to return to service again, resist. Locals flocked to their side to fend off any attempt to arrest them.
The head of the UN International Labor Organization, Guy Ryder, urged Myanmar’s military leaders’ to ensure that workers and employers are able to exercise their freedom of association rights in a climate of complete freedom and security, free from violence and threats. ‘
“I call on the military to immediately remove orders restricting meetings of more than five people, to stop the suppression of dissenting voices and full respect for workers’ fundamental and human rights and freedoms,” Ryder said. “I call on military leaders to ensure that no workers, including civil servants, are detained, intimidated or harassed for participating in peaceful demonstrations.”
The emerging protests and the latest raid by the junta indicate that there is little room for reconciliation. The military, which ruled directly for five decades after a coup in 1962, used deadly force to destroy a massive uprising in 1988 and an uprising in 2007 led by Buddhist monks.
Police sprayed water cannons Naypyitaw and Mandalay Tuesday and warning shots fired to try to remove protesters. According to witnesses and footage on social media, they fired rubber bullets and apparently live rounds in Naypyitaw, wounding a female protester. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Human Rights Watch quoted a doctor at a Naypyitaw hospital as saying the woman was in a critical condition. The doctor said the woman had a projectile in her head, believed to be a bullet that penetrated the back of her right ear, and that it had lost significant brain function. The doctor said a man was also treated with a torso wound similar to that of live ammunition.
The state television network MRTV aired scenes in one of its few reports on Tuesday night about the protest scenes, which they said showed the protesters were responsible for the violence.
“Police in Myanmar must immediately end the use of excessive and lethal force,” the watchdog in New York insisted.
No major incidents were reported in connection with the large turnout during Wednesday’s rally in Mandalay. Social media users said 82 people arrested were released due to the work of local lawyers.
Medical students and staff, lawyers and Buddhist monks were among a large cross-section of residents marching in Mandalay, but the most social media excitement was generated by a contingent of shirtless muscular men with well-defined six-packs who were allegedly members of a fitness gym.
Yangon’s most photogenic marchers were a group of young women dressed in formal gowns that were more suitable for a wedding reception.
The army stormed the national headquarters of Suu Kyi’s party on Tuesday night, which was taken over before the rule for the second term in five years.
Kyi Toe, a spokesman for the party, wrote on Facebook that the army had broken into the headquarters in Yangon and another office and taken away documents and computer hardware. The headquarters was closed on Wednesday.
U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered new sanctions, saying he had issued an executive order that would prevent the Myanmar generals from having access to $ 1 billion in assets in the United States. Biden added that more measures are coming.
“The army must relinquish the power it has seized and show respect for the will of the people of Burma,” he said.
A day earlier, the US had “strongly” condemned the violence against protesters.
“We reiterate our call for the military to relinquish power, restore the democratically elected government, release those detained and lift all telecommunications restrictions, and to refrain from violence,” Ned Price said. .
New Zealand has suspended all military and high-level political contact with Myanmar, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced in Wellington, adding that any New Zealand aid may not go to or benefit from the Myanmar military government.
The UN Human Rights Council, the 47-member body in Geneva, is holding a special session on Friday to consider “the human rights implications of the Myanmar crisis”.
Britain and the European Union were at the forefront of the request for the session, which amounts to a striking public debate among diplomats over the situation in Myanmar and could lead to a resolution expressing concern about the situation or recommending international action.