Myanmar’s UN ambassador fired after anti-coup speech as military action against protesters escalates

Myanmar has seen 21 consecutive days of protests since the country’s army took power during a February 1 coup that ousted the democratically elected government of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who, along with other government leaders, including President Win Myint, detained, expelled.

“We need the strongest possible action of the international community to end the military coup immediately, to oppress the innocent people, to return the state power to the people and to restore democracy,” he said.

Kyaw Moe Tun said he was delivering the speech on behalf of the Suu Kyi government, which achieved a landslide in the November 8 election.

In evidence of defiance, the ambassador also flashed the three-fingered “Hunger Games” salute used by protesters in the streets of Myanmar and adopted from recent protests in neighboring Thailand.

The diplomat received a rare round of applause from his UN colleagues at the end of the speech. The new US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, praised the envoy’s “courageous” remarks.

“The United States continues to strongly condemn the military coup in Myanmar,” she said on Friday as she addressed the meeting. “And we condemn the brutal killing of unarmed people by the security forces.”

Thomas-Greenfield added that the US “will continue to provide life-saving humanitarian aid, including to Rohingya and other vulnerable populations in the states of Chin, Kachin, Rakhine and Shan.”

“The world should applaud Representative Kyaw Moe Tun for delivering such a powerful statement on behalf of the people of Myanmar, not the illegal military junta,” Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, said in a statement on Friday. statement said.

“The international community must support the will of the people of Myanmar by recognizing the CRPH and refusing to legitimize, normalize or cooperate with the military government.”

The activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), said security forces in towns and cities across the country fired tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and fired their guns into the air to disperse protesters.

According to Reuters, a woman was allegedly shot and wounded in the central city of Monywa, citing local media and an emergency worker.

In Yangon’s largest city, police fired tear gas and flashlights to break up a group of protesters representing Myanmar’s ethnic groups. Protesters threatened police with insults before the disruption, a witness told CNN. When the group dispersed, police chased the neighborhood.

In a village on the outskirts of the capital Naypyidaw, riot police used tear gas grenades and fired rubber bullets into the air to disperse hundreds of protesters.

AAPP said it had documented 854 people who had been arrested, charged or sentenced since the February 1 coup. However, the group noted that “hundreds of people” were arrested in Yangon and other places on Saturday.