Myanmar protesters burn army uniforms
YANGON: Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Myanmar’s biggest city Yangon on Thursday, seting fire to an army uniform and chanting calls for democracy five months ater a military coup ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The protest was one of the biggest in Yangon in recent weeks, although demonstrations against the army take place daily in many parts of the Southeast Asian country.
“What do we want? Democracy! Democracy!” protesters chanted as they ran through the streets with colourful smoke flares.
“For the people! For the people,” they shouted, according to video published by Reuters.
They set an army uniform ablaze before dispersing. On Wednesday, the army freed more than 2,000 prisoners, most them detained since the coup.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group says more than 6,400 people have been arrested since the coup.
It puts the death toll at more than 880, a number the military says is exaggerated.
Meanwhile, a court on Thursday extended the pretrial detention of Danny Fenster, a US journalist employed by an online news magazine in Myanmar, who was arrested in May on an incitement charge that carries a penalty of up to three years’ imprisonment.
Fenster, who is the managing editor of Frontier Myanmar, was detained at Yangon International Airport on May 24 as he was trying to board a flight to go to the Detroit area in the United States to see his family.
Fenster’s lawyer, Than Zaw Aung, said that the 37-year-old journalist was in good health but appeared to have lost some weight at Thursday’s hearing at the special court at Yangon’s Insein Prison, where he is being held.
He asked that his wife send him medicine and food.
Two consular officials from the US Embassy also atended the hearing, the lawyer said.
The next hearing is scheduled for July 15, but the case will not come to trial then because the court has too many cases backed up, he said.
“The Myanmar junta’s continued detention of journalist Danny Fenster is outrageous and unacceptable. Independent reporting of what’s happening on the ground in Myanmar should not be considered a crime,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in an emailed statement.