Myanmar protesters back on the streets, confront police
YANGON: Large crowds demonstrating against the military takeover in Myanmar again defied a ban on protests on Wednesday, even after security forces ratcheted up the use of force against them and raided the headquarters of the political party of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Witnesses estimated that tens of thousands of protesters, if not more, turned out in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s biggest cities. Anti-military rallies also took place in the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere.
The protesters are demanding that power be restored to Suu Kyi’s deposed civilian government. They’re also seeking freedom for her and other governing party members since the military detained them after blocking the new session of parliament on February 1.
“As part of Generation Z, we are first-time voters. This is our first time to protest as well,” said one student who declined to give her name for fear of harassment.
“They negated our votes and this is totally unfair. We do not want that. We hope they release our leaders and implement a real democracy.”
The military says it acted because November’s election, which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won in a landslide, were marred by irregularities. The election commission had refuted the allegation.
Some demonstrators in Yangon 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 wading pools, three or fewer per pool, in what appeared to be a tongue-incheek way of showing compliance with an emergency law that bans gatherings of more than five people. Others marched through the city, chanting and waving flags of Suu Kyi’s party.
Another group hauled a fake coffin as part of a mock funeral for Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief who is the country’s new leader.
The burgeoning protests and the junta’s latest raid suggest there is little room for reconciliation. The military, which ruled directly for five decades after a 1962 coup, used deadly force to quash a massive 1988 uprising and a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks.
In Naypyitaw and Mandalay on Tuesday, police sprayed water cannons and fired warning shots to try to clear away protesters. In Naypyitaw, they shot rubber bullets and apparently live rounds, wounding a woman protester, according to witnesses and footage on social media. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Human Rights Watch cited a doctor at a Naypyitaw hospital as saying that the woman was in critical condition. The doctor said the woman had a projectile lodged in her head, which is believed to be a bullet that had penetrated the back of the right ear, and had lost significant brain function.
The doctor said a man had been also been treated with an upper body wound consistent with that of live ammunition.