MYANMAR’S OPPOSITION FORMS UNITY GOVERNMENT IN WAITING
▶ New movement says it hopes to represent minority groups and banned political parties
As the protests and violence in Myanmar go on, opponents of the country’s military coup announced they were forming a national unity government.
It will include removed members of parliament, protest leaders and representatives of ethnic minorities, they said.
The opponents said their aim was to remove the military from power and restore democracy.
They hope the aspiring transitional government will gain international recognition.
Myanmar has been in crisis since a coup on February 1.
The leader of the toppled civilian government, Aung San Suu Kyi, remains in detention.
More than 700 people have been killed, according to a monitoring group.
The unity government’s minister of international co-operation, Dr Sasa, who goes by one name, said the country’s last elections should have been seen by the military as legitimate.
“We are the democratically elected leaders of Myanmar. It was a free and fair 2020 election, and it was democratic.
“So, if the free and democratic world rejects us, that means they reject democracy – it’s very simple. That means they reject the people of Myanmar.”
Dr Sasa said the objective was to end violence, restore democracy and build a “federal democratic union”.
Before the coup, Ms Suu Kyi’s government had held power for five years and was starting its second term, after a landslide election victory in November last year.
The generals justified their takeover by making accusations of election fraud, a claim the electoral commission dismissed.
Western powers imposed sanctions on the military, though the generals have a long record of dismissing what they see as outside interference.
This could well be the message of junta leader Gen Min Aung Hlaing when he joins a summit in Jakarta next week.
The meeting of the 10-country bloc the Association of Southeast Asian Nations is expected to address the ongoing crisis in post-coup Myanmar, and will be held in Jakarta on Saturday.
But Asean has increasingly opposed the actions of the junta as the death toll has mounted.
The country’s prisons released more than 23,000 prisoners nationwide yesterday.
Myanmar typically grants an annual amnesty to mark the Buddhist New Year holiday, which in previous years were joyous affairs celebrated with city-wide water fights.
But this year, anti-coup activists used the holiday as an opportunity to demonstrate against mass arrests and the growing death toll.
A prison official earlier told AFP news agency jails across the country would start to free more than 23,000 people.
“We will release more than 800 prisoners from Insein prison,” he said.
The jail is in Yangon, Myanmar’s commercial heart and largest city.
In February, the junta released a similar number of prisoners.
At the time, some rights groups said they feared the move was to free space for opponents of the military and cause chaos in communities.
The junta also issued nightly arrest warrants on state-run media for celebrities, influencers, journalists and prominent activists with many followers on social media.
By Friday night, the tally of arrest warrants for high-profile figures had reached 380.
Jails released thousands of prisoners yesterday in the annual amnesty for Buddhist New Year