MYANMAR JUNTA FIRES ENVOY AS COUP PROTESTS CONTINUE

Myanmar’s month-old military regime fired the country’s ambassador to the United Nations on Saturday, a day after he gave an impassioned speech to the U.N. General Assembly in Geneva, pleading for international help in restoring democracy to his homeland.

The ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, ended his speech with a three-finger salute, a gesture from the “Hunger Games” films that has become a symbol of prodemocratic defiance for protesters in Myanmar and, before that, in neighboring Thailand.

State television announced his firing, saying he had “betrayed the country and spoken for an unofficial organization which doesn’t represent the country and had abused the power and responsibilities of an ambassador.”

Kyaw Moe Tun’s speech buoyed Myanmar’s pro-democracy movement, which has held protests every day since Feb. 1, when the military took control of the country in a coup, and has broadened into a civil disobedience movement with hundreds of thousands of people walking off their jobs.

Kyaw Moe Tun was appointed under the civilian government that had shared power with the military before the coup, and was outside Myanmar when the coup took place.

In his speech before the U.N. he defied the new military rulers and urged the world body “to use any means necessary to take action against the Myanmar military” and bring back democracy.

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

He said he was speaking on behalf of the ousted civilian government, which was headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained since the morning of the coup.

Before the ambassador’s firing, Antony Blinken, the United States secretary of state, tweeted praise for what he called a “courageous and clear” speech from Kyaw Moe Tun.

“We must all heed their call to restore democracy in Burma,” he said of the protesters, referring to Myanmar by its former name.

Meanwhile, protests were again held Saturday across Myanmar. There were arrests Saturday in Myanmar’s two biggest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, where demonstrators have been hitting the streets daily to peacefully demand the restoration of the government of Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy party won a landslide election victory in November. Police have increasingly been enforcing an order by the junta banning gatherings of five or more people.

Many other cities and towns have also hosted large protests against the Feb. 1 coup.

Police in Dawei, in the southeast, and Monywa, 85 miles northwest of Mandalay, used force against protesters. Both cities, with populations of less then 200,000 each, have been seeing large demonstrations.

Social media carried unconfirmed reports of a protester shot dead in Monywa. The reports could not immediately be independently confirmed but appeared credible, with both photos and identification of the victim, though later accounts said the woman had not died. The reports from Monywa also said dozens or more people were arrested.

SAI AUNG MAIN AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES Police arrest people in Yangon, Myanmar, on Saturday as protesters were taking part in a demonstration against the military coup. Dozens were arrested at protests across the country as police orders intended to curb the demonstrations.