Reporter freed as ralliers seek foreign intervention
YANGON, Myanmar — The BBC said Monday that a journalist from its Burmeselanguage service was released by authorities in Myanmar as protesters in the Southeast Asian nation continued their broad civil disobedience movement against last month’s military coup.
The journalist, Aung Thura, was detained on March 19 by men who appeared to be plainclothes security agents while reporting outside a court in the capital of Naypyitaw.
Arrests of media workers have been part of the junta’s intensifying efforts to choke off information about resistance to the Feb. 1 coup. Some 40 journalists have been arrested since the coup, half of whom are still in detention, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners group.
Gunfire rang out repeatedly on Monday in the secondbiggest city, Mandalay, as security forces clashed with protesters. Some demonstrators set up road barricades and burned piles of debris to provide cover from live ammunition.
Unconfirmed reports and photographs posted on social media suggested several protesters were killed and there were numerous injuries. The violence followed a night when bursts of heavy machinegun fire echoed through the city.
On Monday, lawmakers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations urged regional leaders to meet and devise a “strong and decisive response” to increased violence against protesters by Myanmar’s military. The lawmakers urged the 10nation bloc to send a delegation alongside the U.N. special envoy to Myanmar to help negotiate a “democratic and human rightsbased solution.”
ASEAN has a policy of noninterference in each other’s affairs, but some regional leaders have rebuked the violence and urged restraint in Myanmar.
“The Myanmar army is killing people every day. Statements are welcome, but are useless against the military’s bullets,” said Charles Santiago, a Malaysian lawmaker who heads the ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights group.
Since the military seized power, many citizens from teachers to doctors, traders and railway workers have joined a civil disobedience movement that uses widespread boycotts, strikes and other actions in an attempt to force a return to a civilian government.
The junta has responded with an increasingly brutal crackdown and sought to limit information reaching the outside world. Security forces have opened fire on crowds and killed hundreds, internet access has been severely restricted, private newspapers have been barred from publishing, and protesters, journalists and politicians have been arrested in large numbers.
Protesters on Monday released hundreds of red balloons in Myanmar’s biggest city, Yangon, in support of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was ousted in the coup and detained. Many wore red shirts, the color of her National League for Democracy party.
Protesters have called for foreign intervention to aid them under the doctrine of Responsibility to Protect — also known as R2P — devised to deal with matters such as genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.