Brunei calls for Asean meeting on Myanmar
YANGON: Protesters in Myanmar clapped together on Monday in the latest show of dissent against the military junta, as a regional bloc prepared for talks on the crisis that has reportedly killed nearly 600 people so far.
Brunei, chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), threw its support on Monday behind a regional leaders’ meeting to discuss the crisis in Myanmar.
The statement followed a meeting between Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah on Monday. No date was given for the Asean meeting.
Meanwhile, clapping began in various parts of the main city Yangon at 5pm in response to a call by protest organisers, residents said. The gesture would honour “Ethnic Armed Organisations and Gen Z defence youths from Myanmar including Yangon who are fighting in the revolution... on behalf of us”, Ei Thinzar Maung, a protest leader, posted on Facebook.
Despite the rising number of deaths from crackdowns since the February 1 coup, protesters have been coming out every day, often in small groups in various towns, voicing opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the onset of military rule.
On Monday, one person was killed in the central Sagaing region when security forces broke up a protest, the Myanmar Now news outlet reported.
Earlier, demonstrators with placards of Suu Kyi and signs calling for international intervention marched through the second-biggest city Mandalay, images posted on social media showed.