Flash marches defy junta takeover in Myanmar
Explosions rocked Myanmar’s largest city Yangon on Saturday as protesters held flash marches for democracy, defying a junta that has held onto power for three months.
The country has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, bringing an abrupt end to Myanmar’s short-lived experiment with democracy. As Myanmar entered its fourth month under military rule on Saturday, protesters in commercial hub Yangon - an epicentre of unrest with a heavy security presence - staged flash demonstrations, marching rapidly through the streets to avoid confrontation with police and soldiers.
The lightning-quick pace of the protests is “so that people will have time to disappear when the security forces come, or else they would die or get arrested”, said student activist Min Han Htet.
In Yangon’s Insein township, a bomb blast went off around 10am. By afternoon, two more blasts went off in Yankin township. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing