MYANMAR AWASH IN RED PAINT AS ‘BLEEDING STRIKE’ HONORS DEAD
YANGON—Anticoup protesters in Myanmar sloshed red paint in the streets on Wednesday to symbolize the blood spilled and more than 700 lives lost in a brutal military crackdown.
The country is barely functioning and the economy has stalled since the military seized power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1.
The military junta has sought to quell mass protests with lethal force and a local monitoring group has verified at least 714 civilian deaths but warns the toll is likely to be even higher.
This week is Myanmar’s New Year festival of Thingyan holiday but normal festivities such as public water fights have been canceled.
Instead, protesters have been using Thingyan as a rallying point —as bus shelters and pavements were sprayed red on Wednesday in cities and towns nationwide.
Remember the martyrs
“The purpose of the ‘bleeding strike’ is to remember the martyrs who died in the struggle for democracy,” a protest participant from Yangon told AFP.
“We should not be happy during this festival time. We have to feel sadness for the martyrs who are bleeding and we must continue to fight this battle in any way we can.”
The United Nations human rights chief warned Tuesday that Myanmar could be spiralling towards a “full-blown” Syrian-style conflict.
Flagging of possible crimes against humanity, the high commissioner for human rights Michelle Bachelet urged countries to take immediate action to push Myanmar’s military to stop its “campaign of repression and slaughter of its people.”
Echoes of civil war
“I fear the situation in Myanmar is heading towards a full-blown conflict,” Bachelet said in a statement.
“There are clear echoes of Syria in 2011,” she warned, referring to the start of a civil war that over the past decade has killed around 400,000 people and forced more than 6 million to flee the country.
In Mandalay, red paint was also spilled on the streets amid signs saying: “hope our military dictatorship fails,” “overthrow the era of fear” and “blood has not dried on the streets.”
Protesters painted a pavement red in a Yangon suburb and left a note that read: “Dear UN, How are you? I hope you are well. As for Myanmar, we are dying.”