Myanmar protesters defy junta’s ‘lethal force’ threat
PROTESTERS gathered yesterday in Myanmar’s biggest city despite the ruling junta’s threat to use lethal force against people who join a general strike against the military’s takeover three weeks ago.
More than 1,000 protesters gathered near the United States embassy in Yangon despite barriers blocking the way, but left to avoid a confrontation after 20 military trucks with riot police arrived nearby.
Protests continued in other parts of the city, including at Sule Pagoda, a traditional gathering point.
Factories, workplaces and shops were closed across the country yesterday in response to the call for a nationwide strike. The closures extended to the capital, Naypyitaw.
The junta had warned against a general strike in a public announcement on Sunday on state television broadcaster MRTV.
“It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,” the on-screen text said in English, replicating the spoken announcement in Burmese.
The junta’s statement also blamed criminals for past protest violence, with the result that “the security force members had to fire back”.
Three protesters were fatally shot in Myanmar at the weekend. Security force vehicles cruised the streets of Yangon on Sunday night, blaring similar warnings.
The protest movement, which seeks to restore power to the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and have her and other leaders released from detention, has embraced nonviolence.
Zin Mi Mi Aung, a 27-year-old saleswoman, joined the strike in Naypyitaw. “We don’t want to be governed by the regime,” she said yesterday as people marched and chanted protest slogans behind her. “We will fight against them until we win.”
Thousands of people gathered in the capital’s wide boulevards, many on motorbikes to allow swift movement in the event of any police action. Reports and photos of protests, some very large, in at least a dozen cities and towns were posted on social media.
The general strike was an extension of actions called by the Civil Disobedience Movement, a loosely organised group that has been encouraging civil servants and workers at state enterprises to walk off their jobs. Many transport workers and white-collar workers have responded to the appeal.
On Saturday, a General Strike Committee was formed by more than two dozen groups to provide a more formal structure for the resistance movement and launch a “spring revolution”.
The ominous signs of potential conflict drew attention outside Myanmar, with the US reiterating that it stood with the people of Myanmar, also known as Burma.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Twitter that the US would take firm action “against those who perpetrate violence against the people of Burma as they demand the restoration of their democratically elected government”.
“We call on the military to stop violence, release all those unjustly detained, cease attacks on journalists and activists, and respect the will of the people,” said US State Department spokesman Ned Price, also on Twitter.