In the latest in a series of impromptu shows of defiance, messages including “Spring Revolution”, “We must win” and “Get out MAH” - referring to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing - were seen on eggs in photographs on social media.
“Easter is all about the future and the people of Myanmar have a great future in a federal democracy,” Dr Sasa, international envoy for the ousted civilian government, said in a statement. Sasa, who uses only one name, is a member of a largely Christian ethnic minority in the predominantly Buddhist country.
Opponents of military rule have mounted a civil disobedience campaign since the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, that has included creative shows of defiance promoted on social media.
Young people in the main city of Yangon handed out eggs bearing the messages of protest, pictures in posts showed.
Crowds have returned to the streets day and night to reject the return of military rule after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy. Numerous candle-lit vigils took place overnight.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group monitoring casualties and arrests, said the toll of dead had risen to 557, as of late Saturday.
In the capital, Naypyitaw, two men were killed when police fired on protesters on motorbikes, the Irrawaddy news site reported.
Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
Several thousand marched in the second city of Mandalay, according to images on social media, before police and soldiers moved in to disperse them.
Protesters also gathered in several other towns in the north and the south and a huge crowd, including many women in straw hats, streamed through the central town of Taze chanting slogans, pictures from DVB TV News showed.
The AAPP said 2,658 people were in detention, including four women and a man who spoke to a visiting CNN news crew in interviews on the streets of the main city of Yangon last week.
A spokesman for CNN said the network was aware of reports of detentions following the team’s visit and was “pressing the authorities for information”.
Struggling to end the protests, the junta has intensified a campaign to stifle criticism.
It ordered internet providers to cut wireless broadband and issued arrest warrants for nearly 40 celebrities known for their opposition to military rule, including social media influencers, singers and models, under a law against inciting dissent in the armed forces.
Death Toll Passes Eighty in Myanmar: Army Continues to Kill Defenseless Anti-Coup Protesters
