Myanmar, SAEDNEWS, Feb. 17: Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of major cities in Myanmar, protesting the military’s power grab amid rising concern of violence in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.
Wednesday’s protests marked the largest in Myanmar since the February 1 coup, and came after protesters urged people to turn out en masse and shatter the military’s claim that the public backed its decision to seize power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).
“We love democracy and hate the junta,” Sithu Maung, an elected NLD member told tens of thousands of people at the Sule Pagoda, a central protest site in the main city of Yangon. “We must be the last generation to experience a coup.”
The NLD had swept a November 8 election as widely expected, but the army alleges there was fraud. At a news conference on Tuesday, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling council, maintained that the military’s seizure of power was in line with the constitution and said it remained committed to democracy.
He also said 40 million of the 53 million population supported the military’s action.
Sithu Maung poked fun at that saying: “We’re showing here that we’re not in that 40 million.”
The turnout in Yangon appeared to be one of the biggest so far in the city. Along with the larger crowds, some people also stopped their cars in the streets or at key junctions – their bonnets open in mass ‘breakdowns’ – as a way of blocking off streets from security forces.
In Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, thousands including private bank employees and engineers marched down its wide boulevards, chanting for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
Protesters also poured into the streets of Mandalay, where on Monday security forces pointed guns at a group of 1,000 demonstrators and attacked them with slingshots and sticks. Local media reported that police also fired rubber bullets into a crowd and that a few people were wounded.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said earlier he was “terrified” of an escalation in violence, saying he had received reports of troop movements around the country and feared the protesters were facing real danger.
“I fear that Wednesday has the potential for violence on a greater scale in Myanmar than we have seen since the illegal takeover of the government on February 1,” Andrews said in a statement.
“I am terrified that given the confluence of these two developments – planned mass protests and troops converging – we could be on the precipice of the military committing even greater crimes against the people of Myanmar.” (Source: AlJazeera).
People in Myanmar Continue to Protest against Military Coup Despite Army Violence
