Biggest protests in Myanmar since 2007 draw tens of hundreds

Tens of hundreds of individuals marched for a second day in Myanmar’s largest metropolis on Sunday, and hundreds extra assembled throughout the nation to protest in opposition to the army junta’s coup and detention of elected chief Aung San Suu Kyi final week.
The protests, which came about regardless of an web blackout and restrictions on cellphone strains, had been the largest demonstrations within the nation for the reason that 2007 Buddhist monk-led Saffron Revolution.

Crowds in Yangon, the business capital, carried crimson balloons, the color representing Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD), and chanted, “We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!”
Myanmar’s army seized energy within the early hours of Monday, bringing the Southeast Asian nation’s troubled democratic transition to a sudden halt and drawing worldwide outrage.
On Saturday, tens of hundreds took to the streets within the first mass protests for the reason that coup.
On Sunday morning, large crowds from all corners of Yangon converged on Hledan township, some strolling by way of stalled site visitors, and marched underneath vivid sunshine in the course of the highway.
They waved NLD flags and gestured with the three-finger salute that has turn into a logo of protest in opposition to the coup. Drivers honked their horns and passengers held up pictures of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi.
The scenes broadcast on Facebook had been among the few which have come in another country for the reason that junta shut down the web and restricted cellphone strains on Saturday. Speaking as he filmed the streets, the broadcaster stated getting data out would possibly assist preserve the protesters secure.
There was no remark from the junta within the capital Naypyitaw, greater than 350 km (220 miles) north of Yangon.
“They already started shutting down the internet – if they rule more they will repress even more on education, business, and health,” stated Thu Thu, a 57-year-old who was arrested by a earlier junta throughout pro-democracy protests within the late Nineteen Eighties. “This is why we have to do this,” he stated.
“We cannot accept the coup,” stated a 22-year-old who got here with 10 associates, who requested to not be recognized for concern of retribution. “This is for our future. We have to come out.”
By mid-morning about 100 individuals had taken to the streets on motorbikes within the coastal city of Mawlamyine within the southeast, and college students and medical doctors had been gathering within the metropolis of Mandalay in central Myanmar.
Another crowd of a whole lot spent the night time outdoors a police station within the city of Payathonzu in Karen state within the southeast, the place native NLD lawmakers had been believed to have been arrested. They remained outdoors within the morning, singing pro-democracy songs.

With no web and official data scarce, rumours swirled concerning the destiny of Suu Kyi and her cabinet. A narrative that she had been launched, which drew enormous crowds onto the streets to have a good time in a single day on Saturday, was shortly quashed by her lawyer.
More than 160 individuals have been arrested for the reason that army seized energy, stated Thomas Andrews, the United Nations particular rapporteur on Myanmar.
“The generals are now attempting to paralyse the citizen movement of resistance – and keep the outside world in the dark – by cutting virtually all internet access,” Andrews stated in an announcement on Sunday.
“We must all stand with the people of Myanmar in their hour of danger and need. They deserve nothing less.”