YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Large crowds demonstrating against military takeover in Myanmar defied another ban on protests on Wednesday, even after security forces stepped up the use of force against them and deposed political party headquarters of Aung San Suu. invaded. Kyi.
Witnesses estimate that tens of thousands, if not more, of protesters have left Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s largest cities. Meetings were also held in the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere.
The protesters are demanding that power be restored to the deposed civilian government of Suu Kyi. They are also seeking freedom for her and other ruling party members since the military detained them after blocking the new session of parliament on Feb. 1.
“As part of Generation Z, we are voters for the first time. This is also the first time that we are protesting, ”said a student who declined to mention her name for fear of intimidation. “They have denied our votes, and that is completely unfair. We don’t want that. We hope they release our leaders and implement true democracy. ”
The military says it acted because November’s election, which won Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in a landslide, was marred by irregularities. The election commission had refuted the allegation.
Some protesters in Yangon gathered at foreign embassies to seek international pressure against the coup.
A small group outside the Japanese embassy held signs and shouted, “We want democracy, we get dictators!” They sat in several paddling pools, three or less per bath, in what seemed an ironic way to show that they comply with an emergency law banning gatherings of more than five people.
Others marched across town, singing and waving flags of Suu Kyi’s party.
Another group dragged a fake coffin as part of a mock funeral for Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief who is the country’s new leader.
Officials in many areas are risking their jobs to march with the protesters, and even some police officers have switched sides to oppose the coup. In a dramatic video shot Wednesday in a small village in the state of Kayah in eastern Myanmar, a group of 42 police officers and women declared their allegiance to the deposed elected government and opposed a senior officer’s pleas to rejoin go to work. Locals flocked to their side to fend off any attempt to arrest them.
UN International Labor Organization head Guy Ryder urged Myanmar’s military leaders to “ensure that workers and employers can exercise their rights to freedom of association in a climate of complete freedom and security, free from violence and threats. “
“I call on the military to immediately withdraw orders restricting meetings of more than five people, to end the repression of dissent and full respect for the fundamental and human rights and freedoms of workers,” said Ryder. “I urge military leaders to ensure that no workers, including civil servants, are detained, intimidated or harassed for participating in peaceful protests.”
The emerging protests and the latest junta raid suggest that there is little room for reconciliation. The army, which ruled directly for five decades after a 1962 coup d’état, used deadly force to quell a mass uprising in 1988 and a uprising in 2007 led by Buddhist monks.
In Naypyitaw and Mandalay, police on Tuesday sprayed water cannons and fired warning shots to clear up protesters. In Naypyitaw, they fired rubber bullets and seemingly live rounds, wounding a female protester, according to witnesses and images on social media. The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Human Rights Watch quoted a doctor at a hospital in Naypyitaw as saying the woman was in a critical condition. The doctor said the woman had a projectile in her head, presumably a bullet that had penetrated the back of the right ear and lost significant brain function. The doctor said a man had also been treated with a wound in the upper body similar to that of live ammunition.
State television network MRTV claimed in one of the few reports of Tuesday night’s protests that the protesters were responsible for the violence.
“Myanmar police must immediately end the use of excessive and deadly force,” the New York-based watchdog urged.
No major incidents have been reported in connection with the high turnout at Wednesday’s protest in Mandalay. Social media users said 82 people who had been arrested were released because of the work of local lawyers.
Medical students and staff, lawyers and Buddhist monks were among a huge cross-section of residents marching in Mandalay, but most of the buzz on social media was generated by a contingent of shirtless muscular men with well-defined six-packs who were said to be members of a gym .
Yangon’s most photogenic protesters were a group of young women who dressed in formal dresses more appropriate for a wedding reception.
The military raided the national headquarters of the party of Suu Kyi on Tuesday evening, which, before the military took power, had planned to take power for a second five-year term.
Kyi Toe, a party spokesman, wrote on Facebook that the military broke into Yangon headquarters and took away another office and documents and computer hardware. The head office was closed on Wednesday.
US President Joe Biden ordered new sanctions on Wednesday, saying he issued an executive order that will prevent Myanmar’s generals from accessing $ 1 billion in assets in the United States. Biden added that more measures are to be taken.
“The military must relinquish the seized power and show respect for the will of the people of Burma,” he said.
The day before, the US had “firmly” condemned violence against protesters.
“We reiterate our calls to the military to relinquish power, restore the democratically elected government, release those arrested, lift all telecommunications restrictions and refrain from violence,” said the ministry’s spokesman. Foreign Affairs Ned Price.
New Zealand has suspended all high-level military and political contacts with Myanmar, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced in Wellington, adding that any aid from New Zealand should not go to or benefit the military government of Myanmar.
The UN Human Rights Council, the body of 47 member states based in Geneva, will hold a special session Friday to discuss “the human rights implications of the Myanmar crisis.”
Britain and the European Union spearheaded the request for the session, which amounts to a high-profile public debate among diplomats on the situation in Myanmar and could lead to a resolution expressing concerns about the situation or recommending international action.