Yangon (Burma), Feb 13 – Thousands of Burmese took to the streets again this Saturday to oppose the military coup amid an increase in retaliation, while several local media reported the death of the protester to the one the police shot last Tuesday.
The relatives of Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, the 20-year-old protester who was shot by a police officer, decided to remove her respirator and the probe that kept her alive, although doctors had already certified her brain death on Tuesday, according to the Irrawaddy media. and 7Days News.
The young woman was killed by a shot in the head by an Uzi-type submachine gun while she was at a protest against the military junta in the capital, Naipyidó, where the police also used water cannons.
A 29-year-old protester told Efe today that she met Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Khine last year and that she decided to join the protests when she learned that the police had shot her.
“I met her last year when I went to Naipyidó, she is a friend of my little sister (…) From that day (of the shooting), I decided to join the civil disobedience movement,” said the woman, who works as a teacher, in an anti-joint protest in Rangoon.
ANNIVERSARY OF THE NATIONAL HERO
“Respect our vote” or “free our leaders” were some of the banners carried by the protesters concentrated in Rangoon, with other protests against the military junta in other parts of the country despite the ban by the uniformed.
In Yangon, the most populous city in the country, protesters gathered in front of the statue of Aung San, the founder of the Burmese Army and hero of the independence of which today marks the anniversary of his birth.
Aung San is also the father of the Nobel Peace Prize and deposed leader of the country, Aung San Suu Kyi, who has not been heard from since she was placed under house arrest in Naipyidó on the day of the coup on February 1.
Protesters have adopted the three-finger raising gesture, the salute from the “Hunger Games” saga that first became a symbol of protest in Thailand and now in Burma (Myanmar), where opposition to the coup began with pancakes and disobedience. civil.
CHALLENGE TO FEAR
The movement against the military junta continues despite police charges with water cannons, tear gas and rubber and real bullets, which have caused several injuries in recent days, and the fear of arrests and reprisals.
Soldiers are taking advantage of the night to make arrests, so groups of neighbors have begun patrolling some neighborhoods where they beat pans and pots to warn when soldiers or police are taking people away.
Among those detained are doctors committed to civil disobedience, while many journalists live under threat and change their address every night to avoid being arrested.
At least 326 people, including most of the government, politicians and activists, have been detained in the last two weeks, although 23 have been released, according to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP).
Many are detained without charge or with ambiguous charges such as Suu Kyi herself, who is charged with the illegal importation of telephone equipment.
AGAINST CHINA AND RUSSIA
The United Nations Human Rights Council yesterday adopted a resolution calling for the release of Suu Kyi, but the division in the body prevented a firm condemnation of the coup due to the reluctance of members such as China, Russia and Venezuela.
The document, which was adopted without the need for a vote by the Council, made up of 47 governments, “deplores” the suppression of the government elected after the November 8 elections, although it avoids referring to it as “democratically elected”, as indicated in the draft. initial suggested by the European Union and the United Kingdom.
The reluctance of Russia and China to condemn the coup outright has prompted Burmese protesters to hold protests outside their embassies to demand that they stop supporting the military junta, which already ruled Burma between 1962 and 2011.
MOBILIZATIONS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
The mobilizations are also carried out on social networks, despite the military junta’s order to block Facebook and Twitter, which many are getting around thanks to VPN programs, which allow access to the Internet through servers outside the country.
Social media is the element that most clearly distinguishes these mobilizations from the protests against the military in 1988 and 2007, which were violently suppressed.
The military junta, headed by General Min Aung Hlaing, justifies the seizure of power due to an alleged electoral fraud in the elections last November in which the National League for Democracy, the party led by Suu Kyi, devastated, as it already did. in 2015.