Myanmar police crack down on protests after envoy called UN to stop coup

A pro-democracy protester is detained by riot police officers during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 27, 2021. REUTERS / Stringer

Myanmar police acted decisively on Saturday in an attempt to prevent opponents of the military government from gathering across the country after Myanmar’s UN envoy urged the United Nations to use “any means necessary” to stop a coup on February 1.

The Southeast Asian country has been in crisis since the army seized power and detained the elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party’s leaders, alleging fraud in the November elections that her party had so won. devastating.

Uncertainty has increased over Suu Kyi’s whereabouts, as the independent website Myanmar Now quoted officials from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party on Friday as saying she had been transferred this week from house arrest to an undisclosed location. .

The coup has brought hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets of Myanmar and has drawn condemnation from Western countries, with some imposing limited sanctions.

Police came to light early in the main city of Yangon and elsewhere, deployed at usual protest sites and detaining people as they congregated, witnesses said. Several media workers were arrested.

But people still gathered, some for an ethnic minority march in Yangon, and their numbers increased throughout the day.

Crowds chanted and chanted, then melted into the side streets as police advanced, firing tear gas, firing stun grenades and firing guns into the air, witnesses said.

Similar scenes unfolded in the second city of Mandalay and in several other cities, including Dawei in the south, witnesses and media reported.

A protester in the central city of Monwya said police had fired water cannons as they surrounded a crowd.

“They have blocked all exits,” Aye Aye Tint told Reuters from the city. “They used water cannons against peaceful protesters, they shouldn’t treat people like that.”

The leader of the junta, General Min Aung Hlaing, has said that the authorities were using minimal force. However, at least three protesters have died. The army says a policeman was also killed.

‘PREVAIL’

At the UN General Assembly, Myanmar’s Ambassador Kyaw Moe Tun said he was speaking on behalf of the Suu Kyi government and appealed to the body “to use all necessary means to take action against the Myanmar military and to provide security and protection of people “.

Myanmar’s ambassador to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, raises three fingers at the end of his speech to the General Assembly, calling for international action to reverse the military coup in his country, as seen in this still image taken from a video, in the Manhattan District of New York City, New York, USA, February 26, 2021. United Nations TV / Handout via REUTERS

“We need the strongest possible action from the international community to immediately end the military coup, stop oppressing innocent people … and restore democracy,” he told the 193-member group, receiving applause as it ended.

Kyaw Moe Tun seemed excited to read the statement on behalf of a group of elected politicians who he said represented the legitimate government.

Speaking his last words in Burmese, the career diplomat raised the three-finger salute from pro-democracy protesters and announced that “our cause will prevail.”

Reuters could not immediately reach the military for comment.

Opponents of the coup hailed Kyaw Moe Tun as a hero and flooded social media with messages of thanks.

“The people will win and the power-obsessed junta will fall,” a protest leader, Ei Thinzar Maung, wrote on Facebook.

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said he was overwhelmed to see the ambassador’s “act of bravery”.

“He spoke for the people of Myanmar and against an illegal coup. It is time for the world to respond to that brave call with action, ”Andrews said on Twitter.

The Chinese envoy did not criticize the coup, saying the situation was Myanmar’s “internal affairs”. China supported the diplomacy of Southeast Asian countries, he said.

‘LOSS OF RIGHTS’

A lawyer acting on behalf of Suu Kyi, Khin Maung Zaw, told Reuters that he had also heard from NLD officials that they had moved her from her home in the capital, Naypyitaw, but could not confirm this. Authorities did not respond to a request for comment.

The lawyer said that Suu Kyi had not been given access before her next hearing on Monday, adding: “I am concerned that there is a loss of rights of access to justice and access to a lawyer.”

Protesters have been demanding the release of 75-year-old Suu Kyi and recognition of the result of last year’s elections.

Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize winner and daughter of Myanmar’s independence hero, spent nearly 15 years under house arrest during the military rule. She faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios and violating a natural disaster law by violating coronavirus protocols.

The army has promised elections but has not given a date. It has imposed a state of emergency for one year.

The election issue is at the center of a diplomatic effort by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member.

Indonesia has taken the lead, but opponents of the coup fear that the effort could legitimize the junta and what they see as its illegal attempt to overturn the November elections.

/ MUF

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