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YANGON: Thousands of people demonstrated against the Myanmar coup in Yangon on Sunday (February 7), when an internet blackout failed to quell outrage over the military takeover of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The new rally followed the largest protests to date on Saturday, when tens of thousands turned out in cities across the country to condemn the coup that halted a 10-year experiment with democracy.
Thousands of enthusiastic protesters marched in Yangon, backed by the blare of car horns. They held banners, including some that read “We do not want a military dictatorship,” and the distinctive red flags of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy (NLD) party.
“We will go ahead and keep demanding until we get democracy. Down with the military dictatorship,” said 37-year-old protester Myo Win.
IN PHOTOS: Thousands in Myanmar protest against military coup
Protesters hold up the three-finger salute and posters during a rally against the military coup in Yangon on February 7, 2021 (Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu).
A monk raises the three-finger salute during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on February 7, 2021 (Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu).
Some showed the three-finger salute inspired by the “Hunger Games” movies and used as a symbol of resistance by pro-democracy protesters in Thailand last year.
Despite the large-scale deployment of riot police, backed by water cannons, there have been no major clashes so far.
“# Myanmar’s army and police must ensure that the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and that protesters are not subjected to retaliation,” the United Nations Human Rights office tweeted after protests on Saturday.
The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overturned a national internet blackout, similar in magnitude to an earlier shutdown that coincided with the arrest of Aung San Suu Kyi and other top leaders on Monday.
Online calls to protest the army’s takeover of power have sparked bold displays of defiance, including the deafening nightly clamor of people across the country banging on pots and pans, a practice traditionally associated with the driving out of evil spirits.
Yangon residents repeated the pot knock at 8 a.m. Sunday.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
As the protests gained steam this week, the board ordered telecommunications networks to freeze access to Facebook, an extremely popular service in the country and possibly its main means of communication.
The platform had hosted a rapidly growing “Civil Disobedience Movement” forum that had inspired public officials, health professionals and teachers to show their disagreement by boycotting their jobs.
READ: UN chief supports the right of the Myanmar people to peacefully protest against the military coup
Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on February 7, 2021. (Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu)
On Sunday, a Facebook live video feed showed Yangon protesters marching through the streets, as well as police with riot control personnel waiting in some locations.
It was not immediately clear how the broadcast was circumventing the government blockade.
The military had expanded its efforts to quell organized dissent on Friday when it demanded new blocks on other social media services, including Twitter.
“The generals are now trying to paralyze the citizen resistance movement and keep the outside world in the dark, cutting off virtually all access to the Internet,” said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Myanmar.
INATIONAL CONDEMNATION
An immensely popular figure despite a tarnished reputation in the West, Aung San Suu Kyi has not been seen in public since the coup, but a party spokesman said on Friday she was under house arrest and “in good health.”
Two days after her dismissal, criminal charges were brought against her related to the illegal importation of a set of walkie-talkies.
LEE: Myanmar detains Australian advisor to Aung San Suu Kyi; first known arrest of a foreign national since the coup
Riot police block the street as protesters hold a rally against the military coup in Yangon on February 7, 2021 (Photo: AFP / Ye Aung Thu).
The military had signaled its coup intentions days in advance, insisting that the NLD’s landslide victory in the November elections was the result of electoral fraud.
The favored parties of the army were defeated in the vote.
After the inauguration, the junta proclaimed a year of state of emergency after which it promised to hold new elections, without offering a precise calendar.
The coup has been widely condemned by the international community, and US President Joe Biden led calls for the generals to relinquish power and release those arrested in the post-coup crackdown.
