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Myanmar military supporters and opponents clashed on the streets of Yangon on Thursday (February 25) when authorities prevented students from leaving their campus to march, a day after a first wave of diplomacy aimed at solving the crisis. .
The country has been in crisis since the army took power on February 1 and detained civil government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leaders after the army complained of election fraud. of November.
There have been around three weeks of daily protests and strikes and the students vowed to go out again at the Yangon Mall on Thursday.
“We students have to overthrow the dictatorship,” said Kaung Sat Wai, 25, outside the main university campus in Yangon.
“Since the coup, our lives have become desperate, our dreams have died.”
A pro-military supporter threw projectiles at residents in Yangon on February 25, 2021, after weeks of mass demonstrations against the military coup. (Photo: Sai Aung Main / AFP)
But police blocked the gates to the campus, preventing hundreds of students inside from marching.
At the same time, around 1,000 supporters of the armed forces gathered for a demonstration in central Yangon.
LEE: Protests increase after the Myanmar junta raises the specter of force
Some of them threatened news photographers, media workers said, and fights broke out between pro and anti-military protesters. One photographer was slightly injured, he said.
Later, military supporters threw stones and fired catapults, witnesses said, and there was an unconfirmed report of a stabbing.
The standoff underscored the volatility in a country largely paralyzed by protests and a campaign of civil disobedience of strikes against the military, in which many government professionals and workers have joined.
Doctors were due to hold a protest Thursday as part of the so-called white coat revolution.
Myanmar doctors, supporters of the civil disobedience movement, attend an anti-coup march in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 25, 2021 (Photo: AP Images).
Myanmar doctors, supporters of the civil disobedience movement, attend an anti-coup march in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 25, 2021 (Photo: AP Images).
Meanwhile, Facebook said it had banned the Myanmar military from using it and its Instagram platform with immediate effect. He cited violence and the risk of allowing the military to use the platforms.
READ: Facebook Removes Myanmar Army Home Page
READ: Facebook Bans All Accounts and Ads Linked to Myanmar Army
The ruling military council spokesman did not respond to a Reuters phone call seeking comment.
The security forces have shown more restraint compared to previous repressions against people who lobbied for democracy during almost half a century of direct military rule.
The military chief, General Min Aung Hlaing, says the authorities are following a democratic path in dealing with the protests and that the police are using minimal force, such as rubber bullets, state media reported.
However, three protesters and a policeman were killed in violent acts.
READ: G7 countries ‘strongly condemn’ Myanmar’s military attacks on protesters
A human rights group said that as of Wednesday 728 people had been arrested, charged or convicted in connection with the pro-democracy protests.
Anti-coup protesters display images of deposed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon, Myanmar, on February 25, 2021. (Photo: AP Images)
The army intervened to overthrow the government, saying that military complaints of fraud in the November 8 elections, swept away by Suu Kyi’s party as expected, had been ignored.
The electoral commission said the vote was fair. The army said its action was within the constitution and promised to hold a new election after reviewing the voter lists.
Suu Kyi has been held incommunicado since the coup, at her home in the capital Naypyitaw, but her party says her November victory must be respected.
‘RESTRICTION’
The question of an election has emerged at the center of early diplomatic efforts to find a way out of the crisis, with Indonesia leading the way within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
His foreign minister said on Wednesday that he had held intensive talks with the Myanmar military and representatives of the overthrown government.
READ: ‘Not the right time’ for Foreign Minister to visit Myanmar, Indonesia says
The minister, Retno Marsudi, met with Myanmar’s military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin for a chat in the Thai capital earlier in the day.
But Indonesia’s intervention has raised suspicions among opponents of the Myanmar coup who fear it will confer legitimacy on the junta and its attempt to scrap the November elections.
Retno told reporters that the welfare of the Myanmar people was the top priority.
“We ask that everyone use restraint and not resort to violence,” he said after speaking with the Myanmar minister and his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai.
LEE: Top diplomat of the Myanmar board in talks with Thailand and Indonesia
READ: Indonesia says it held intensive talks with both sides of the Myanmar crisis
A Reuters report this week cited sources who said Indonesia was proposing that ASEAN members send monitors to make sure the generals deliver on their promise of fair elections.
The army has not set a deadline for an election, although it imposed a one-year state of emergency when it took power.
Retno did not mention an election, but emphasized “the importance of an inclusive democratic transition process.”
The crisis has restored Myanmar’s reputation as the troubled ASEAN member of 10 countries and the diplomatic struggle of its neighbors comes as international concern grows.
The United States, Britain and others have imposed limited sanctions targeting board members and military companies.
