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Protests against a military coup in Myanmar showed no signs of abating and more were planned across the country on Wednesday (March 3), while ousted Myanmar President Win Myint is said to face two new charges.
Security forces fired warning shots into the air as protesters gathered at a site in the commercial capital Yangon early Wednesday, according to a journalist at the scene.
At least 21 people have died since the Feb. 1 coup and police opened fire to break up the crowds again on Tuesday.
An activist in Chin state said strikes were taking place in almost all of its municipalities on Wednesday.
A group tracking the arrests said dozens more people may have been detained Tuesday, including a protest organizer who it said was abducted at gunpoint by security personnel in unmarked cars.
Win Myint’s lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, said Wednesday that he faces two new charges, including for a violation of the constitution that is punishable by up to three years in prison.
Win Myint was arrested on February 1 along with Myanmar’s leader Aung San Suu Kyi, just hours before the military seized power in a coup. Win Myint is also facing charges for violating protocols to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Lawyer Khin Maung Zaw said the date of Win Myint’s trial is unknown.
Myanmar’s President Win Myint has also been detained, according to the National League for Democracy AFP / Thet AUNG
The military government has also charged Aung San Suu Kyi with various crimes that critics say were fabricated simply to keep her imprisoned and potentially prevent her from participating in elections promised by the military within a year.
ASEAN DIPLOMATIC EFFORT
The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) made no progress in a virtual meeting on Myanmar of its 10 foreign ministers. While united by the call for restraint, only four members – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore – called for the release of the detainees, including Suu Kyi.
“We express ASEAN’s readiness to assist Myanmar in a positive, peaceful and constructive manner,” said a statement from ASEAN President Brunei.
Myanmar’s state media said on Wednesday that the army-appointed foreign minister attended an ASEAN meeting where he “exchanged views on regional and international affairs,” but did not mention the purpose of the talks.
He said that Wunna Maung Lwin “informed the meeting of the voting irregularities” in the elections last November.
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The military justified the coup by saying that their allegations of electoral fraud were ignored. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party won the elections overwhelmingly, obtaining a second five-year term. The electoral commission said the vote was fair.
The leader of the junta, Major General Min Aung Hlaing, has said the intervention was to protect Myanmar’s fledgling democracy and has pledged to hold new elections, but has not given a time frame.
Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday that the coup was “a huge and tragic step backward” for Myanmar, and that the arrests and charges against Aung San Suu Kyi and much of his party leadership did not would solve the problem.
“You really have to go back, free Aung San Suu Kyi, negotiate with her and her team, and find a peaceful path to Myanmar,” he said during a recording of an interview with the BBC. The transcript of the interview was provided by the Singapore Ministry of Communications and Information.
“THE REVOLUTION MUST SUCCESS”
The Tuesday night news bulletin on Myanmar’s state television said the rioters were mobilizing people on social media and forming “illegal organizations.”
He said tear gas, stun grenades and electric charges were used to disperse crowds in Yangon and that 12 rioters were arrested.
People sit on a street during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 2, 2021 in this still image from a video obtained by REUTERS.
After dark in parts of Yangon, people came to their balconies to chant anti-military slogans, including “the revolution must succeed.” Others banged pots and pans loudly in a nightly ritual of defiance.
Ye Myo Hein, a researcher and founder of the Center for Burma Studies, said that security forces had fired shots in the streets to dissuade people from participating, but some persisted.
“Afterward, a barrage of frying pans and drum beats filled the air around our neighborhood,” Ye Myo Hein posted on Facebook.
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Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, has been held incommunicado since the coup, but appeared at a court hearing by video conference this week and was in good health, a lawyer said.
She is one of nearly 1,300 people who have been detained, according to activists, including six journalists in Yangon, one of whom works for the Associated Press, who have called for her release.
Myanmar’s representative to the United Nations, appointed by Aung San Suu Kyi last year, denounced the coup. After the board announced that he had been fired, he made a formal claim as a legitimate representative, according to letters seen by Reuters.
The ASEAN meeting drew criticism from within Myanmar, with concerns that it would legitimize the junta and not help the country.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi urged Myanmar to “open its doors” to ASEAN’s efforts to ease tensions, but said there was little it could do if it did not.
Echoing the position of most Western countries, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin called for “a complete return to the previously existing state of affairs.”
