(Reuters) – Protesters in Myanmar staged protests demanding the reinstatement of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government on Monday and called for more coordinated national dissent, defying the army’s crackdown on attempts to lift opposition to its two-month rule.
Six people were killed over the weekend, according to activists, while police and soldiers used force to break up demonstrations that some protesters call the “spring revolution.”
The campaign against the removal of the government elected by Aung San Suu Kyi included street marches, a campaign of civil disobedience to strike and strange acts of rebellion organized on social networks, which the junta tried to control by closing wireless broadband data and mobile data. Services.
Demonstrators with Suu Kyi banners and signs calling for international intervention marched through the streets of Mandalay’s second-largest city, according to images on social media.
Protesters on Monday called for nationally coordinated applause later to recognize ethnic minority armies that joined the anti-coup movement and youth demonstrators who fought with security forces on the streets every day and tried to protect or to save the wounded protesters.
“Let’s applaud five minutes on April 5, at 5:00 pm, to honor ethnic armed organizations and Gen Zan defense youth in Myanmar, including Yangon, who are fighting the revolution on our behalf,” said Ei Thinzar Maung, the leader of the protest on Facebook.
Opponents of the military government wrote protest messages on Easter eggs on Sunday, such as “we have to win” and “get out of the MAH” – referring to junta leader Min Aung Hlaing.
At least 557 people have been killed since leading a coup on February 1, just hours before a new parliament was convened to prevent Suu Kyi’s party from running for a second term.
This was followed by months of complaints by the army of fraud in an election in which Suu Kyi’s party won 83% of the vote, giving up a party created by Min’s predecessor Aung Hlaing.
The coup and repression against the demonstrations provoked an international outcry, leading to Western sanctions on the military and its profitable business.
“MOST RETENTION”
In a speech to soldiers in state media on Sunday, Min Aung Hlaing said security forces were “holding the biggest restraint” against armed insurgents causing violence and anarchy.
External pressure is mounting on the army to stop the crimes, with some countries demanding that it relinquish power and release all detainees, while others call for dialogue and new elections soon.
About 2,658 were detained under the junta, the Association of Political Prisoners (AAPP) said on Monday.
The junta announced, over the weekend, arrest warrants for over 60 celebrities, social media influencers, models and musicians accused of incitement.
He also received a flak and distributed many comedy memes on Monday, following a clip from a CNN interview with a junta spokesman, in which CNN asked what his father Suu Kyi and independence hero would think. Myanmar, General Aung San, if the state could see the country now.
“He would say, ‘My daughter, you’re so stupid,'” spokesman Zaw Min Tun responded in the video, which has not yet aired on the broadcaster and was filmed by an unknown person.
The military, which ruled for the first time in half a century until 2011, has seen the hostilities of armed ethnic minorities revive on at least two fronts, raising fears of growing conflict and chaos in the country.
The Karen National Union, which signed a ceasefire in 2012, saw the first military airstrikes on its forces in more than 20 years, sending thousands of refugees to Thailand. Fighting also broke out between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents in the north.
Fitch Solutions said on Monday that the situation in Myanmar has “overcome the point of uncertainty” and a conservative forecast for its economy will be a 20% contraction in the fiscal year that began in October, instead of 2% observed before the coup .
He said the use of airstrikes “marks a new frontier as the military is willing to mobilize its arsenal to quell any dissent.”
Reuters staff reporting; Written by Martin Petty; Edited by Michael Perry