Pro-junta thugs in Myanmar clashed yesterday with hundreds of supporters of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, hurling abuse and preventing them from marching to a vigil for the detained Nobel laureate, witnesses said.
Holding photos of the 61-year-old, as many as 500 members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party shouted "Free Aung San Suu Kyi" as they staged a rally outside the party's headquarters in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon.
The supporters had intended to go on to a Buddhist pagoda in downtown Yangon to pray for Suu Kyi's release, but were blocked by about 100 supporters of the junta, leading to a tense stand off, witnesses said.
The junta supporters shouted abuse at the other side for about 15 minutes, and one NLD elected member was dragged away by them, witnesses said, asking not to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
"Please understand that we are not frightened by your threats ... we will proceed with peaceful gatherings," Min Ko Naing, a prominent anti-government activist, was quoted as telling the junta supporters.
"We can pray for her from here," he said from outside the NLD head office.
Police vans were parked nearby and the rally ended peacefully.
The junta is also believed to be holding about 1,200 political prisoners, most of them elected members of the NLD.
"Release immediately and unconditionally all political prisoners of conscience including members of parliament who are imprisoned for their beliefs," the NLD said in a statement.
The rally came two days after the junta extended Suu Kyi's house arrest for a fifth year. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate has spent more than 11 of the past 17 years in detention.
The order keeping her under house arrest at her residence in Yangon was due to expire yesterday, but officials told her of its one-year extension on Friday afternoon.
Authorities have since beefed up security near Suu Kyi's lakeside residence and extended barbed wire barricades on her street. Her street was closed to traffic and police with batons were deployed near roadblocks.
"Extending the detention by one more year amounts to ignoring calls by world leaders for her release," a statement by the NLD said.
In a letter last week to Senior General Than Shwe, the junta's chief, 59 former world leaders -- including ex-US presidents George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and former British prime ministers John Major and Margaret Thatcher -- urged Suu Kyi's release.
Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists urged the military junta to accept the results of the 1990 election yesterday -- the 17th anniversary of the ballot, in which Suu Kyi's party won an overwhelming victory.
The results were rejected by the military regime, which claimed that it first needed to draft a constitution.
It has never been completed.
"Calling for a political solution based on the 1990 election results does not mean demanding power, but achieving national reconciliation and democratization," the 88 Generation group, named after the year in which the military brutally suppressed democracy protests, said in a statement.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from