Hundreds of riot police and soldiers ringed a monument in downtown Yangon yesterday as officials gathered to commemorate the shooting death 61 years ago of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s father.
Myanmar independence hero General Aung San and other government leaders were assassinated by gunmen during a Cabinet meeting on July 19, 1947, shortly after Britain granted independence to the Southeast Asian colony.
Flags were flown at half mast in the capital to mark the day, a state holiday. Unlike past years, foreign diplomats were not invited to the tightly guarded wreath-laying ceremony at the Martyr’s Monument located near the famed Shwedagon pagoda.
PHOTO: EPA
Opposition activists have suggested that the ruling military junta is trying to downgrade the importance of Aung San’s legacy as a way of undercutting the popularity of his daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi had not been invited to attend the annual ceremony by the ruling military, an official from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party said.
“She wasn’t invited to attend the ceremony although the authorities used to send her an invitation,” the official said.
The mayor, Brigadier General Aung Thein Linn, some government officials and family members of the country’s late leaders all attended the 61st anniversary event.
But invitations to foreign embassies were canceled by the foreign affairs ministry without reason, diplomats in Yangon said.
The diplomats said the foreign ministry had informed them that the government intended this year to hold a low-key ceremony because it came just two-and-a half months after Cyclone Nargis devastated much of the region south of Yangon, leaving at least 85,000 people dead and about 50,000 missing.
Police cordoned off the monument, putting up heavy metal barriers and coils of barbed wire across roads.
Dozens of policemen carrying assault rifles and shotguns manned the barricades during a heavy downpour.
Security was also tight around the headquarters of the NLD, where 300 party members gathered yesterday morning, saluting the spot where the leaders were gunned down.
Amid tight security and with armed police trucks present, the gathering was peaceful with no shouting or marching as has been known in previous years.
But the NLD reiterated its call for the immediate and unconditional release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other political prisoners.
In a statement, the NLD urged the junta to “immediately and unconditionally” release Aung San Suu Kyi and other detained pro-democracy activists.
Earlier this month 14 Aung San Suu Kyi supporters were charged for protesting against the extension of her house arrest.
Aung San Suu Kyi has been detained for more than 12 of the past 18 years. Her party swept the last general polls in 1990, but the military refused to hand over power.
The international community has increased pressure on the junta since it violently quashed peaceful mass protests last September. At least 31 people were killed and thousands more were detained.
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS