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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS