Demonstrators against a military coup yesterday returned to the streets of Myanmar, a day after a UN envoy urged the Security Council to hear the nation’s “desperate pleas” and take swift action to restore democracy.
The country has been in turmoil since a Feb. 1 putsch ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi from power, triggering a massive uprising from hundreds of thousands angered to be returned to military rule.
Security forces have escalated an increasingly brutal crackdown on demonstrators — killing more than 50 people since the coup — but protesters rallied again yesterday.
Photo: EPA-EFE
From the streets of northern Lashio — where young protesters stared down police behind homemade shields — to central Loikaw city in view of Myanmar’s eastern mountains, hundreds continued to march for democracy.
“Our revolution must win,” chanted protesters in Loikaw, who included civil servants, such as teachers in their green and white uniforms.
The country’s vital sectors have been crippled by an ongoing “Civil Disobedience Movement” — a campaign urging civil servants to boycott working under a military regime.
The effects have been felt at every level of the country, with shuttered hospitals, empty ministry offices and banks unable to operate.
Yesterday, state-run media announced that if civil servants continue to boycott work, “they will be fired” with immediate effect from March 8.
However, protesters in Yangon continued to defy authorities, gathering especially in San Chaung — a once-buzzing township with cafes, restaurants and bars that has emerged as a hotspot for unrest.
Pro-democracy advocate Maung Saungkha said that the movement would persist — even as the security forces continue to step up their enforcement tactics — as many remember the repression under the previous junta regime.
“In our past revolutions, we never won... This time, we must fight to win,” he said. “We must fight together with the younger generation to get victory.”
The generals have shown no sign of heeding calls for restraint, despite mounting international pressure, including targeted sanctions by Western powers.
The UN Security Council on Friday heard from UN Special Envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener, who warned against any moves to grant legitimacy to the junta.
“The hope they have placed in the United Nations and its membership is waning and I have heard directly the desperate pleas — from mothers, students and the elderly,” she said. “Your unity is needed more than ever on Myanmar... The repression must stop.”
However, diplomats say that it is unlikely that the Security Council would approve any international measures against the junta, and the session ended without any statement.
Condemnation against Myanmar’s military has largely been unanimous, but veto-wielding China is still regarded as the crucial obstacle in achieving a consensus.
Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun (張軍) said that his country did not want to see instability in Myanmar, but “the messages and measures of the international community should be conducive for the parties in Myanmar to bridge differences and resolve problems.”
On Friday, memorials were held for three killed in Yangon, with hundreds of mourners holding up a three-finger salute as the coffins were carried to the funeral home.
Former Nicaraguan president Violeta Chamorro, who brought peace to Nicaragua after years of war and was the first woman elected president in the Americas, died on Saturday at the age of 95, her family said. Chamorro, who ruled the poor Central American country from 1990 to 1997, “died in peace, surrounded by the affection and love of her children,” said a statement issued by her four children. As president, Chamorro ended a civil war that had raged for much of the 1980s as US-backed rebels known as the “Contras” fought the leftist Sandinista government. That conflict made Nicaragua one of
COMPETITION: The US and Russia make up about 90 percent of the world stockpile and are adding new versions, while China’s nuclear force is steadily rising, SIPRI said Most of the world’s nuclear-armed states continued to modernize their arsenals last year, setting the stage for a new nuclear arms race, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said yesterday. Nuclear powers including the US and Russia — which account for about 90 percent of the world’s stockpile — had spent time last year “upgrading existing weapons and adding newer versions,” researchers said. Since the end of the Cold War, old warheads have generally been dismantled quicker than new ones have been deployed, resulting in a decrease in the overall number of warheads. However, SIPRI said that the trend was likely
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS