Burmese democracy advocates yesterday launched protests calling for the release of prisoners detained by Myanmar’s military government, as the junta declared a national unity government formed by its opponents illegal.
The Southeast Asian country has been in crisis since the military on Feb. 1 seized power from Burmese State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, with almost daily protests against the coup occurring despite a brutal crackdown by the junta on dissent.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said that 738 people have been killed by security forces since the coup and 3,300 people are in detention, including 20 who have been sentenced to death.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“Please raise your voice and demand the release of all the people who are being unfairly detained under the junta government,” protest leader Ei Thinzar Maung wrote on Facebook.
People yesterday shared photos on social media wearing blue shirts and holding up a hand with the name of an arrested person written on it.
The shirts are a tribute to democracy advocate Win Tin, who was imprisoned by the military for 19 years and died on April 21, 2014.
After his release, he pledged to wear a blue shirt until all political prisoners were freed.
The junta has since the coup released thousands of people from jail, but relatively few who have been linked to the protests.
Meanwhile, military-backed TV channel Myawaddy TV on Tuesday reported that the Burmese Ministry of Home Affairs had declared unlawful a national unity government formed by opponents of the junta.
Pro-democracy politicians including ousted lawmakers on Friday last week announced the formation of the new administration that nominally includes Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been in detention since the coup, as well as leaders of the protests and ethnic minorities.
The national unity government says it is the legitimate authority, and has requested international recognition and an invitation to an ASEAN meeting in Jakarta on Saturday to discuss the crisis in Myanmar.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a statement said that the bloc, which includes Myanmar, should immediately withdraw an invitation to Burmese Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the leader of the coup.
“Min Aung Hlaing, who faces international sanctions for his role in military atrocities and the brutal crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, should not be welcomed at an intergovernmental gathering to address a crisis he created,” HRW Asia director Brad Adams said.
ASEAN has been trying to guide Myanmar out of the bloody turmoil triggered by the coup, but the group’s principles of consensus and noninterference have restricted its ability to overcome members’ divergent views on how to respond to the military killing of hundreds of civilians.
Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, who is also the country’s prime minister, is to chair Saturday’s meeting, his office said in a statement.
The military has shown little willingness to engage with its neighbors and no sign of wanting to talk to members of the government it ousted, accusing some of them of treason, which is punishable by death.
UN Special Envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener has communicated with the military since the coup, but the junta has not allowed her to visit.
Malaysian Minister of Foreign Affairs Hishammuddin Hussein said that the country’s prime minister would attend the meeting.
“We hope that with the coming discussions in Jakarta, Myanmar will agree to accept representatives from the ASEAN chair Brunei or the ASEAN secretariat in Jakarta to observe and help Myanmar return to normalcy,” he told reporters.
However, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said that he would be represented by his deputy, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Don Pramudwinai.
Thai and Malaysian officials have said that Min Aung Hlaing would go to Jakarta, although the Burmese government has not commented.
In the sweltering streets of Jakarta, buskers carry towering, hollow puppets and pass around a bucket for donations. Now, they fear becoming outlaws. City authorities said they would crack down on use of the sacred ondel-ondel puppets, which can stand as tall as a truck, and they are drafting legislation to remove what they view as a street nuisance. Performances featuring the puppets — originally used by Jakarta’s Betawi people to ward off evil spirits — would be allowed only at set events. The ban could leave many ondel-ondel buskers in Jakarta jobless. “I am confused and anxious. I fear getting raided or even
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
RSS