In Myanmar, Easter eggs become symbol of defiance for anti-coup protesters
04 April, 2021
Opponents of military rule found in Myanmar inscribed messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday (Apr 4), while some were rear on the streets, facing off with security forces after a nights candle-lit vigils for hundreds killed since a Feb 1 coup.
In the most recent in some impromptu reveals of defiance, messages including "We should win", "Planting season Revolution" and "Get out MAH" were seen on eggs in photographs on social media, the latter discussing junta leader Min Aung Hlaing. Easter isn't widely seen in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group monitoring casualties and arrests because the military overthrew the elected government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, said the toll of dead had increased to 557, lately Saturday.
"People across Burma continued striking for the end of dictatorship, for democracy and human rights," the group said, using another name for the Southeast Asian country.
Regardless of the killings, protesters continue to turn out every day in towns big and small to reject the come back of military rule after a decade of tentative measures towards democracy. Numerous candle-lit vigils took place on Saturday night.
In early stages Sunday, hundreds of folks protested in the country's second city of Mandalay, some by walking, others on motorbikes, according to images in social media, ahead of police and soldiers moved in to disperse them.
Protesters also gathered in a number of other towns.
There have been no immediate reports of violence.
Police and a spokesman for the junta didn't answer calls seeking comment.
BROADBAND CUT
The AAPP said 2,658 persons were in detention, including four women and a man who spoke to a visiting CNN news crew in interviews on the streets of the key city of Yangon the other day.
A good spokesman for CNN said it had been aware of studies of detentions following team's visit.
"We happen to be pressing the authorities for information upon this, and for the safe launch of any detainees," the spokesman said.
The military is waging its own campaign to control information and stifle dissent.
It ordered Internet providers to cut wireless broadband from Friday, depriving most customers of access, though some text messages and pictures were still getting posted and shared.
Photos of messages painted on eggs by Myanmar coup opponents were posted on social press on Easter Sunday, Apr 4, 2021.
Authorities also have issued arrest warrants for practically 40 celebrities known for opposing military rule, including social mass media influencers, singers and models, under a legislation against inciting dissent found in the armed forces.
The charge, announced on the main evening news bulletins broadcast by state mass media on Friday and Saturday, can carry a prison term of 3 years.
'CONSCIENCE CLEAR'
Among those charged, blogger Thurein Hlaing Win, told Reuters he was first shocked to see himself branded a good criminal on tv and had gone into hiding.
"I didn't do anything bad or evil. I stood on the side of truth. I followed the path I really believe in. Between very good and evil, I chose very good," he explained by telephone from an undisclosed location.
"If I get punished for that, my conscience is clear. My beliefs won't change. Everyone is aware the truth."
The military ruled the former British colony with an iron fist after seizing power in a 1962 coup until it commenced withdrawing from civilian politics ten years ago, releasing Aung San Suu Kyi from years of house arrest and allowing an election that her party swept in 2015.
It says it had to oust Aung San Suu Kyi's government just because a November election, again won easily by her party, was rigged. The election commission possesses dismissed the assertion.
Many in Myanmar, particularly younger people who have come of age in the past decade of social and monetary checking, cannot accept the come back of guideline by the generals.
Aung San Suu Kyi is normally on detention facing charges that could bring 14 years in prison. Her legal professional says the charges will be trumped up.
The coup has also triggered clashes with autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces that have announced support for the pro-democracy movement.
The Karen National Union, which signed a ceasefire in 2012, has seen the first military air strikes on its forces in a lot more than 20 years and says it must fight to guard itself from a government offensive.
The group said a lot more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes because of the air strikes.
Fighting has also flared found in the north between your army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil provides sent several thousand refugees fleeing into Thailand and India.
Aung San Suu Kyi's party has vowed to create a federal democracy, the main demand for the minority groups.
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