Myanmar anti-coup activists system new street protests immediately after paralysing strike
25 March, 2021
Myanmar pro-democracy activists intend to resume street demonstrations on Thursday (Mar 25), a day following a nationwide silent strike saw businesses shut and persons stay at home in protest against armed service rule on the Southeast Asian country.
In an indicator of further international pressure over a Feb 1 coup, America is planning to impose sanctions on two conglomerates managed by Myanmar's military, sources familiar with the problem told Reuters.
Marking a move in tactics by protesters, Wednesday's silent strike left normally bustling regions of business hubs like Yangon in the southern and Monywa in central Myanmar deserted.
As the scale of the road protests have been dropping in recent days, activists called for a major demonstration on Thursday.
"The strongest storm employs the silence," protest head Ei Thinzar Maung explained in a public media post.
Candle-lit vigils took place across Myanmar again over night, photographs on public media showed, with some tiny early protests already starting on Thursday morning.
In Thanlyin on the outskirts of Yangon protesters organized placards reading: "We don't accept armed service coup," while medical staff dressed in white coats kept a dawn march in the second city of Mandalay.
This handout photo obtained from an anonymous source and taken on Mar 23, 2021 shows a candle-lit demonstration against the military coup in Yangon's Thaketa township.
At least 286 persons have already been killed as the security forces employ lethal force to quell unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
Five more people were wounded overnight found in Mandalay, Myanmar's second metropolis, Myanmar Now media wall plug reported.
A 16-year-old man later on died after being shot in the trunk, the outlet said.
The funeral of a seven-year-old girl killed on Tuesday, the youngest regarded victim of the crackdown, occurred on Wednesday in Mandalay.
A spokesman for the military, which said on Tuesday 164 protesters have been killed, didn't answer calls seeking comment.
SINGAPORE FOREIGN MINISTER IN JAKARTA
The junta on Wednesday freed hundreds of men and women arrested in its crackdown on protests against the overthrow of the elected government of Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
There was no word from authorities on how many prisoners were discrete, but AAPP said 628 persons were released after a lot more than 2,900 have been arrested because the coup.
The junta has faced international condemnation for staging the coup that halted Myanmar's slow transition to democracy and for its deadly suppression of dissent.
It has tried to justify the takeover by saying a Nov 8 election won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was fraudulent - an accusation the electoral commission has rejected. Armed service leaders possess promised a fresh election but have certainly not set a time and have declared circumstances of emergency.
EUROPE and America imposed sanctions on Monday against individuals mixed up in the coup and the repression of the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, a move simply by the US Treasury to blacklist two conglomerates controlled by the armed service - Myanmar Economic Company (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) - and freeze any possessions they carry in america could come as soon as Thursday, sources said.
The armed service controls vast swathes of Myanmar's economy through the having organizations and their subsidiaries.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her advertising campaign to bring democratic civilian guideline to Myanmar, has been around detention because the coup and faces expenses that her lawyer says have been prepared up to discredit her.
Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan is due to meet up with his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Jakarta on a trip starting on Thursday that is expected to include discussions on Myanmar.
Malaysia and Indonesia would like an urgent appointment of Southeast Asia's ASEAN regional grouping, which Myanmar is an associate to go over the crisis.
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