Myanmar protesters wear flowers to mark Aung San Suu Kyi's birthday
19 June, 2021
Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar donned flowers within their hair on Saturday (Jun 19) to mark the birthday of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest and is because of face court again in a few days.
Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government was overthrown in a Feb 1 coup that sparked mass protests and renewed clashes between your military and ethnic rebel armies in border regions.
Flowers tucked right into a bun have long been a signature look of Aung San Suu Kyi, who turns 76 on Saturday.
Many replicated the floral hairstyle and uploaded pictures onto social media across Myanmar on Saturday.
Among them was Myanmar Miss Universe beauty queen Thuzar Wint Lwin, who wore red flowers in her hair and wrote: "May our leader be healthy."
In Yangon's north, protesters set up posters on power lines wishing Aung San Suu Kyi a happy birthday and expressing solidarity.
"Happy Birthday Mother Suu. We are directly behind you," the signs read.
Some marched with black umbrellas and banners that read "freedom from fear" alongside pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi.
In the border region of Karen state, some rebel soldiers were photographed holding their guns and yellow, white and purple posies and single flowers tucked behind their ears.
Demonstrators in the south-eastern city of Dawei made a huge pink birthday cake and brought it with their street protest.
The Noble Peace Prize Laureate's international reputation was damaged after she defended Myanmar's military over allegations of genocide against the ethnic minority Rohingya population in troubled Rakhine state in 2017.
BACK IN COURT
Not all Myanmar flower protest participants were packed with praise for Aung San Suu Kyi.
"I am involved with this campaign because now she is unfairly detained by the military and her civilian rights ... and freedom is denied," a 35-year-old activist told AFP, adding it wasn't personal support.
"After she is free from her detention, she'll need to take full responsibility over her silence regarding the suffering of Rohingya and other ethnic groups."
The civilian death toll because the coup is estimated to be at least 870 people and near 5,000 protesters are in detention after being arrested, according to a local monitoring group.
The UN General Assembly on Friday took the rare step of calling on member states to "prevent the flow of arms" into Myanmar, part of a non-binding resolution condemning the military coup in the violence-wracked country.
The resolution - which did not go as far as to require a global arms embargo - also demands that the military "immediately stop all violence against calm demonstrators".
It was approved by 119 countries, with 36 abstaining including China, Myanmar's main ally. Only 1 country, Belarus, voted against it.
Aung San Suu Kyi arrives back in court next week and has been hit with an eclectic raft of criminal charges, including accepting illegitimate payments of gold and violating a colonial-era secrecy law.
She continued trial for sedition on Tuesday, but journalists were barred from observing proceedings.
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