Anti-coup protests held in Myanmar

Hundreds of people, led by students and teachers, have staged several protests across Myanmar to denounce the recent military coup in the country and call for a return to civilian rule.

People held protests at two universities in Yangon on Friday, chanting “We don’t want a military dictatorship.”

About 200 people participated in the demonstration at the Yangon University of Education in the city, and a similar number marched at the Dagon University, also in Yangon.

They were the largest demonstrations since the military takeover of power in Myanmar on Monday.

The protesters flashed a three-finger salute that they adopted from anti-government demonstrators in neighboring Thailand, and held papers printed with images of red ribbons — the symbol of a civil disobedience campaign that ousted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party has called for.

Students have played a major role in previous protest movements against military dictatorship.

“I believe we will have to lead this movement,” said student Min Han Htet, adding, “All the people, including the students, will have to bring down the military junta. We will have to make sure that juntas never appear again in the next generation.”

The military said on February 1 that it had arrested Suu Kyi and her associates over accusations of voter fraud in favor of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party in November 2020 elections.

Myanmar’s opposition wants ‘new, disciplined election’ in cooperation with the military

‘We reject the election because it was unfair,’ the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) said.

The military placed commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing in power and pledged to hold fresh elections in a year and hand over power to the winner.

“We will never be together with them,” lecturer Nwe Thazin said of the junta leaders at the protest at the Yangon University of Education. “We want that kind of government to collapse as soon as possible.”

At least one protest was also held in the tightly-controlled capital, Naypyitaw, amid heavy military presence on Friday.

In the city’s biggest hospital, medical staff gathered behind a big banner denouncing the coup.

About 50 people also took to the streets of Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi Region on Friday, according to the online news agency Dawei Watch.

Also on Friday, Win Htein, a senior member of the deposed ruling party, the NLD, was detained, party spokesman Kyi Toe said. The 79-year-old politician had publicly called for civil disobedience to oppose the coup.

Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has said at least 133 officials or lawmakers and 14 civil society activists have been arrested by the military due to opposition to the coup, though some have already been released.

The coup has drawn wide condemnation from the international community.

In its first statement on the issue, the United Nations Security Council “stressed the need to uphold democratic institutions and processes, refrain from violence, and fully respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law.”

Demonstrations denouncing the coup were also held on Friday in India, Indonesia, and South Korea, sometimes led by Myanmarese expats.

Myanmar was ruled by the military from 1962 until 2011, when Suu Kyi ended the junta rule.

But her international reputation has been tarnished because she defended a military campaign of genocide against the minority Rohingya Muslim community in 2017.

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