YANGON—Throngs of anti-coup protesters again poured onto the streets across Myanmar on Wednesday, undeterred by the military regime’s assembly ban and speculation that more crackdowns were imminent after a number of incidents on Tuesday in which riot police violently confronted demonstrators.

In the country’s capital Naypyitaw, where protesters were gunned down with live and rubber bullets a day earlier, nearly 500 government employees from four ministries took to the streets to protest against military rule. Their participation added fuel to the country’s ongoing Civil Disobedience Movement, in which civil servants are refusing to work in order to express their opposition to the coup. Unlike Tuesday, protesters didn’t experience any resistance from the police on Wednesday. A 20-year-old woman who sustained a serious head injury when police opened fire during Tuesday’s crackdown had very little chance of surviving, according to her sister.

Anti-coup protesters in downtown Yangon on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

Residents of Loikaw in Kayah State in Myanmar’s southeast on Tuesday welcomed some new participants in their anti-coup protests. Still dressed in their uniforms, more than 20 young policemen and women joined the protest, raising the popular three-finger salute symbolizing defiance of the military regime. They held a large placard with the slogan “Say No to Military Dictatorship” spray-painted on it. However, the military regime said they were not full-time officers but had been hired on a temporary basis.

On Wednesday morning, a group of people held a protest in front of the Chinese Embassy in Yangon. They raised placards reading “Don’t Ignore Injustice” and “Stand Up for What Is Right!” Long known for its cozy relationship with the Myanmar military, China—along with Russia—has refused to condemn the takeover at the United Nations Security Council. There were also protests before the Japanese Embassy and the UNDP’s office in Yangon. Unlike the protest at the Chinese Embassy, these were aimed at raising international awareness of what is happening in the country.

A couple in wedding costumes join the protest in downtown Yangon on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

In Hledan, which has become ground zero for Yangon’s anti-coup demonstrations, columns of protesters began arriving in the morning, clogging the neighborhood as they have since Saturday. The whole area reverberated with chanted slogans like “Democracy, Our Cause!” and “Down with Military Dictatorship!” Placards emblazoned with “Free Daw Aung San Suu Kyi” were omnipresent.

Theint Myat Chel said she had been protesting for four days, simply because she couldn’t put up with the injustice of the military’s power seizure.

“We people voted freely and democratically. It is very evident who the winner was. They ignored the people’s desire and did what they liked. That’s why I have been coming out here—I can’t tolerate it,” said the 20-year-old University of Economics student.

An anti-coup protester in a spooky costume in downtown Yangon on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

The ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) won a landslide victory in November’s general election, while the military proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party did very poorly. The military has insisted that the election was stolen, and attempted to justify its coup by saying the NLD government had ignored its complaints.

On their fifth day, the protests in downtown Yangon took on a performance-like atmosphere, with some demonstrators getting creative. Dressed in bridal costumes or cloaked in white from head to toe, they became centers of public attention and amusement. But while the costumes may have been diverse, there was unity in the sentiments expressed on their placards.

One couple was clad in traditional Burmese wedding attire. As they walked down the road, the man held high a sign saying: “We Both Hate You MHL [Min Aung Hlaing, the coup leader]. That’s Why We Are Perfect for Each Other”. The woman’s sign read: “Me[a]rry Someone Who Hate[s] Military Coup.”

An anti-coup protester wears an inflatable dinosaur suit in downtown Yangon on Wednesday. / The Irrawaddy

Clad entirely in white, a spooky group of figures was seen moving around the outside of the Sule Shangri-La Hotel—despite the broad daylight. Passersby who encountered the ghostly group were doubtless relieved to read their placards, which exhorted: “Shame on You MHL!”

At the entrance of Sule Square, a protester in an inflatable dinosaur suit held a sign reading: “Reject Military Coup.”

Riot police were almost entirely absent from the area on Wednesday, resulting in a strange calm. But no one who is old enough to have experienced the bloody crackdown on Myanmar’s popular uprising in 1988 took much comfort from that: To them, it feels like the calm before the storm.

The Irrawaddy

• The Irrawaddy. 10 February 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/myanmar-anti-coup-protesters-defy-ban-take-streets-fifth-day.html

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 Central Bank of Myanmar Staff Join Anti-Coup Protests

Yangon — Over 100 Central Bank of Myanmar staff, including employees from the headquarters in Naypyitaw and branches in Yangon and Mandalay, had joined the civil disobedience movement by Tuesday.

Around 80 Yangon staff and 20 in Mandalay and a few in Naypyitaw joined the movement against the military coup, a Yangon employee told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity.

“We don’t want to work under a government that seized power in a coup. It is sheer injustice. I feel guilty working at the office with ease while the younger generation is in the streets so I joined the movement,” she told The Irrawaddy.

She urged other civil servants not to work under a military dictatorship. The staff said they will not work until the democratically elected government returns to power.

A junior clerk in Yangon, who did not want to be named, said: “We will go back to work when we have the government we elected, the government that people want. We will fight until our last breath against this government that has unfairly seized power,” she said.

She said the staff have been told to return to work and they expect to be asked to leave their government-provided accommodation and be denied their salaries.

The military has replaced the central bank’s governors and deputy governors since Monday’s coup. Deputy governor U Bo Bo Nge, who was appointed by the National League for Democracy administration, remains under detention though other deputy governors have been released by the military.

The civil disobedience movement is gathering strength with department directors taking part.

On Wednesday, around 500 civil servants gathered at the Myoma market in Naypyitaw, shouting: “Don’t go to work! Leave the office!”

The Irrawaddy

• The Irrawaddy. 10 February 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/central-bank-myanmar-staff-join-anti-coup-protests.html

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 Woman Shot by Myanmar Police During Anti-Coup Protest Declared Brain Dead

Ma Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, a 20-year-old student who was shot in the head by a police officer during an anti-coup protest in Naypyitaw on Tuesday, was pronounced brain dead that night.

Video footage that has gone viral on Facebook shows that she made no attempt to get past the police barricades at the scene. She collapsed abruptly after being struck in the head by a bullet while taking cover from water cannons under a bus-stop shelter.

The bullet that struck her was a live round, not a rubber bullet, a doctor from a medical team in Naypyitaw who requested anonymity told The Irrawaddy, adding that the bullet pierced the motorcycle helmet she was wearing and lodged in her head.

“She is brain dead. The bullet that lodged in her head is still there; it can’t be removed,” the doctor said. He added that Ma Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing had no chance of recovery because she is being kept alive by artificial life support. She is currently in the intensive care unit at Naypyitaw 1,000-Bed Hospital.

The military reportedly requested that Ma Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing be transferred to their facility but doctors at the Naypyitaw hospital refused and kept the patient under their care.

The youth protester cast her first vote in the 2020 general election, the results of which were rejected by the military. It is widely believed that she was targeted among the crowd as she was wearing a red shirt. Red is the color of the National League for Democracy, the ousted ruling party led by detained State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.

One of her close friends told The Irrawaddy that before she was shot, they were planning celebrations for her 21^st birthday on Thursday. She was also preparing to retake her matriculation exam once her school, which is currently closed due to COVID-19, reopened.

The shooting has been widely denounced as an atrocity, as police reportedly deliberately took aim and fired lethal weapons not designed for riot control at protesters who were unarmed and who were not attempting to cross security perimeters established by the authorities. A picture has spread widely on social media showing a deputy police chief overseeing security forces in Naypyitaw’s Thapyaygone aiming a gun at protesters as they were being violently dispersed.

A poster depicting a blood-soaked Ma Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing hangs from a flyover in Hledan, Yangon, as demonstrators continued their protest on Wednesday. / Zaw Zaw Htwe / The Irrawaddy

Another demonstrator who was shot into the chest was also hospitalized. At least four others were also injured by gunshots during the crackdown.

Following Tuesday’s violent police crackdown on demonstrators in Naypyitaw, Mandalay and other cities, the UN office in Myanmar and the US government expressed concern about the military regime’s treatment of peaceful protesters, denouncing the use of disproportionate force against demonstrators as “unacceptable”.

San Yamin Aung

• The Irrawaddy. 10 February 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/woman-shot-myanmar-police-anti-coup-protest-declared-brain-dead.html

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 Thousands More Civil Servants Join Movement Against Myanmar Military

Health-care workers from Naypyitaw’s 1,000-bed hospital strike for a sixth day on Monday. / Thiha Lwin / The Irrawaddy

Myanmar’s civil disobedience movement has gained momentum across the country with thousands of civil servants, including in Naypyitaw, going on strike against military rule.

The “no recognition, no participation” approach was launched by medics last Wednesday and joined by increasing numbers of ministerial staff.

Thousands more health, education, investment, social welfare and construction ministry and forest and railway department staff joined the strike on Monday.

Staff at the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations said in a statement that they are unwilling to work under military rule and had joined the movement. The protests expressed their belief in the basic rights granted under the 2008 Constitution, it said, calling on other civil servants to join the movement.

A Department of Social Welfare staff statement said: “We will get back to work only after power is handed back to the democratically elected government.”

U Than Toe Aung, deputy permanent secretary at Ministry of Construction, posted on Facebook that he was joining the movement on Monday.

“I strongly condemn the military dictators who forcibly seized power and unlawfully formed the State Administrative Council,” he wrote.

“I call on my colleagues to follow suit to help bring down the dictatorship.”

Teachers, forestry staff, general administration department employees and nurses in uniform have joined protests in many cities.

The public have backed the growing civil disobedience movement with mass demonstrations nationwide to demand the release of detained leaders and activists and call for an end to military rule.

Meanwhile, the military government continued to roll out its new administration, replacing ministers and their deputies at the Union, state and regional levels.

The Irrawaddy

• The Irrawaddy. 08 February 2021:
https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/burma/thousands-civil-servants-join-movement-myanmar-military.html

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