Coup in Myanmar?
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Thousands of Myanmar protesters in standoff with police in Yangon
Police block a main street in Yangon as demonstrators attempt to march forward in first sign of street unrest following the coup.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon to denounce this week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the first such demonstration since the generals seized power.
“Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win,” protesters chanted, calling for the military to free Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party who have been detained since the coup on Monday.
“Against military dictatorship” read the banner at the front of the march. Many protesters dressed in the NLD’s colour, red, and some carried red flags.
Images and videos posted on social media on Saturday showed police blocking a major intersection of Insein Road and Hledan junction in Yangon, as protesters attempt to march forward. Demonstrators peacefully chanted as their raised their hands in a three-finger salute.
Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon to denounce this week’s coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the first such demonstration since the generals seized power.
“Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win,” protesters chanted, calling for the military to free Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party who have been detained since the coup on Monday.
“Against military dictatorship” read the banner at the front of the march. Many protesters dressed in the NLD’s colour, red, and some carried red flags.
Images and videos posted on social media on Saturday showed police blocking a major intersection of Insein Road and Hledan junction in Yangon, as protesters attempt to march forward. Demonstrators peacefully chanted as their raised their hands in a three-finger salute.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
TheMeInTeam
If A implies B...
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Not wholly, but distinct enough to merit distinction as an entity.
It does have an independent institutional personality, but it seems quite misguided to blame the UN when individual members prevent action. "The UN isn't doing enough" isn't a particularly meaningful criticism if it actually means "a particular actor is preventing the UN from doing enough".
The UN was also heavily designed to not operate without consensus.
Alternately, what should the UN be doing?
Is there a diaspora that could be doing something?
Alternately, what should the UN be doing?
Is there a diaspora that could be doing something?
amadeus
Serenity now
I suppose any real change would have to come from inside. Burma’s strategic importance to the West seems pretty minimal, and going on sanctions alone didn’t topple them the last time.
I think Bojo would be aware of the Road to Mandalay. But not more
Spot on. He had to be stopped from reciting it when in a Buddhist temple in Myanmar on a visit when he was Foreign Secretary.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...-on-camera-reciting-kipling-in-myanmar-temple
I actually cheated and already knew of that ^_^
My take is to take back control of the economy for their own enrichment.
You're correct that the civilian government was a sham. The constitution was written by the Army. The choice and design of the capital city was by the Army, specifically to make it easy to coup the civilian government. The Army has 25% of the seats in parliament, and also runs in the elections with a front party, and controls the ministry of defence and home affairs, and also appoints the vice president (who is now acting president after the coup). Some state-owned industries also remained under Army control. The civilian government basically only had control over bread and butter stuff, economy, healthcare, etc.
The NLD who led the civilian government increased their majority in the election and also were coming to an accommodation with ethnic minorities who have been rebelling against the central government on and off since independence. The Army probably saw this coalescing of civilian politicians around the NLD to challenge their power, and meanwhile the Myanmar economy has been growing massively in the past decade, and probably figured "might as well"
One would think a country's strategic importance to the West's main rival would mean it's strategically important to the West as well? It's extremely important to China for its natural resources and location between India and the rest of Southeast Asia and being situated just north of the Straits of Malacca through which huge volumes of trade to/from China flow.
Burma's borders actually follow natural geographical features, mountain ranges mostly, and a few rivers. The British drew the border between Burma and India/Bangladesh but they followed mountains as well.
Ethnic Burmese (Bamar) mainly lived in the Irrawaddy valley in the centre of the valley, but their control/influence over the highlands were a result of their own precolonial imperialism. If the Burmese had had their way in the early 1800s they'd be in control of Assam and all those northeastern Indian states as well.
Siam always stayed independent. Signed an alliance with Japan to escape full occupation, and worked with the Allies behind the scenes to escape enemy country status after the war.
In Myanmar, protesters urge police to join democracy fight
Is that blood on the road?
As thousands of protesters once again take to the streets across Myanmar in escalating protests against last week’s military coup, some have been met with force by the police for the first time.
Videos on social media showed police firing water cannon at protesters in the isolated capital of Naypyidaw, as they demanded an end to military rule and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
Their placards urged the police to stand with the protesters, as part of a growing civil disobedience movement that has already won support from doctors, teachers and other government workers.
Protesters seemed to be hoping to separate the police force from the military, despite the 2008 military-drafted constitution giving the armed forces authority over the police. Rank-and-file members of the police force are thought to be more sympathetic to the cause of the pro-democracy protesters.
Political analyst Khin Zaw Win said the “police are closer than the military” to Aung San Suu Kyi and would be more “likely to stand with protesters” than soldiers.
“Whether larger numbers join the protesters depends on senior officers coming in, on the duration of the protests, and the incidence of violence,” he said.
Videos on social media showed police firing water cannon at protesters in the isolated capital of Naypyidaw, as they demanded an end to military rule and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi
Their placards urged the police to stand with the protesters, as part of a growing civil disobedience movement that has already won support from doctors, teachers and other government workers.
Protesters seemed to be hoping to separate the police force from the military, despite the 2008 military-drafted constitution giving the armed forces authority over the police. Rank-and-file members of the police force are thought to be more sympathetic to the cause of the pro-democracy protesters.
Political analyst Khin Zaw Win said the “police are closer than the military” to Aung San Suu Kyi and would be more “likely to stand with protesters” than soldiers.
“Whether larger numbers join the protesters depends on senior officers coming in, on the duration of the protests, and the incidence of violence,” he said.
Is that blood on the road?
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FriendlyFire
Codex WMDicanious
Isnt that the three fingers salute from the movie Hunger Games ?
Burma and Thailand share more culturally than either cares to admit.
The thin peninsula is split east-west because of a mountain range north-south. The entire isthmus was contested between Siam and Burma with Siam mostly having the upper paw because Burma was mostly disunited, but Burma took it in the 1760s
It is. Protesters in Thailand have been using it against the military there as well.
Broken_Erika
Play with me.
Arrested for praying?
Police detained young fortune teller Hein Min Aung in South Okapala township on Thursday, after video footage went viral in which he is seen lighting candles and praying for the failure of the dictatorship.
Causing traffic jams seems to be the tactic today:
A powerful picture from Yangon shows a crowd of protestors amassing near the city hall. A crowd of hundreds appears gathered between the Sule Pagoda, Maha Bandula Park, and City Hall. More than a dozen large vehicles, which appear to be army trucks and police water cannons, block the road facing City Hall.
This image, dated February 13th, show protestors in Naypyitaw, face to face with what appears to be a line of police along the central Taungnyo Road, causing them to stop in the highway.
One image taken Tuesday shows a vast slogan written on a main thoroughfare of the city Mandalay, near what appears to be the Ministry of Information, declaring "WE WANT DEMOCRACY."
Myanmar’s coup opponents gather for major protests
Thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon on Wednesday to show their anger at the military coup in Myanmar amid rising concern of violence in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.
Protesters called for massive rallies to shatter the army’s claim that people backed its February 1 move to seize power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) after they were returned to government in a landslide in November’s elections.
Along with the larger crowds, people also stopped their cars in the streets or at key junctions – their bonnets open in mass ‘breakdowns’ – as a way of thwarting any military advance.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said earlier he was “terrified” of an escalation in violence, saying he had received reports of troop movements around the country and feared the protesters were facing real danger.
There are some pretty cool satellite images of the protests:Protesters called for massive rallies to shatter the army’s claim that people backed its February 1 move to seize power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD) after they were returned to government in a landslide in November’s elections.
Along with the larger crowds, people also stopped their cars in the streets or at key junctions – their bonnets open in mass ‘breakdowns’ – as a way of thwarting any military advance.
Tom Andrews, the United Nations’ special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said earlier he was “terrified” of an escalation in violence, saying he had received reports of troop movements around the country and feared the protesters were facing real danger.
A powerful picture from Yangon shows a crowd of protestors amassing near the city hall. A crowd of hundreds appears gathered between the Sule Pagoda, Maha Bandula Park, and City Hall. More than a dozen large vehicles, which appear to be army trucks and police water cannons, block the road facing City Hall.
This image, dated February 13th, show protestors in Naypyitaw, face to face with what appears to be a line of police along the central Taungnyo Road, causing them to stop in the highway.
One image taken Tuesday shows a vast slogan written on a main thoroughfare of the city Mandalay, near what appears to be the Ministry of Information, declaring "WE WANT DEMOCRACY."
Myanmar’s coup opponents gather for major protests
Critics of Myanmar’s military coup gathered on Wednesday in a major show of opposition to the army’s assertion of public support for overthrowing elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
News reports said security forces were surrounding the demonstrators.
News reports said security forces were surrounding the demonstrators.
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Myanmar police kill 2 in bloodiest day of anti-coup protests
A soldier carries a sniper rifle during a demonstration against the coup in Mandalay
At least two people have been killed and several wounded in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay when security forces opened fire to disperse people protesting against the country’s military coup, according to emergency service workers and other witnesses.
In Mandalay, a shipyard raid turned violent on Saturday when security forces opened fire on demonstrators trying to stop the arrest of workers taking part in the growing anti-coup movement. The clash started with the demonstrators flinging rocks, but authorities retaliated by opening fire, sending them fleeing in fear.
In addition to the deaths, which were also reported by local media, Ko Aung, leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency, told Reuters news agency 20 people were wounded. At least five people were injured by rubber bullets and had to be carried away in ambulances, according to an Associated Press news agency journalist who witnessed the violence.
“They beat and shot my husband and others,” a resident told AFP in tears. “He was standing on the side and watching the protest but the soldiers took him away.”
In Mandalay, a shipyard raid turned violent on Saturday when security forces opened fire on demonstrators trying to stop the arrest of workers taking part in the growing anti-coup movement. The clash started with the demonstrators flinging rocks, but authorities retaliated by opening fire, sending them fleeing in fear.
In addition to the deaths, which were also reported by local media, Ko Aung, leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency, told Reuters news agency 20 people were wounded. At least five people were injured by rubber bullets and had to be carried away in ambulances, according to an Associated Press news agency journalist who witnessed the violence.
“They beat and shot my husband and others,” a resident told AFP in tears. “He was standing on the side and watching the protest but the soldiers took him away.”
A soldier carries a sniper rifle during a demonstration against the coup in Mandalay
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