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The Burmese people are not giving up on their protests, police fired to disperse the crowd

Photo:EPA

 

The World Daily | News Desk           FEBRUARY  13th   2021

 

At least six shots were fired as Burmese police tried to disperse a protest against a military coup in the city of Mulmejn, Reuters reported. Three people were injured.

 

Friday is the seventh consecutive day of mass protests against the military dictatorship that overthrew the democratically elected government of the National League for Democracy (NLD) on February 1. Demonstrations are taking place in the largest cities of Myanmar (Burma), Rangoon and Mandalay, as well as in the country's capital, Naypyidaw, and many other regions.

In Friday’s news, Reuters reported that police fired at least six shots to disperse a demonstration in the city of Mulmejn, the capital of Mon state in the south of the country. Reuters cites a recording posted on social media. The agency also informed that the video, shared by Radio Free Asia, shows that officers were attacking the demonstrators. Before the shots were fired, protesters threw stones at the policemen.

Three people, one woman and two men, were injured when police used rubber bullets in Mulmejn, a representative of the Burmese Red Cross told Reuters.

Protesters told Reuters that more decisive action (from the international community - ed.) is needed to force the military to release the head of government Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest and recognize the NLD's victory in the November parliamentary elections. “We are hoping for more action as we suffer from a military coup in our country every day and night,” said Moe Thal, 29.

 

220 political prisoners

 

The soldiers detained dozens of former officials of the state election commission at various levels on Wednesday and Thursday, the Irrawaddy website reported. The army says fraud has taken place in the November elections (in which the NLD won with a large margin of votes).

According to the Union for Aid to Political Prisoners (AAPP), 220 political prisoners have been detained since the February 1 coup, including NLD leader Aung San Suu Kyi, members of her government, influential politicians, activists, monks, writers, and peaceful demonstrators. Until Tuesday, 20 of them were released, and 200 remained in custody.

 

The junta announced on Friday the cancellation of penalties for more than 23,000 people who are in prisons. According to the military, this action is in line with the plan to “create a new democratic state of peace, development and discipline” and “will please the public.”

Among those released from prisons is an influential ethnic minority leader from the Arakan state, Aye Maung, who was arrested in 2018 for allegedly praising the rebel Arakan Army and sentenced to 20 years in prison for treason, Reuters reported.

 

Process interrupted

 

The ongoing protests are the largest in Burma since 2007, when the “Saffron Revolution” supported by Buddhist monks began the process of gradually loosening of the military dictatorship and the transfer of power to civilian governments. This process was suddenly interrupted by the February 1 coup.

The army assures that after the state of emergency, which is to apply for a year, further elections will be held, and the winners will take over the country. However, many Burmese fear that the junta's takeover of control will only be the beginning of a long-term oppressive dictatorship, as it was after the 1962 and 1988 coups.

 

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