4 yıl önce

Bloody protest in Myanmar marks lives lost to junta crackdown

Activists ditch usual Thingyan new year holiday festivities to focus on campaign against the generals who seized power in a coup.

AFP

A Myanmar bus stop covered in red spray paint as part of a "bleeding strike" demonstration against the military coup in East Dagon township in Yangon from an anonymous source via Facebook on April 14, 2021

Protesters in Myanmar have splashed red paint in the streets to symbolise the blood spilt and more than 700 lives lost in a brutal post-coup military crackdown.

This week is Myanmar's New Year festival of Thingyan holiday but normal festivities such as public water fights have been cancelled.

Instead, protesters have been using Thingyan as a rallying point – as bus shelters and pavements were sprayed red on Wednesday in cities and towns nationwide.

Activists called for what they dubbed a bloody paint strike and people responded on Wednesday with red smeared on roads, on signs outside government offices and on T-shirts, according to pictures posted on social media.

Some people marched with signs calling for the release of the leader of the ousted government, Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

She has been detained since the February 1 coup on various charges including violating an official secrets act that could see her imprisoned for 14 years.

Her lawyers have denied the charges against her.

"Please save our leader — future — hope," read a sign with a picture of Suu Kyi held by a young woman marching in the second city of Mandalay, according to a picture published by the Mizzima news service.

In the hill station of Kalaw in #Shan, locals threw red paint on the street instead of throwing water at each other to ring in Thingyan, Myanmar’s new year. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #RevolutionaryThingyan pic.twitter.com/che85PAiBt
— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) April 13, 2021

Revolutionary Thingyan

The five-day New Year holiday, known as Thingyan, began on Tuesday but pro-democracy activists cancelled the usual festivities, which include high-spirited water throwing in the streets, to focus on their campaign against the generals who seized power.

The military says the protests are petering out.

Activists have planned different shows of defiance every day over the holiday, which ends on Saturday.

Spattered red paint in Myanmar symbolises the blood of more than 700 civilians reported killed by the junta's forces since the coup. Protests continue. #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar pic.twitter.com/M4gk7CT9xa
— Matthew Tostevin (@TostevinM) April 14, 2021

Civil conflict

The coup has plunged Myanmar into crisis after 10 years of tentative steps toward democracy with daily protests and strikes by workers in many sectors that have brought the economy to a standstill.

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday it feared that the military clampdown on the protests risked escalating into a civil conflict like that seen in Syria and appealed for a halt to the "slaughter."

A Myanmar activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, says the security forces have killed 710 protesters since the ouster of Suu Kyi's government.

Anti-coup rallies continue in Mandalay on Wednesday—the second day of Myanmar’s New Year Water Festival, also known as Thingyan. People cancelled public celebrations this year due to the coup, instead launching the #RevolutionaryThingyan campaign. pic.twitter.com/FIHhhPTcOj
— Myanmar Now (@Myanmar_Now_Eng) April 14, 2021

Rekindled old wars

The coup has also rekindled hostilities in old wars between the military and ethnic minority forces fighting for autonomy in border regions.

Government forces suffered heavy casualties in an assault on ethnic Kachin forces in the north, the Myanmar Now media group reported.

A spokesman for the junta could not be reached for comment.

SOURCE: Reuters