Burma: thousands of protesters in Yangon against military coup
Thousands of demonstrators were present in the streets of Yangon to protest against the military coup, this Saturday, February 6, 2021. © STR / AFP
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Several thousand Burmese demonstrate this Saturday, February 6 in Yangon, the biggest rally since the coup against Aung San Suu Kyi, while the putschist generals are censoring the internet with major cuts across the country.
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“
Down with the military dictatorship,
” cried protesters who marched through a neighborhood north of the economic capital.
Some waved red flags in the colors of the National League for Democracy (LND), the party of the former 75-year-old leader, arrested on Monday.
Others made the three-fingered salute, a gesture of resistance borrowed from American cinema.
The police had deployed in large numbers, blocking several nearby roads and installing two water cannons.
Numerous internet and social media cuts targeted
At the same time, the country is experiencing, for the second time this week, significant internet cuts across the country, according to the monitoring NGO, NetBlocks.
Access to Twitter and Instagram has been significantly restricted since the day before in an attempt to silence the protest, also very present on social networks where the hashtags #WeNeedDemocracy, #HeartheVoiceofMyanmar and #Freedomfromfear have been used millions of times.
► To read also:
Testimonies - Coup d'Etat in Burma: "A conflict between the will of the people and the military"
The Norwegian group Telenor, one of the main telecommunications operators in Burma, confirmed that the authorities had ordered the blocking of these platforms "
until further notice
".
The army had ordered two days earlier to prevent access to Facebook, the main communication tool for millions of Burmese.
These networks are used to "
cause misunderstandings among the public
", justified the Ministry of Transport and Communications, in a document that AFP was able to consult.
In an attempt to escape censorship, some Burmese are turning to VPNs, which allow them to bypass any geographic restriction.
First contact with the UN
Events remained at the heart of the international agenda.
Christine Schraner Burgener, UN special envoy for Burma, had initial contact with the military.
She "
clearly expressed our position
" to end the coup and release those detained, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters on Friday.
But the Security Council did not formally condemn the putsch in its joint declaration, Chinese and Russians opposing such a position.
China remains Burma's main support at the United Nations, where it thwarted any initiative against the army during the Rohingya Muslim crisis.
An online meeting was also held Friday between the Burmese authorities and several foreign diplomats and embassies, according to the state-held Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
For their part, the European Union and the United States have been posing the threat of sanctions since the early hours of the coup.
Demonstrations and strikes
Writers, monks, students, activists, deputies, local officials: the army has increased the number of arrests.
Win Htein, close to Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent more than twenty years in junta detention from 1989 to 2010, was arrested on Friday.
►Also read: In Burma, the army continues the arrests, the protest intensifies
Despite the fear of reprisals, in a country used to bloody repressions as in 1988 and 2007, hundreds of teachers and students had already demonstrated in Rangoon on Friday.
Dozens of civil servants had stopped work in several ministries and 300 deputies organized a virtual session to denounce the takeover of parliament.
Residents of Rangoon once again honked their horns and banged on saucepans to "
drive out demons
", the military.
The head of the army, Min Aung Hlaing, who now concentrates most of the powers, explained his passage in force by alleging that there had been "enormous" fraud in the legislative elections of November, massively won by the NLD .
In reality, the generals feared to see their influence diminish after the victory of the NLD, which could have wanted to modify the Constitution, which is very favorable to the military, analysts say.
(with AFP)
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