United Nations
Calls for a civil disobedience campaign in Myanmar gathered pace Wednesday as the United States formally declared the military’s takeover a coup and vowed further penalties for the generals behind the putsch.
Myanmar plunged back into direct military rule on Monday when soldiers detained Aung San Suu Kyi and other civilian leaders in a series of dawn raids, ending the country’s brief experiment with democracy. Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public since, won a huge landslide with her National League for Democracy (NLD) last November but the military—whose favoured parties received a drubbing—declared the polls fraudulent.
With soldiers and armoured cars back on the streets of major cities, the takeover has not been met by any large street protests.
But signs of public anger and plans to resist have begun to flicker. Doctors and medical staff at multiple hospitals across the country announced on Wednesday that they were donning red ribbons and walking away from all non-emergency work to protest the coup.
“Our main goal is to accept only the government we elected,” Aung San Min, head of 100-bed hospital in Gangaw district told AFP.
Some medical teams posted pictures on social media wearing red ribbons and raising a three-finger salute—a protest gesture used by democracy activists in neighbouring Thailand. Activists were announcing their campaigns on a Facebook group called “Civil Disobedience Movement” which by Wednesday afternoon had more 150,000 followers within 24 hours of its launch.—AFP
