Myanmar protesters create gridlock in Yangon amid fears of violence

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets of major cities in Myanmar, protesting the military’s power grab amid rising concern of violence in the troubled Southeast Asian nation.

Wednesday’s protests marked one of the largest in Myanmar since the February 1 coup and came after protesters urged people to turn out en masse and shatter the military’s claim that the public backed its decision to seize power from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy (NLD).

The NLD had swept a November 8 election as widely expected, but the army alleges there was fraud.

At a news conference, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, spokesman for the ruling council, maintained that the military’s seizure of power was in line with the constitution and said it remained committed to democracy.

He also said 40 million of the 53 million population supported the military’s action.

The turnout in Yangon appeared to be one of the biggest so far in the city. Along with the larger crowds, some people also stopped their cars in the streets or at key junctions with their bonnets open in mass “breakdowns” as a way of blocking off streets from security forces.

In Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw, thousands marched down its wide boulevards, chanting for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.

Protesters also poured into the streets of Mandalay, where on Monday security forces pointed guns at a group of 1,000 demonstrators and attacked them with slingshots and sticks.

Local media reported that police also fired rubber bullets into a crowd and that a few people were wounded.

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.

Myanmar’s military has a history of violence and impunity during the decades that it ruled the country before the transition to democracy began 10 years ago.

Armed forces chief, Min Aung Hlaing, who led the coup, also directed the 2017 crackdown on the Rohingya minority in the western state of Rakhine, which the United Nations has said was carried out with “genocidal “intent’’.

“The security forces’ approach could take an even darker turn fast.

Soldiers and armoured vehicles have begun to reinforce the police lines and, should the generals become impatient with the status quo, could easily become the sharp end of a bloody crackdown, as has happened in the past,” the International Crisis Group warned in a briefing released.

The February 1 coup has brought an abrupt halt to Myanmar’s fragile progress towards democracy, as Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD was about to begin a second five-year term after winning a landslide in November’s election.

At Tuesday’s news conference, Zaw Min Tun told reporters that the military is guaranteeing that an election would be held and power handed to the winner. He gave no timeframe but said the army would not be in power for long.

The last stretch of army rule lasted nearly half a century before democratic reforms began in 2011.

The militaMyanmar protesters ry in 1990 held an election, but then refused to accept the result after the NLD, then a newly formed party, swept the elections.

It had earlier used force against protesters in 1988 and did so again in 2007 when a hike in fuel prices triggered mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks.

Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, is thought to be under house arrest and was charged under the National Disaster Management Law with breaching COVID-19 regulations while campaigning for the elections.

She has also been charged with illegally importing walkie-talkies that were found in her home.

Meanwhile, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which is keeping track of those taken into custody, says 452 people have been detained since February 1. Some 417 remain in detention.

Those arrested include much of the NLD’s senior leadership.

Internet networks were also taken down for the third night in a row, but connectivity was restored on Wednesday morning, according to NetBlocks, which monitors disruption and outages, and images of the rallies widely shared.

As well as the demonstrations in towns across the ethnically diverse country, a civil disobedience movement has brought strikes that are crippling many functions of government.