Myanmar protesters undaunted amid crackdown

Protesters in Myanmar kept up demands on Monday for the release of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi and an end to military rule, undaunted by the junta’s deployment of armored vehicles in several parts of the country and more soldiers on the streets.

Suu Kyi, detained since the Feb. 1 coup against her elected government, had been expected to face a court on Monday in connection with charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios but a judge said her remand lasted until Wednesday, her lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, said.

The Feb. 1 coup and the arrest of Nobel peace prize winner Suu Kyi and others have sparked the biggest protests in Myanmar in more than a decade, with hundreds of thousands coming onto the streets to denounce the military’s derailment of a tentative transition to democracy.

The unrest has revived memories of bloody outbreaks of opposition to almost half a century of direct army rule over the Southeast Asian nation, which ended in 2011, when the military began a process of withdrawing from civilian politics.

Violence this time has been limited but on Sunday, police opened fire to disperse protesters at a power plant in northern Myanmar although it was unclear if they were using rubber bullets or live rounds and there was no word on casualties.

As well as the demonstrations in numerous towns and cities, the military is facing a strike by government workers, part of a civil disobedience movement that is crippling many functions of government.

Armoured vehicles were deployed on Sunday in Yangon, the northern town of Myitkyina and Sittwe in the west, the first large-scale use of such vehicles since the coup.

More soldiers have also been spotted on the streets to help police who have been largely overseeing crowd control, including members of the 77th Light Infantry Division, a mobile force known for its brutal campaigns against ethnic minority insurgents and against protests in the past.

More than a dozen police trucks with four water cannon vehicles were deployed on Monday near the Sule Pagoda in central Yangon, one of the main demonstration sites in the city, where protesters had gathered outside the central bank and the Chinese embassy.

At the bank, several hundred people quietly held up signs calling for colleagues to join the CDM – the civil disobedience movement. An armoured vehicle and about six trucks carrying soldiers were parked nearby, a witness said.

Police in the capital, Naypyitaw, detained about 20 high-school students protesting by a road. Images posted on social media by one of the students showed them chanting slogans of defiance as they were taken away in a police bus.

Suu Kyi, 75, spent nearly 15 years under house arrest for her efforts to end military rule.

The judge in the capital, Naypyitaw, had spoken to Suu Kyi by video conferencing and she had asked if she could hire a lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw told Reuters.

The government and army could not be reached for comment.

The army has been carrying out nightly arrests and has given itself sweeping search and detention powers.

At least 400 people have been detained since the coup, the monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said.

Reuters