Protesters in Myanmar’s largest city braved potential violence by security forces on Monday to demonstrate against February’s military coup, showing their resolve to continue their resistance two days after Southeast Asian leaders met to address the country’s crisis.
The group of mainly young people flooded into the streets of a Yangon neighborhood carrying banners and brandishing the three-fingered salute which the movement has adopted as its symbol.
Demonstrations have continued in many parts of the country since Saturday’s meeting of leaders from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, as have arrests and beatings by security forces despite an apparent agreement by junta leader Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing to end the violence.
Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute together on their message card during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday, April 26, 2021. Southeast Asian leaders have demanded an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar during an emergency summit in Jakarta with its top general and coup leader. (AP Photo)
More than 700 protesters and bystanders have been killed by the security forces since the Feb. 1 coup, according to several detailed estimates. The junta's own figure is roughly one-third of that. It also says it does not use disproportionate force to put down what it describes as rioting.
After chanting their opposition to the junta and listening to speeches, the protesters quickly scattered to avoid any confrontation with police or soldiers.
In Monday's protests and online, many expressed dissatisfaction with the outcome of Saturday’s ASEAN meeting in Jakarta, especially the lack of a demand for the release of political prisoners. The country’s former elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, was arrested in the coup and is among an estimated 3,400 people still being held.
Anti-coup protesters flash the three-finger salute, holding a banner during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, Monday, April 26, 2021. Southeast Asian leaders have demanded an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar during an emergency summit in Jakarta with its top general and coup leader. (AP Photo)
ASEAN issued a statement expressing a “five-point consensus” on Myanmar’s crisis. It called for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation of the dialogue process by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Myanmar by the special ASEAN envoy to meet all concerned parties.
Foes of the junta were also unhappy that they was no representative at the meeting from the shadow National Unity Government, which they call the country’s only legitimate government.
The NUG was recently established by elected lawmakers who were barred from taking their seats by the military when it seized power.
An anti-coup protester flashes the three-finger salute and holds a placard during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday, April 26, 2021. Southeast Asian leaders have demanded an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar during an emergency summit in Jakarta with its top general and coup leader. (AP Photo)
The shadow government's initial reaction to the ASEAN meeting was guardedly hopeful.
“We look forward to firm action by ASEAN to follow up its decisions and to restore our democracy and freedom for our people and for the region,” NUG spokesman Dr. Sasa said in a statement posted on social media.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, called the five-point consensus “an encouraging step forward in ASEAN’s ongoing efforts to resolve the current crisis in Myanmar.”
An anti-coup protester looks at the images of ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, on Monday, April 26, 2021. Southeast Asian leaders have demanded an immediate end to killings and the release of political detainees in Myanmar during an emergency summit in Jakarta with its top general and coup leader. (AP Photo)
China said it welcomed the meeting, which it called “a good start for all parties to promote an open and inclusive ‘ASEAN approach’ to de-escalate the situation in Myanmar.”
“Of course, one meeting cannot completely solve all the problems,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said in Beijing on Monday.
China is widely seen as providing essential political and economic support to the junta.
Some involved observers have adopted more of a wait-and-see attitude.
Tom Andrews, the U.N.’s independent expert on human rights for Myanmar, said the ASEAN summit should be judged by the results in Myanmar.
“Will the killing stop? Will the terrorizing of neighborhoods end? Will the thousands abducted be released? Will impunity persist? Anxious to work w ASEAN’s Spec Envoy & monitor Summit’s actual results,” he wrote Sunday on Twitter.
In Myanmar's capital, Naypyitaw, Suu Kyi expressed frustration in a court hearing on Monday at delays in responding to her request to meet face-to-face with her lawyers to prepare a defense against several criminal charges against her.
Suu Kyi has been charged with two counts of breaching a law intended to control the spread of the coronavirus, illegally importing walkie-talkies, unlicensed use of them, inciting public unrest and breaking the official secrets act.
Her supporters say the charges are politically motivated, with the slow pace of the cases serving as an excuse to keep her locked up. Win Myint, who was president in her government, is in the same predicament and faces some of the same charges.
Suu Kyi told the court in a hearing by video conference that she had asked to meet her lawyers a long time ago, and since then additional charges have been brought against her, said Min Min Soe, a member of her legal team.
Both Suu Kyi and Win Myint appeared healthy, though Suu Kyi seemed slightly thinner than before, Min Min Soe said.
Her next appointment before the court is on May 10.
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Associated Press video producer Liu Zheng in Beijing contributed to this report.
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said as it freed more than 3,000 prisoners under an amnesty to mark this week's traditional New Year holiday.
Suu Kyi, 78, and Win Myint, the 72-year-old former president of her ousted government, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved to house arrest because of the severe heat, military spokesperson Maj. Gen. General Zaw Min Tun told foreign media representatives late Tuesday. The move has not yet been publicly announced in Myanmar.
Suu Kyi’s transfer comes as the army has been suffering a string of major defeats at the hands of pro-democracy resistance fighters and their allies in ethnic minority guerrilla forces. The nationwide conflict began after the army ousted the elected government in February 2021, imprisoned Suu Kyi and began suppressing nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.
Suu Kyi has been serving a 27-year prison term on a variety of criminal convictions in a specially built annex of the main prison in the capital Naypyitaw, where Myanmar’s meteorological department said temperatures reached 39 degrees Celsius (102.2 degrees Fahrenheit) on Tuesday afternoon. Win Myint was serving an eight-year prison sentence in Taungoo in Myanmar’s Bago region.
Suu Kyi's supporters and independent analysts say the charges were fabricated in an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power. The military had claimed that her National League for Democracy Party used widespread electoral fraud to win a landslide victory in the 2020 general election, an allegation independent observers found unconvincing.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an independent group that monitors casualties and arrests, more than 20,351 people arrested on political charges since the 2021 army takeover are still in detention, most of whom have not received criminal convictions.
Suu Kyi's health has reportedly deteriorated in prison. In September last year, reports emerged that she was suffering from symptoms of low blood pressure including dizziness and loss of appetite, but had been denied treatment at qualified facilities outside the prison system.
Those reports could not be independently confirmed, but her younger son Kim Aris said in interviews that he had heard that his mother has been extremely ill and has been suffering from gum problems and was unable to eat. Aris, who lives in the U.K., urged that Myanmar’s military government be pressured to free his mother and other political prisoners.
News about Suu Kyi is tightly controlled by the military government, and even her lawyers are banned by a gag order from talking to the media about her cases. Her legal team has faced several hurdles, including being unable to meet with her to receive her instructions since they last saw her in person in December 2022.
Whether the latest move was meant to be temporary was not announced.
Spokesperson Zaw Min Tun did not say where the released prisoners were being moved to in his remarks to U.S.-government funded Voice of America and Britain's BBC, but there was no indication it might be one of her own former homes. The lakeside house where Suu Kyi spent most of her years in house arrest is in legal limbo after a court-ordered auction in March failed to find a buyer.
Before being sent to prison, Suu Kyi was reportedly held in a military safe house inside an army base.
Other prisoners were released for the Thingyan New Year holiday, state-run MRTV television announced Wednesday, but it wasn’t immediately clear how many were pro-democracy activists and political prisoners who were detained for protesting army rule. Aung Myo Kyaw of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said the group had heard of 7-10 people released in Yangon and nine from a prison in the central regions of Magway.
MRTV said that the head of the ruling military council, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, had pardoned 3,303 prisoners, including 28 foreigners who will be deported from Myanmar. He also reduced sentences for others. Mass amnesties on the holiday are not unusual in Myanmar.
Family and friends gathered outside the gates of Insein Prison, in northern Yangon, waiting expectantly and scanning the windows of buses that brought the released detainees out of the vast complex. Some of those waiting held up signs with the names of the people they were seeking, in the same fashion as at an airport arrival hall.
Amid tearful reunions, Khin Thu Zar said she was happy, but that she would have to call her family.
“My family still doesn’t know about my release,” she said. She, like many political detainees, had been held on a charge of incitement, a catch-all offense widely used to arrest critics of the government and punishable by up to three years in prison.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myanmar’s martyred independence hero Gen. Aung San, spent almost 15 years as a political prisoner under house arrest by previous military governments between 1989 and 2010. Her tough stand against military rule turned her into a symbol of the nonviolent struggle for democracy and won her the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Nay Phone Latt, spokesperson of the shadow National Unity Government, told The Associated Press that relocating Suu Kyi and Win Myint, instead of releasing them outright, was not satisfactory. The NUG views itself as the country’s legitimate administrative body and serves as an opposition umbrella organization.
He said all political prisoners, including those two, were unjustly detained and should be freed without conditions.
He said it was unacceptable for the military government to resolve its difficulties by playing political games, such as changing prisoners' places of detention and reducing sentences. The army's recent battlefield setbacks, including last week's loss to resistance forces of Myawaddy, a major trading town on the border with Thailand, is seen by many as underlining its increasing weakness.
A bus carrying released prisoners is welcomed by family members and colleagues after leaving Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said. On Wednesday it also granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Released prisoners sit in a bus and are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they were released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Family members and colleagues wait for prisoners to be released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. The signs show their family name. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A released prisoner is welcomed by family members and colleagues after she was released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A released prisoner is welcomed by family members and colleagues after she was released Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said. On Wednesday it also granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Released prisoners are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they were released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
A released prisoner is welcomed by family members and colleagues after she was released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Released prisoners are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they were released from Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. On Wednesday Myanmar's military government granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
Released prisoners are welcomed by family members and colleagues after they were released Insein Prison Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar’s jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as a health measure due to a heat wave, the military government said. On Wednesday it also granted amnesty for over 3,000 prisoners to mark this week’s traditional New Year holiday. (AP Photo/Thein Zaw)
FILE - Myanmar's President Win Myint shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping, unseen, during their meeting at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Jan. 17, 2020. Myanmar’s military’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. General Zaw Min Tun, has told foreign media representatives late Tuesday, April 16, 2024, that 78-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi and the president of her former government, 72-year-old Win Myint, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved from out of prison because of the severe heat. The move has not yet been publicly announced in Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
FILE - Myanmar's President Win Myint shakes hands with Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, unseen, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Jan. 20, 2020. Myanmar’s military’s spokesperson, Maj. Gen. General Zaw Min Tun, has told foreign media representatives late Tuesday, April 16, 2024, that 78-year-old Aung San Suu Kyi and the president of her former government, 72-year-old Win Myint, were among the elderly and infirm prisoners moved from out of prison because of the severe heat. The move has not yet been publicly announced in Myanmar. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
FILE - Myanmar's lthen eader Aung San Suu Kyi waits to address judges of the International Court of Justice on the second day of three days of hearings in The Hague, Netherlands, Dec. 11, 2019. Myanmar’s military says Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as health measure due to a heat wave. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
FILE - Myanmar's then leader Aung San Suu Kyi delivers a speech during a meeting on implementation of Myanmar Education Development in Naypyidaw, Myanmar, Jan. 28, 2020. Myanmar’s military says Suu Kyi has been moved from prison to house arrest as health measure due to a heat wave. (AP Photo/Aung Shine Oo, File)
