Tens of thousands of protesters poured on to the streets of Yangon Sunday in the biggest rally yet against the Myanmar coup, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military’s ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Myanmar’s military seized power in the early hours of Feb 1, saying they will take actions in response to allegations of fraud in the country’s elections in November last year.
As the protesters marched and chanted, many of them flashed the three-finger salute borrowed from Thailand’s pro-democracy movement.
Many of them chanted, “We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!”
Police trucks had been deployed on the scene, near Yangon University, and there were riot officers nearby.
The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overcame a nationwide internet blockade, similar in magnitude to an earlier shutdown that coincided with the arrest of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders on Monday.
The UN Human Rights office has said Myanmar authorities “must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals.”
