Yangon: 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).
“We love democracy and hate the junta,” Sithu Maung, an elected NLD member told tens of thousands of people at the Sule Pagoda, a central protest site in the main city of Yangon. “We must be the last generation to experience a coup.”
The NLD had swept a November 8 election as widely expected, but the army alleges there was fraud. At a news conference on Tuesday, 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.
Sithu Maung poked fun at that saying: “We’re showing here that we’re not in that 40 million.”
