FactualDespite threats from the junta which seized power on February 1, hundreds of thousands of people have marched in the past few days in many cities across the country, braving police and military.
Neither the two dead of Mandalay, killed by the police on Saturday February 20, nor the promise of elections “Free and just” in the indefinite future, nor the warnings addressed to young demonstrators at risk of ” die “ by joining the major anti-regime rallies, nothing helps: three weeks after the military coup of the 1is February, the anger of the Burmese does not weaken. Burma is standing, erect like a furious cobra against the “men in green”, the color of the uniforms of the officers of the Tatmadaw (the Burmese armed forces).
Hundreds of thousands of people marched again at the end of the week, braving the police and soldiers in position in the streets, mocking the threats of the new power, defying the junta, disdainful of the risks incurred.
Monday, when activists called for a new day of general strike, was once again to mark a new episode of monster demonstrations: February 22 is considered by many Burmese, fascinated by numerology, as an auspicious date in because of the rare succession of the four digits of the calendar 22-2-21. A symbol that recalls the time of the great anti-junta uprising of August 8, 1988: 8-8-88 …
Burma, once described by British writer Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) as a “A country like no other”, continues to earn its reputation. By taking back the power they had long confiscated (1962-2011), the generals provoked among the Burmese – who have always hated the army – a movement of rejection unprecedented in the modern history of the post-era era. colonial. A phenomenon whose magnitude perhaps surprised “the dwarf”, a nasty nickname of the officer who was responsible for the blow, General Min Aung Hlaing …
A first “martyrdom” for the cause of democracy
Saturday evening was the bloodiest since the protests began a fortnight ago: police opened fire on demonstrators near the port of Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, bordered by the great Irrawaddy River. . After using water cannons and rubber bullets against a crowd of protesters eager to protect striking port workers – whom law enforcement wanted to force back to work – the police fired live ammunition. Balance sheet, two dead and at least six injured, some in serious condition.
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