(Reuters) – Opponents of the military government in Myanmar registered messages of protest on Easter eggs on Sunday while others were back on the street, facing security forces after a night of vigils in the candles of hundreds of people killed since a February 1 coup. .
In the latest in a series of impromptu challenge shows, messages including “We Must Win” and “Leaving MAH” (referring to board leader Min Aung Hlaing) were seen in eggs in photos on the networks social.
“Easter has to do with the future and the people of Myanmar have a great future in a federal democracy,” Dr Sasa, an international envoy of the ousted civilian government, said in a statement. Sasa is a member of the Christian minority in the predominantly Buddhist country.
Opponents of the military government have launched a campaign of civil disobedience since the military overthrew Nobel Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government, which included creative demonstrations of defiance promoted on social media.
Young people in the main city of Yangon handed out eggs containing the protest messages, according to images from the publications.
Crowds have returned to the streets day and night to reject the return of the military government after a decade of interim steps towards democracy. Numerous lighted candles were made during the night.
The Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), an activist group that monitors victims and arrests, said the death toll rose to 557 by the end of Saturday.
Several thousand people showed up in Mandalay’s second city, some on foot, others on motorbikes, to show their opposition, according to social media images, before police and soldiers moved there to disperse. the.
Protesters also gathered in several other cities in the north, center and south.
Police and a board spokesman did not respond to phone calls seeking comment.
The AAPP said 2,658 people were detained, including four women and a man who spoke to a visiting CNN news team in interviews on the streets of Yangon’s main city last week.
A CNN spokesman said the network was aware of the arrest reports after the team’s visit. “We are pressuring the authorities to get information about this and for the safe release of any detainee,” he said.
The military, which is conducting its own campaign to quell dissent, has ordered Internet providers to cut wireless broadband, depriving most customers of access.
Authorities have issued arrest warrants for about 40 celebrities known to oppose the military government, including social media influencers, singers and models, under a law against inciting dissent in the armed forces.
The charges, announced Friday and Saturday in the state television news bulletin, could last three years in prison.
“CLEAR CONSCIOUSNESS”
One of the defendants, blogger Thurein Hlaing Win, told Reuters he was surprised to be labeled a criminal and had gone into hiding.
“I did nothing wrong. I stood by the truth, “he said over the phone from an undisclosed location.” If I am punished for it, my conscience is clear. My beliefs will not change. Everyone knows the truth. “
The military ruled the former British colony with an iron fist after seizing power in a 1962 coup until it withdrew from civilian politics a decade ago, freeing Suu Kyi from years of house arrest. and allowing an election that his party swept away in 2015.
He says he had to oust the Suu Kyi government because the November elections, easily won by his party, were called. The election commission has dismissed the claim.
But many in Myanmar, particularly the younger ones who have come of age in the last decade of opening up, cannot accept the return of the government by the generals.
Suu Kyi is in custody on charges that could lead to 14 years in prison. His lawyer says the charges are over.
The coup has also sparked clashes with ethnic minority forces seeking autonomy and announcing support for the pro-democracy movement.
The Karen National Union, which signed the ceasefire in 2012, has seen the first military airstrikes against its forces in more than 20 years and says it must fight to defend itself from a government offensive.
The group said more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes due to the airstrikes.
Fighting has also erupted in the north between the army and Kachin ethnic insurgents. The turbulence has sent several thousand refugees fleeing to Thailand and India.
Suu Kyi’s party has promised to establish a federal democracy, the main demand of minority groups.
Reuters staff reports; Written by Robert Birsel; Edited by William Mallard and Kenneth Maxwell