The South-East Asian nation of Myanmar has been witnessing mass unrest since the past week as people are expressing their discontent about the military coup which happened on February 1.
The coup had lead to arrests of many politicians and house arrest of the incumbent Aung San Suu Kyi, who had won the General Election conducted last November by a landslide. The Military declared an Emergency for a year.
Since today, the protestors have initiated a ‘Broken Car’ movement, in which they have parked their cars and are using public vehicles such as buses on many roads of the city of Yangon. The protesters intend to block the path and to prevent police and military vehicles from moving for arrests and repression of the protestors.
Numerous pictures soon appeared of these stalled cars clogging up streets.
The protests have been intensifying since the past few two days, and fears of a heavy crackdown on the protestors is surfacing among the international community. The US President Joe Biden had earlier condemned the military coup and threatened sanctions against Myanmar unless parliamentary democracy is restored.
The internet had been shut down in the whole of Myanmar for two continuous nights of Sunday and Monday, and there has been discontent regarding this too. Violence was reported on Monday against protestors by the security forces, which resulted in larger protests on Tuesday.
Around 3,000 demonstrators, mainly students, returned to the streets in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, carrying posters of Suu Kyi and demanding the implementation of election results. These protests were also in protest of the ban on gatherings of more than five people.
The timing of the coup owes to the fact that the parliamentary proceedings were set to begin for the new government within a week. The United Nations has said that the coup is a serious blow to the democratic reforms, and has demanded the release of politicians, activists along with the restoration of the democratic process. According to BBC, the Military has so far announced that 24 ministers and deputies had been removed, and 11 replacements had been named, including in finance, health, the interior, and foreign affairs.
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