Friday, June 18, 2021

Myanmar protesters wear flowers to mark Suu Kyi's birthday

Issued on: 19/06/2021 
Flowers tucked into a bun have long been a signature look of Myanmar's ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi JOHN MACDOUGALL AFP/File

Yangon (AFP)

Anti-coup protesters in Myanmar donned flowers in their hair Saturday to mark the birthday of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who remains under house arrest and is due to face court again next week.

Suu Kyi's elected government was overthrown in a February 1 coup that sparked mass protests and renewed clashes between the military and ethnic rebel armies in border regions.

Flowers tucked into a bun have long been a signature look of Suu Kyi, who turns 76 on Saturday.

Many replicated the floral hairstyle and uploaded pictures onto social media across Myanmar on Saturday.

Among them was Myanmar Miss Universe beauty queen Thuzar Wint Lwin, who wore red flowers in her hair and wrote: "May our leader be healthy."

In Yangon's north, protesters put up posters on power lines wishing Suu Kyi a happy birthday and expressing solidarity.

"Happy Birthday Mother Suu. We are right behind you," the signs read.

Some marched with black umbrellas and banners that read "freedom from fear" alongside pictures of Suu Kyi.

In the border region of Karen state, some rebel soldiers were photographed holding their guns and yellow, white and purple posies and single flowers tucked behind their ears.

Demonstrators in the south-eastern city of Dawei made a giant pink birthday cake and brought it to their street protest.

The Noble Peace Prize Laureate's international reputation was damaged after she defended Myanmar's military over allegations of genocide against the ethnic minority Rohingya population in troubled Rakhine state in 2017.

- Back in court -

Not all Myanmar flower protest participants were full of praise for Suu Kyi.

"I am involved in this campaign because now she is unfairly detained by the military and her civilian rights... and freedom is denied," a 35-year-old activist told AFP, adding it wasn't personal support.

"After she is free from her detention, she will have to take full responsibility over her silence concerning the suffering of Rohingya and other ethnic groups."

The civilian death toll since the coup is estimated to be at least 870 people and close to 5,000 protesters are in detention after being arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

The UN General Assembly on Friday took the rare step of calling on member states to "prevent the flow of arms" into Myanmar, part of a non-binding resolution condemning the military coup in the violence-wracked country.#photo1

The resolution -- which did not go so far as to call for a global arms embargo -- also demands that the military "immediately stop all violence against peaceful demonstrators".

It was approved by 119 countries, with 36 abstaining including China, Myanmar's main ally. Only one country, Belarus, voted against it.

Suu Kyi is due back in court next week and has been hit with an eclectic raft of criminal charges, including accepting illegal payments of gold and violating a colonial-era secrecy law.

She went on trial for sedition on Tuesday, but journalists were barred from observing proceedings.


UN calls for member states to 'prevent the flow of arms' into Myanmar

Issued on: 18/06/2021 -
A protester holds a sign during a demonstration against the military coup in Myanmar's Karen state HANDOUT KNU Dooplaya District/AFP/File

United Nations (United States) (AFP)

The UN General Assembly on Friday took the rare step of calling on member states to "prevent the flow of arms" into Myanmar, part of a non-binding resolution condemning the military coup in the violence-wracked country.

The resolution -- which did not go so far as to call for a global arms embargo -- also demands that the military "immediately stop all violence against peaceful demonstrators."

It was approved by 119 countries, with 36 abstaining including China, Myanmar's main ally. Only one country, Belarus, voted against it.


This came on the same day that the Security Council was holding informal talks on the situation in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.

The resolution was not passed by consensus, as had been hoped, but rather through a vote, forcing all 193 UN countries to reveal their views.

In a quirk of history, Myanmar's envoy to the world body, Kyaw Moe Tun, voted in favor of the text. He has passionately rejected the coup and brushed aside the junta's claims that he no longer represents Myanmar. The United Nations still considers him as the rightful envoy.

After the vote, the diplomat voiced regret that it had taken three months for the Assembly to adopt the resolution and that it was not more explicit about an arms embargo.

Among the countries that abstained were Russia and Mali, where a second military coup in less than a year recently took place, Iran and Egypt, and Brunei, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand.

The UN General Assembly very rarely adopts resolutions condemning military coups or calling for limits on the arms supplied to the target country.

"It is the broadest and most universal condemnation of the situation in Myanmar to date," said Olof Skoog, the European Union's ambassador to the UN.

"The EU is proud of the resolution just adopted by the UN General Assembly. It sends a strong and powerful message. It delegitimizes the military junta, condemns its abuse and violence against its own people and demonstrates its isolation in the eyes of the world," he said.

The resolution also calls for a restoration of democracy in Myanmar, and the release of all detained civilian leaders.

"We absolutely must create the conditions for democracy to be reinstated," said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres before the vote on the resolution, hoping for a "very clear message" from the General Assembly.

- 'Do the obvious' -

It asks for the implementation of a five-point plan drafted by ASEAN in April including the naming of an envoy from the bloc.

The text also calls on the junta to allow the UN envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, to visit the country, and for safe passage of humanitarian aid.

Burgener briefed the Security Council during its closed-door meeting on Myanmar on Friday. No joint statement was adopted at that meeting because of persistent divisions between its members, diplomats told AFP.

The Assembly resolution "calls on UN member states to do the obvious: stop providing weapons to Myanmar," said Human Rights Watch.

"Months of atrocities and grave human rights abuses by the junta's security forces have shown time and again why no government should be sending them a single bullet. The UN Security Council should now step up and pass its own resolution imposing a global arms embargo on Myanmar," said Louis Charbonneau, UN Director at HRW.

The resolution is an opportunity "to show that the world stands with the people of Myanmar, and not the military" who "committed horrific acts of violence against ordinary civilians," said British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward.

More than 860 civilians have been killed in Myanmar since the coup, according to the UN and the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners (AAPP).


© 2021 AFP

No comments:

Post a Comment