Although the devil did its worst to scare off people with the use of sound bombs and live ammo in many townships of Yangon until late last night, thousands came out and marched on in various regions of the country today. Many including men dressed up in women sarongs in honour of international women day and to defy both dictatorship and outdated gender discrimination norms. The coup leader, the common enemy, has united everyone from different ethnic races, different religions and different perspectives. Future looks bright for the country so we must make sure there is one.
Crackdowns started early today again as people already had to find places to hide before 9 am in Sanchaung Yangon. It’s reported as many as 300 protesters have not been able to come out and go home as police and soldiers are still deployed in nearly every corner of that area at this moment. With the curfew in place, it’s impossible for some of them to go home and be with their families tonight; however, we believe those who have taken the kids in will provide the highest hospitality and a safe way home in the morning. Meanwhile, extreme violence took place in Myitkyina and Pyapon that resulted in at least three deaths. In addition to regular crackdowns, the coup leader’s little puppets have also been wandering around the cities and harassing everyone on sight. Today, we witnessed a disturbing scene in which police and soldiers were raiding a teashop downtown Yangon and arresting everyone including the shop owner, customers and even young waiters before they seized snacks and properties. It is a daylight robbery, normally expected only from thugs.
A number of ethnic armed forces have also come out in support of anti dictatorship movements as KNU escorted street protesters in Kyaukkyi and TNLA in Kutkai today. Irony when peaceful protests end up peacefully only when there is a presence of armed bodies around. However, some prominent armed groups like AA that famously battled multiple times against terrorist army not so long ago have been “MIA” since the coup and while we are concerned for their whereabouts, we can speculate they will resume their military actions once the democratic government is restored.
When terrorist army declared “State of Emergency” for a year last month, they might have been implying that they would make this land completely unbearable in a year period so everybody must brace for emergency at all times. If that was the case, this is already a land of emergencies in a month time. All the banks are closed despite threats from illegal government that they must return to operations today. Nearly the whole government system is shut down for a month and no country is giving the legitimacy they desperately ask for.
However, we are losing innocent lives weeks in, weeks out. Students and civilians who were detained since March 3 have not been released. Our basic human rights have been provoked, let alone future opportunities. One could be arrested and tortured to death for joining and advocating CDM, or being a UEC member, or being a NLD village level chair, or merely speaking out against dictatorship on Facebook. Multiple crimes against humanity have been committed and nobody has been put on trial except the good ones who have been charged by the dictator with ridiculous accusations. So, as UN special envoy to Myanmar questioned the Security Council, we would like to end today’s entry by asking
“How much more will you allow the Myanmar military to get away with?”
