Since Feb 1, over 550 people had left home in the morning and never returned as they fell victims to terrorist military’s ultimate violence. In the memory of the fallen heroes, day 61 began with the flower strike, demonstrators across the country laid flowers in public areas to honor the dead. Later the strike transformed into a digital version as people posted pictures of three finger salutes with flowers on social media. Even such a beautiful and peaceful strike did not end smoothly, we heard a report of two young protesters being abducted by terrorists for laying flowers in downtown Yangon.
News reported that Ma Su Su Kyi, an employee of South Korean Shinhan Bank, who got shot in the head by terrorists the day before yesterday in Tamwe had sadly passed away this morning. And her funeral had to be arranged on the same day (today) due to the pressure from junta, for whom every funeral of their victims was a PR disaster (funerals are traditionally held on the third day after the death in Buddhist culture). Ma Su Su Kyi was on her way home when terrorists shot the staff transport car she was in during the late afternoon crackdown in U Chit Maung Road.
It was the same day CNN’s Clarissa Ward arrived in Yangon and travelled along with military convoy to report on protests. People from Yangon were worried about ‘all is well’ narrative as she was led to quiet areas so they started burning tyres and barricades on the roads in many townships to signal that the city was nowhere near peaceful. Whether the message was received by CNN correspondent was not certain, but terrorists did rush to the scenes and shot abruptly and randomly which resulted in the death of yet another innocent victim.
Despite daily killings and abductions, protests are still going strong countrywide. Hundreds of demonstrators from many regions such as Tamu, Kyaukme, Mawlaik, Mandalay, Shwebo, Meikhtila, Mogok, Kalay, Myingyan, Kyaikhto and Yangon’s Kyauk Myaung, Thaketa were out on the streets displaying the disobedience towards the coup leaders and showing their support towards CRPH. In Thapyay Aye village of Sagaing region, terrorists came and tried to abduct a prominent monk for supporting protests. As locals tried to protect the monk, live rounds were reportedly used that injured six people and put one in critical condition.
A couple of days ago when the people from Kalay defended terrorists with makeshift weapons, people from Gantgaw district of Magway stepped up and joined on route to prevent more forces going up to Sagaing. As a result, armed thugs have been searching and raiding each and every house in some villages of Gantgaw to seize improvised weaponry, and every household tool they have their hands on. Residents up to 10,000 have had to go into hiding to avoid confrontations.
As people were quite curious about the presence of CNN representative in the country, they were following and sharing whereabouts of the team closely and frequently on social media. Netizens informed us that the CNN team stopped by at Shwedagon and Sule Pagodas before they went on and talked to a few people in Insein and Mingalardon townships. Apparently, some women who were not in the junta’s script managed to talk to Clarissa Ward in both locations and the encounters seem to have provoked terrorists as Myanmar Now reported a total of five people has been abducted for merely communicating with CNN’s chief international correspondent – brave women of Myanmar advocating for freedom of speech and paying the price, once again.
As things stand, the whole country has access to the internet only via fiber network which also seems to be hanging by the thread and we could lose the communication to the world anytime soon. Regardless, we believe the civilians have done their part in reporting to the world the true events of our situation and thus, when we are eventually put in the dark, we hope we don’t have to worry about the twisted narration that will be fed to the whole world by the junta.
