It’s official military has waged a war on us, the unarmed civilians who are protesting peacefully and demanding what’s rightfully ours. Apart from Yangon, the military seemed to target other cities due to less coverage of their atrocities. And Mandalay has got it bad last couple of days and today.
In Mandalay, many civil servants who were participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement were forced to go back to work by police and the military. Known for their courage and compassion, over thousands of protesters came together to protect them. As the crowd was getting bigger and police feared for their safety, both parties agreed to break up and provided way out. But once they arrived in a safe zone, police and soldiers started shooting at the civilians. Remarkably, unarmed public took whatever they could grab to guard themselves and defended their lives. But of course it was not a fair fight, it was a total manslaughter. Despite all their efforts, at least two people, including a 14 year old kid, died with several reported to be critically injured. Even medics and ambulances were not able to help out the injured as there were snipers waiting to feast on the harmless. Horrible scenes.
Pictures and videos of the shootings quickly circulated on Facebook and Twitter, and we advise everyone keeps every record so whoever’s survived this fight will be able to take all those responsible to court.
And last night was also eventful. The military did not just let people live in peace. There were suspicious persons “visiting” the neighborhood of Insein, Yankin, and Tamwe in Yangon, other other cities and towns in Myanmar. There were more presence of soldiers and police around Myitkyina both in daytime and after curfews.
The more they crack down on peaceful protests and people who are participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement, the more we realize that we are probably doing something right.
Last night, there was a post on Facebook that was spreading like a wildfire. It was an open letter from Dr. Htar Htar Lin, Director and Programme Manager of the Immunization Programme in Myanmar. She was wrongly accused of taking advantage of COVID-19 vaccine procurement and the misuse of public donations for COVID-19 vaccines. Obviously, it’s a wrongful accusation. But the military government seemed to be targeting a lot of civil servants who are participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement lately, either by force, or defaming them.
But you know what, the more they put pressure, the more people seem to resist and rise above.
We also saw a group of diverse ethnicities converging together at Tamwe junction around noon time today. The weather is not always on our side, but it was so encouraging to see different ethnic youths helping each other, this gives us motivation. This also makes us realize that whatever happened, we are going to come out of this situation more united and better.
That’s the only thing we hoped as well…. that this coup will open our eyes to the situations that many ethnicities have to endure under the military enforcement.
