(GNB Desk): Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Yangon to protest the military’s takeover and the arrest of several elected leaders and politicians, including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint.
People in the streets of Yangon took on Saturday is the first demonstration since the Military seized power.
In demand of the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party who have been detained since the coup on Monday, protesters chanted – “Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win.”
The march came hours after Twitter confirmed it had become the latest platform blocked by the junta, following a surge of new users circumventing blocks on Facebook and other internet services to express their outrage over the coup.
Many protesters dressed in the NLD’s color, red, and some carried red flags. The banner at the front of the march read-“Against military dictatorship” .
Images and videos posted on social media on Saturday showed police blocking a major intersection in Yangon, as protesters attempt to march forward. Demonstrators peacefully chanted as their raised their hands in a three-finger salute.
Drivers of private cars and public buses were also seen honking their horns as the standoff continued.
Myanmar’s military government has tried to silence dissent by temporarily blocking Facebook and extended the social media crackdown to Twitter and Instagram on Saturday in the face of the growing protest movement.
Demand for VPNs has soared in Myanmar, allowing some people to evade the ban, but users reported more general disruption to mobile data services, which most people in the country of 54 million rely on for news and communications.
“We lost freedom, justice and urgently need democracy,” wrote one Twitter user. “Please hear the voice of Myanmar.”
In a statement on Saturday, Amnesty International denounced the blackout as “heinous and reckless”.
“To shut down the internet amid a volatile coup, a humanitarian crisis and a health pandemic is a heinous and reckless decision,” Ming Yu Hah, a senior Amnesty official in Asia said. “The military must re-establish all telecommunications immediately and stop putting people’s rights in danger.”
“Myanmar’s military & police must ensure the right to peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals”, says
UN Human Rights office.
“Internet and communication services must be fully restored to ensure freedom of expression and access to information”, UN Human Rights office said.
Myanmar’s military reportedly blocked access to Facebook on Thursday, for several days. The social media platform is said to be used by around half of the country’s population, for access to information. On Friday, Twitter and Instagram platforms were added to the list of services that could not be accessed in Myanmar.
Media reports also said that the mobile service provider in Myanmar was ordered to temporarily shut down data networks, effectively cutting off the internet on mobile devices. Voice and SMS services are reported to be operational.
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