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Anti-coup protesters stage massive rally in Myanmar's largest city

Thursday, 01 July 2021 5:21 PM [ Last Update: Thursday, 01 July 2021 5:37 PM ]

Demonstrators march on a street during a protest in Yangon, Myanmar July 1, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

Crowds of protesters have taken to the streets in Myanmar’s biggest city of Yangon as demonstrations against the February military coup and detention of civilian leaders continue unabated across the Southeast Asian country.

Hundreds of anti-coup protesters gathered in Yangon on Thursday in a major show of opposition to the army’s overthrow of the country’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Media reports quoting sources said that the latest protest rally was one of the biggest organized in Yangon in recent weeks.

Video footage and images showed protesters waving lit torches and colorful smoke flares before stopping and setting an army uniform ablaze.

The angry demonstrators held anti-Junta banners, canted calls for democracy and demanded an immediate end to the military rule over the country.

They shouted slogans such as "What do we want? Democracy! Democracy!" and "For the people! For the people."

The protest comes as a civil disobedience campaign and nationwide protests continue to grow over the military coup in Myanmar, with more violent efforts by the junta to bring resistance to heel.

In recent months, Myanmar's army has faced protests, strikes that have paralyzed public and private sectors and a resurgence of conflicts in the borderlands.

Demonstrators burn a flag and a uniform during a protest in Yangon, Myanmar July 1, 2021. (Photo by Reuters)

Myanmar has been gripped by turmoil since the military ousted Suu Kyi in a coup and detained her and several other senior figures from the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) Party on February 1.

The junta, which has declared a one-year emergency across Myanmar, claims that it seized power after it found fraud in elections held three months earlier that the NLD had won in a landslide.

Since then, Myanmar’s military has been struggling to impose order. People have held numerous protests against the coup leaders in the country, demanding the release of Suu Kyi and the other detainees.

On Wednesday the army freed more than 2,000 prisoners, most them detained since the coup.

At least 880 people have been killed and thousands of others arrested by military forces, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group.

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