Myanmar - The African Mirror

Feb

2021

Myanmar ruler calls for end to protests, sanctions loom

MYANMAR’S new junta leader yesterday called on civil servants to return to work and urged people to stop mass gatherings to avoid spreading coronavirus, as a sixth day of protests against him and his coup spanned the Southeast Asian country. As Washington moved a step closer to imposing sanctions on Min Aung Hlaing and his fellow generals, Britain said it was also considering measures it could apply to punish the Feb. 1 takeover that halted an unsteady transition to democracy. The coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi along with scores of others have prompted the…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

‘It was her spirit’: Myanmar teen shot by police was determined to protest coup

WORLD

MYANMAR teenager Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing was supposed to be celebrating her 20th birthday today. Instead, she is fighting for her life in a hospital in the capital Naypyitaw after she was shot in the head when police cracked down on a protest against the military coup. Myanmar's army seized power on February 1 and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ending a long transition towards democracy and bringing tens of thousands of demonstrators onto the streets. The shooting of the teenager - the first known serious casualty of the protests - has roused anger across the nation and…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Protests rock Myanmar for fifth day, West condemns security response

WORLD

PROTESTE took to the streets of Myanmar for a fifth day today, vowing to keep up demonstrations against last week's military coup even after a woman was shot and critically wounded during clashes the previous day. The United States and United Nations condemned yesterday's use of force against the protesters who are demanding the reversal of the February 1 coup and the release of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and other leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD). "We cannot stay quiet," youth leader Esther Ze Naw told Reuters. "If there is blood shed during our peaceful protests,…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Protests sweep Myanmar to oppose coup, support Suu Kyi

WORLD

TENS of thousands of people rallied across Myanmar yesterday to denounce last week's coup and demand the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, in the biggest protests since the 2007 Saffron Revolution that helped lead to democratic reforms. In a second day of widespread protests, crowds in the biggest city, Yangon, sported red shirts, red flags and red balloons, the colour of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party (NLD). "We don't want military dictatorship! We want democracy!" they chanted. Yesterday afternoon, the junta ended a day-long blockade of the internet that had further inflamed anger since the…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Former Suu Kyi ally says no betrayal in taking Myanmar junta job

WORLD

A one-time ally of Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi said yesterday that she was no traitor for accepting a ministerial post with the junta that overthrew the elected leader this week. Social welfare minister Thet Thet Khine told Reuters the new military government was inclusive and committed to democracy in one of the first interviews that any member of the new government has given since the coup on Monday. "The fact the armed forces say they will continue to act according to the law, we have to welcome it gladly," she said. "I am not betraying the country." Thet Thet…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Suu Kyi’s party demands her release as Myanmar generals tighten grip

WORLD

THE party of Myanmar's detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi has called for her immediate release and for the miitary junta that seized power a day earlier to recognise her victory in an election in November. The Nobel Peace laureate's whereabouts remained unknown more than 24 hours after her arrest in a military takeover that derailed Myanmar's tentative progress towards full democracy. A senior official from her National League for Democracy (NLD) said he had learned she was in good health and was not being moved from the location where she was being held after the coup against her government.…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

U.N. fears for Myanmar Rohingya after coup, Security Council due to meet

WORLD

MICHELLE NICHOLS THE United Nations fears the coup in Myanmar will worsen the plight of some 600,000 Rohingya Muslims still in the country, a U.N. spokesman said as the Security Council planned to meet today on the latest developments. Myanmar's military seized power on Monday in a coup against the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained along with other political leaders in early morning raids. A 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine State sent more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fleeing into Bangladesh, where they are still stranded in refugee camps. U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Asian migrant workers locked up, dumped as coronavirus curbs ease

WORLD

RINA CHANDRAN MIGRANT workers in Asia are being locked up and abandoned by employers even as countries ease coronavirus curbs, say human rights groups, which are calling for better housing and changes to visa laws. The warning came after more than a dozen workers from Myanmar were dumped by the roadside in Thailand this week following a ban on the movement of migrant workers in and out of certain areas because of a COVID-19 outbreak. In Singapore, where cramped dormitories were a virus hotspot, migrant workers are still largely confined to their rooms even as authorities have eased restrictions in…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

China says pope’s remarks about “persecuted” Uighurs are groundless

RELIGION

THE Chinese foreign ministry has dismissed Pope Francis's criticism of China's treatment of Muslim Uighurs as groundless. In a new book "Let Us Dream: The Path to A Better Future," Pope Francis said: "I think often of persecuted peoples: the Rohingya, the poor Uighurs, the Yazidi." It was the first time he had called China's Uighurs a persecuted people, something human rights activists have been urging him to do for years. Foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian rejected his characterisation of the Uighurs. "The Chinese government has always protected the legal rights of ethnic minorities equally," he told a media briefing.…

Jul

2020

By The African Mirror

‘Ugly face’: U.S. and China trade barbs in Myanmar as South China Sea rift deepens

WORLD

CHINA's embassy in Myanmar has accused the United States of "outrageously smearing" the country and driving a wedge with its Southeast Asian neighbours over the contested South China Sea and Hong Kong, as tensions mount between the superpowers. Responding to the U.S. claims Beijing was undermining the sovereignty of its neighbours, the Chinese embassy said U.S. agencies abroad were doing "disgusting things" to contain China and had shown a "selfish, hypocritical, contemptible, and ugly face". The United States last week hardened its position on the South China Sea, saying it would back countries in the region that challenge Beijing's claim…