[News] Myanmar coup: Teachers join growing protests against military

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Myanmar coup: Teachers join growing protests against military

 

A civil disobedience movement in Myanmar is gaining momentum, with teachers and students protesting against Monday's military coup.

Demonstrators at a university in the biggest city, Yangon, chanted support for jailed leader Aung San Suu Kyi and wore red ribbons, her party's colour.

Ms Suu Kyi and other leaders have been held since the coup on Monday.

Earlier, the military detained another senior leader from her National League for Democracy (NLD) party.

Ms Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public since Monday, is under house arrest, according to her lawyer. He said he was seeking her unconditional release and that of the president, who was also detained, but he had been unable to meet them.

Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, has remained mostly calm in the aftermath of the coup, which has plunged the South East Asian country into uncertainty.

Myanmar coup: What is happening and why?
Myanmar country profile
On Friday afternoon, hundreds of teachers and students gathered outside Dagon University in Yangon, where they displayed the three-finger salute - a sign that has been adopted by protesters in the region to show their opposition to authoritarian rule.

They chanted their support for Ms Suu Kyi and carried red flags.

"We will not let our generation suffer under this kind of military dictatorship," Min Sithu, a student, told the AFP news agency.

Where else have we seen the three-finger salute?
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Social media focus for protests
By Nyein Chan, BBC Burmese, Yangon

The first reaction to the coup was shock and horror. But now people have had time to digest what is happening and are finding different ways to fight back.

As the regime takes more steps to tighten its control, an increasing number of people are joining the leaderless civil disobedience campaign demanding a return of the democratically elected government.

The military has blocked the most po[CENSORED]r social media platform, Facebook, but most people are still able to access it using virtual private networks - VPNs - and that's where lots of the protests are taking place.

People here know very well the violent crackdowns the military is capable of, so that's why for now there are no widespread street protests. But there are other ways people can make their voices heard.

The lecturers who took part in Friday's campus protests said they were doing it for the next generation.

I have an 18-month-old child. I grew up under military rule and the economic sanctions that came as a result of it. I prayed that my son would grow up in a very different Burma. Now I am not so sure what his future will be like.