Protests & funeral follow shootings in Myanmar

“Stop the genocide. Stop using lethal weapons," said protester Min Htet Naing.

Feb. 21, 2021, 10:46 AM GMT

By The Associated Press

YANGON, Myanmar — Protesters gathered again Sunday all over Myanmar, a day after security forces shot dead two people at a demonstration in the country’s second biggest city. A funeral was also held for a young woman killed earlier by police.

Mya Thwet Thwet Khine was the first confirmed death among the many thousands who have taken to the streets to protest the Feb. 1 coup that toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The woman was shot on Feb. 9, two days before her 20th birthday, at a protest in the capital Nayptitaw, and died Friday

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About 1,000 people in cars and bikes gathered Sunday morning at the hospital where her body was held amid tight security, with even the victim’s grandparents who had traveled from Yangon, five hours away, denied entry. When her body was released, a long motorized procession began a drive to the cemetery.

In Yangon, Myanmar’s biggest city, about 1,000 demonstrators honored the woman under an elevated roadway.

“I want to say through the media to the dictator and his associates, we are peaceful demonstrators,” said protester Min Htet Naing. “Stop the genocide. Stop using lethal weapons.”

Another large protest took place in Mandalay, where police shot dead two people on Saturday near a dockyard as security forces were trying to force workers to load a boat. The workers, like railway workers and truckers and many civil servants, have been taking part in a civil disobedience campaign against the junta.

Shooting broke out after neighborhood residents rushed to the Yadanabon dock to try to assist the workers in their resistance. One of the victims, described as a teenage boy, was shot in the head and died immediately, while another was shot in the chest and died en route to a hospital.

Several other serious injuries were also reported. Witness accounts and photos of bullet casings indicated that the security forces used live ammunition, in addition to rubber bullets, water cannons and slingshots.

The new deaths drew quick and strong reaction from the international community.

“The shooting of peaceful protesters in is beyond the pale,” said British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Twitter. “We will consider further action, with our international partners, against those crushing democracy & choking dissent.”

Britain last week froze assets of and imposed travel bans on three top Myanmar generals, adding to already existing targeted sanctions.

Singapore, which together with Myanmar is part of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, issued a statement condemning the use of lethal force as “inexcusable.”

Urging “utmost restraint” on the part of security forces, it warned that “if the situation continues to escalate, there will be serious adverse consequences for Myanmar and the region.”

Another shooting death took place Saturday night in Yangon in unclear circumstances. According to several accounts on social media, including a live broadcast that showed the body, the victim was a man who was acting as a volunteer guard for a neighborhood watch group. Such groups were established because of fears that authorities were using criminals released from prison to spread panic and fear by setting fires and committing violent acts.

The junta took power after detaining Suu Kyi and preventing Parliament from convening, saying elections last November were tainted by voting irregularities. The election outcome, in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won by a landslide, was affirmed by an election commission that has since been replaced by the military. The junta says it will hold new elections in a year’s time.

The coup was a major setback to Myanmar’s transition to democracy after 50 years of army rule that began with a 1962 coup. Suu Kyi came to power after her party won a 2015 election, but the generals retained substantial power under the constitution, which was adopted under a military regime.

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Stop Rohingya Massacre in Burma

from John Wilkins:

Thanks for signing to stop another genocide.

Now forward this to friends and family -- let's build a massive one-million person call before the UN summit begins:

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/rohingya_crackdown_73/?tfSMhib&v=500348176&cl=13114816663&_checksum=9f6fd5b335d25988f21d8948917ed478cadfdfc6d9d39ffb70461008f2de4b45 

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Dear friends,

In the last week, Myanmar’s army has hacked hundreds to death, beheaded children, and driven thousands of families from their homes -- just because they’re Rohingya, a hated indigenous minority.

The man responsible, General Hlaing, doesn’t face any consequences -- in fact, this murderer gets red carpet treatment and millions in military aid from countries from the UK to Russia, Israel to Germany!

This army can’t survive without our governments' support, so let’s build a global outcry now, as media attention has put the Rohingya crisis on leaders’ agenda -- and roll back the red carpet for the murderer. Add your name:

Click to stop the Rohingya massacre

Governments around the world have engaged with Burma’s military -- hoping to prevent massacres like we’re seeing right now. It’s now clear that policy has failed, but they have massive leverage by breaking ties with these butchers!

The Rohingya are a peaceful, poverty stricken community who are denied citizenship of Burma, because of their darker skin and different religion. They’ve been persecuted for years -- but this is the worst crisis they have ever faced.

Burma’s generals don’t care about human rights, but they do care about their army. They rely on aid and alliances with other governments -- and if these countries start cutting ties they’ll stop the slaughter to save their future. Add your name now to demand our leaders stop supporting Burma!

Click to stop the Rohingya massacre

We’ve helped the Rohingya before -- when thousands fled a previous crackdown and were stranded at sea, our global community donated to support rescue missions to save them. Now they need us again -- more than ever. Let’s rise to their call.

With hope,

Bert, Rewan, Ana Sofia, Danny, and the entire Avaaz team

More information:

Rohingya: "Even a baby was not spared by the military" (Al Jazeera)
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/08/rohingya-babies-spared-army-170827192311109.html 

UN reports "devastating cruelty" against Rohingya (UN)
http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=56103 

UN official says 'crimes against humanity' could be unfolding in Myanmar (CNN)
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/21/asia/myanmar-un-crimes-against-humanity/index.html 

Machiavelli, Antony Jay & 'Yes Minister'

JOHN PLAMENATZ in his book on the selections from Machiavelli [1972] wrote:  'The saying is that who builds on the people builds on mud...'   Yet, with reference to Machiavelli, he added:  'rulers are at their worst when they are not responsible for how they rule'.  That, I suppose, means that when the rulers lack either physical (through elections) or moral side-constraints they perform badly. 

In August, an intellectual disciple of Machiavelli, Antony Jay died.  It was Mr. Jay who with Jonathan Lynn a colleague at Video Arts [a company he founded with John Clease] produced 'Yes Minister', which ran from 1980 to 1984, creating weekly predicaments between the Right Honary James Hacker (Paul Eddington), as a well-meaning head of the fictional Ministry for Administration Public Affairs, and his wily, smooth permanent under secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby (Nigel Hawthorne).

This week, in an obituary in the New York Times, William Grimes described Antony Jay thus:

'Mr. Jay decided to shine a bright light on the dark machinations of government and the relationship between public officials and civil servants, a strange codependency in which the nominal powerful ended up as putty in the hands of their ostensible inferiors.'

The fact is that Mr. Jay not only wrote the television series 'Yes Minister' and 'Yes, Prime Minister', but  wrote the books  'Management and Machiavelli: An Inquiry Into the Politics of Corporate Life' [1967] and 'Corporation Man' [1972],in which he drew parallels between kings and business leaders.

How is it possible for alleged inferiors to capture power in situations such as 'Yes Minister' or in perhaps George Orwell's essay 'Shooting an Elephant' where Orwell serving in Burma as a military policeman feels himself impelled by a crowd of natives to shoot an elephant against his better judgement?  Orwell began the essay saying:  'In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people — the only time in my life that I have been important enough for this to happen to me.'

Straying outside parliamentary politics into the extra-parliamentary realm of the anarchists, when we consider '...a strange codependency in which the nominal powerful ended up as putty in the hands of their ostensible inferiors', I suppose that is not so very different from the relationship now existing between Dr. David Goodway, the 'Friends of Freedom Press' and the unauthorized body known as 'the Collective'.