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In Pictures: Protesters defy the military regime’s ban on gatherings
Defying a ban on gatherings of more than four people imposed by the new military regime on Monday night, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators converged on the Hledan Junction near University Avenue and Pyay Road in Yangon on the fourth day of a nationwide uprising against last week’s coup. Several trucks full of soldiers were positioned near the protest site and police blocked the protesters from entering University Avenue. Tensions between the police and anti-coup protesters calling for the restoration of democracy intensified on Tuesday morning. Peaceful protests in the capital Naypyitaw, Mandalay and other cities had met with violent crackdowns by the afternoon. Police fired both live ammunition and rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters in Naypyitaw and used water cannons and tear gas to stifle the demonstrations in Mandalay.
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Girl shot by police in Naypyitaw crackdown put on life support: doctor
The use of lethal force has not deterred protesters, who started a fifth day of anti-coup demonstrations on Wednesday
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Covid-19 vaccinations begin in Myanmar’s major cities
Healthcare workers and volunteers in Yangon, Mandalay and Naypyitaw started receiving Covid-19 vaccines on January 27. Among them are workers and volunteers at the Ayeyarwady Centre, a temporary facility set up on the grounds of Yangon’s Thuwanna stadium late last year to treat Covid-19 patients. Healthcare workers in Myanmar’s three largest urban centres have been designated a priority group for receiving the Covid-19 vaccine. Myint Htwe, the minister for health and sports, visited a 1,000-bed hospital in Naypyitaw to observe the vaccinations. Myanmar signed an agreement with Serum Institute of India, the producer of the Covishield vaccine, to enable it to buy vaccines directly from India. The first batch of more than 1.5m doses of the Covishield vaccine arrived from India on January 22. Photos: Sai Zaw, Nyan Hlaing Linn, Yan Moe Naing
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Wirathu arrested after more than a year in hiding
After nearly a year and a half on the lam, ultranationalist Buddhist monk Wirathu surrendered to the police on Monday to face charges of sedition. Security was high as dozens of monks and other supporters gathered outside Yangon’s Western District police station, where the controversial monk waved as he made his first public appearance since May of last year. On May 29, 2019, the district’s General Administration Department (GAD) charged him with violating section 124(a) of the penal code, known as the sedition law. He could spend up to 20 years in prison if found guilty. He also faces separate charges of defamation and causing public fear and alarm, laid against him by the Ministry of Religious Affairs. The sedition charges were initiated by the Western District GAD’s deputy administrator San Min, who was acting on directives from the President’s Office and Yangon’s regional government. The charges are related to a speech Wirathu gave on May 5, 2019, in which he used demeaning and obscene language to describe State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. In transcripts submitted to the court, Wirathu referred to the National League for Democracy (NLD) leader as “one who shakes her butt when meeting with foreigners” and makes other…
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Thadingyut: A festival of light in a time of darkness
Myanmar is marking its annual Thadingyut festival this weekend amid a surge in Covid-19 cases that has forced many to forego the usual festivities. As the second-most important Buddhist holiday of the year—after Thingyan, the New Year’s water festival—Thadingyut is normally a time of temple visits and lively family gatherings. This year, however, many are celebrating quietly in the privacy of their homes. Held at the end of the three-month rains retreat, the festival falls on the full moon day of Thadingyut, the seventh month of Myanmar’s traditional lunar calendar. According to custom, it was also on this day that the Buddha returned to earth after teaching the Dhamma to his mother in heaven. Thadingyut is also known as the festival of lights, and in the suburbs of Yangon, many people put out candles as offerings to the Buddha. The photos here show a pagoda without enclosing walls and houses under the Pan Hlaing bridge in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar township. (Sai Zaw/Myanmar Now)