Protesters marched in cities across Myanmar on Wednesday in a show of support for democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on her birthday and to call for the release of all political prisoners, participants told Radio Free Asia.
Suu Kyi, who turned 79, has been in detention since the army ousted her civilian government in a 2021 coup, triggering turmoil as democracy supporters took to the streets in huge numbers, with many, after their rallies were crushed, taking up arms in a bid to end military rule.
“We wish for the freedom of Suu Kyi, all political prisoners and the entire country,” a resident of the Sagaing region’s Wetlet township told RFA.
“We launched this strike to show that we have not forgotten our leader,” he said, adding that the Wetlet protest had drawn about 1,000 people.
Suu Kyi led Myanmar’s campaign to end decades of military rule from 1988, spending decades under house arrest before the military launched tentative reforms that included a 2015 election that her party swept.
Defying bans on gatherings, her supporters throughout the country came out to mark her birthday, marching, cutting birthday cakes and holding up roses as a symbol of defiance.
In the south, in the Tanintharyi region’s capital of Dawei, about 500 people gathered for a march, according to Min Lwin Oo, a member of an activist group called the Democracy Movement Strike Committee
A group in the main city of Yangon, members of a group raised a banner with her name “Suu”, an activist said, adding that junta security forces were out in force in the former capital.
‘Flower in his hair’
There were no reports of arrests in Yangon but in the second city of Mandalay, in the Chanayethazan township, security men in plain clothes arrested two young men at a tea shop, residents said.
“One of the two young men wore a flower in his hair,” said one resident, who declined to be identified. “I think they were arrested because they were wearing flowers.”
A junta spokesman was not immediately available for comment but the military said on its Telegram social media channels that about 10 people were arrested in Mandalay for participating in a flower strike.
Suu Kyi, the daughter of the leader of the campaign for independence from British colonial rule, General Aung San, was initially sentenced by the junta to 33 years on 19 charges that she denied. The sentence was later reduced to 27 years.
The Nobel laureate was long believed to be in solitary confinement in a prison in the capital, Naypyidaw, but media reported in April she had been moved to house arrest. Her exact whereabouts are unknown.
She has been largely denied contact with the outside world but Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai was allowed to meet July last year and said she was in good health.
Several embassies in Myanmar recognized her birthday in social media posts. The British Embassy called for the release of her and all prisoners arrested arbitrarily.
According to data from the Association for Political Prisoners released on Tuesday, the junta has killed more than 5,000 people and arrested more than 20,000 since the coup.
Translated by RFA Burmese. Edited by Kiana Duncan and Taejun Kang.