But when night falls, fear sets in. Communication is difficult because of the internet shutdown ongoing over the past six nights – a digital curfew now coexists with the actual curfew imposed in major cities from 8pm to 4am
The military justified the seizure of power by alleging widespread electoral fraud that occurred during the November 2020 elections, an allegation refuted by the electoral commission.
Some protesters, who by day they are marching fearlessly through the streets, going to hide at night, going from house to house to avoid arrest.
“It’s a mental as well as a physical struggle,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, 29, a prominent human rights activist who went into hiding a few days after the coup. She said she did not know what was going to happen each night, and in the daytime protest, it was a kind of “psychological warfare”.
“Every morning we have to check: are we going to this (event)? Because anything can happen on the street at any time. But outside, we feel united and strong, ”he said.
She said she protested despite the dangers of “letting the people and the military know that our current political system is failing” and that Myanmar “needs a new solution” and “structure” that includes all people and ethnicities.
From larger cities like Yangon and Mandalay to remote villages, people across the country are protesting the new military regime, at the risk of being arrested for their actions. And while the demonstrations are dominated by young people, like Thinzar Shunlei Yi, who has experienced democracy and does not want to give up on it, they are supported by many of the older generation who remember what it was like under the previous military regime.
Contactless
In the early hours of February 1, before the leaders of the Myanmar coup officially announced their acquisition of the country, a white van stopped in front of Maung Thar Cho’s home in the suburbs of Yangon.
Inside in the vehicle, his relative says, there were several soldiers and others dressed in civilian clothes.
For three hours, the unmarked white van waited outside the house until 7:30 am. The plainclothes staff came to the door to take Maung Thar Cho away. His family says he was asked for a towel to sell him, but was not told where he was going or why he was being taken.
But Maung Thar Cho, a prominent Burmese writer and history teacher, is popular with young people in Myanmar and his speeches across the country have been widely seen on YouTube and other social media sites.
One of the employees said to the family: “we will just take him for a while and (we will) give him some clothes and medicine, and we will be taking care of him,” according to a relative who declined to be identified for security reasons.
“We were very shocked. And we didn’t know what to do,” said the relative. “They didn’t tell us who they were.”
It has been almost 20 days since Maung Thar Cho was arrested in the morning attack, and his family said they had not contacted him since two phone calls on February 2 and 3, when he assured them that he was being taken care of. They say they still don’t know why he was taken.
“He has never been detained before … (He) has not been very frank about the military agenda in the past. He has been speaking with a more academic interest in his lectures and speeches,” said the relative, who was concerned about Maung Thar Cho not have access to your heart medicine.
What happened to Maung Thar Cho was a harbinger of the nightly raids to come – and was perceived as an early warning of the potential consequences for those who criticize the coup. The relative said he knew other writers who have also been arrested in similar attacks since the acquisition.
“He made these literary speeches in every corner of the country – (in) towns and small cities. So, I think that perhaps the military was concerned about their influence, ”said the relative.
The Burmese human rights organization, Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), said on Thursday that it had verified 521 arrests related to the coup since February 1 – 477 of those people have remained in detention or faced pending charges. CNN cannot independently check the status of all those named on the AAPP list
Among them are civilians, activists, journalists, writers, monks, student leaders, as well as politicians and government officials destitute of the National League for Democracy (NLD), according to the AAPP.
Maung Thar Cho did not have time to foresee being apprehended by the authorities, but the thousands who take to the streets every day are working meticulously to escape the same fate, while opposing a coup that abruptly ended Myanmar’s short and difficult transition. for an incipient democracy.
Many feel they are fighting for their own future – especially those who remember more than half a century of brutal and isolationist military regime.
Myanmar’s military did not respond to CNN’s repeated requests for comment.
With memories of the past, the older generation rises
Sanchaung Bo Bo, 48, said he will he goes out every day to protest because he knows firsthand how violent military rulers can be and he doesn’t want to see the younger generation suffer like him.
After the violence, thousands of pro-democracy activists fled to the jungles around Myanmar. After a brief stint at the prison, Sanchaung Bo Bo joined them, he says, hiding for four years in northern Myanmar. He said he joined a group of students who formed an armed opposition group, but life in the jungle was difficult.
When the group members turned on each other, resulting in the death of 30 of their friends in a now infamous massacre, he returned to Yangon.
In 1998, Sanchaung Bo Bo was arrested after trying to organize a 10-year anniversary event to mark the uprising. He was accused of defamation against the state and spent 11 years in prison, where he said he was repeatedly tortured.
On one occasion, in 2000, he said that a prison guard beat him with a rope with a metal end so hard that he remained deaf in his left ear and continues to have trouble sleeping. His prison experience cost him so much that he said he considered suicide, but something inside him pushed him to survive.
“People still carry the trauma of that generation. Even when they see people in uniform, it gets on their nerves. It is as if they are allergic to it. They feel the blood heating up too ”. Sanchaung Bo Bo said.
Facing military rulers, he said, is important, as he felt that Myanmar could not go back to the era of martial government. The laws that govern the country need to be “specific and fair,” he said, and asked the international community to protect civilians in Myanmar.
“I don’t want any new generation to experience what we are experiencing. I want them to live fearlessly in their lives,” he said.
Protesters remain determined
Sanchaung Bo Bo said that one of the main differences between today’s coup and 1988 is the fact that young people have already experienced democracy and, in general, are more educated than their generation.
The Generation Z brand has certainly been firmly stamped in recent protests, with creative protest art and graffiti messages mocking the general now in charge of the country, Min Aung Hlaing. Protesters hold up the three-finger salute from the “Hunger Games” film franchise, a popular symbol of anti-coup protest adopted in recent political unrest in neighboring Thailand.
In downtown Yangon on Wednesday, thousands of people sang and held posters with Suu Kyi’s image and banners with “Justice for Myanmar” and “Reject the military coup” as they marched to the Sule Pagoda.
Venice, 32, who declined to use her full name for security reasons, was among them. She said she had protested every day since February 6 and quit her job as a business development manager because her company didn’t want her to demonstrate.
“Now it’s about everyone. They are touching our democracy. Our country has just started democracy and we are still at a very early stage,” she said. Venice noted that regular power cuts in Myanmar when she was younger taught her how to work in periods without internet.
“With cut internet, people are still able to organize … We all have experience in that,” she said. “So we organize this as before the time of the shutdown. We have already met, we have announced on Facebook, Twitter, etc. ”
And now we even have Telegram and Signal messenger, “she added, referring to encrypted messaging apps.
Another young protester, who declined to be identified for fear of being arrested, said he was protesting for the future of his generation.
“Now we have no purpose and no future. So we protest for our democracy and freedom,” he said. “We know our parents’ experience and we don’t want the military, we want our government. So, we’re leaving.”
“Every day I go out and play drums and sing revolution songs – we play drums for revolution. Every day we are protesting. We never stop,” said the young protester.
“I’m not afraid of being shot. I’m afraid of being arrested.”