Myanmar UN ambassador sacked after anti-coup speech as military intensifies crackdown on protesters

Myanmar has seen 21 consecutive days of protests since the country’s military seized power in a coup on February 1, overthrowing the democratically elected government of civil leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who was detained alongside other government leaders, including the president Win Myint.

“We need the strongest possible action by the international community to immediately end the military coup, stop oppressing innocent people, return state power to the people and restore democracy,” he said.

Kyaw Moe Tun said he was giving the speech on behalf of the Suu Kyi government, which won an overwhelming victory in the November 8 elections.

In a demonstration of defiance, the ambassador also showed the three-finger salute “Hunger Games” used by protesters on the streets of Myanmar and adopted in recent protests in neighboring Thailand.

The diplomat received rare applause from his UN colleagues at the end of the speech. The new US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, praised the envoy’s “brave” comments.

“The United States continues to strongly condemn the military coup in Myanmar,” she said on Friday, addressing the assembly. “And we condemn the brutal killing of people unarmed by the security forces.”

Thomas-Greenfield added that the United States “will continue to provide humanitarian assistance to save lives, including Rohingya and other vulnerable populations in the states of Chin, Kachin, Rakhine and Shan”.

“The world should applaud the bravery of Representative Kyaw Moe Tun for making such a powerful statement on behalf of the people of Myanmar, not the illegitimate military junta,” Akila Radhakrishnan, president of the Global Justice Center, said in a statement on Friday.

“The international community must support the will of the people of Myanmar, recognizing the CRPH and refusing to legitimize, normalize or cooperate with the military government.”

The group of activists, Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), said that in towns and cities across the country, security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets, water cannons and fired their weapons into the air to disperse the protesters.

A woman was shot and wounded in the central city of Monywa, according to Reuters, citing local media and an emergency worker.

In the largest city in Yangon, police fired tear gas and flash bangs to disperse a group of protesters representing Myanmar’s different ethnic groups. Protesters shouted insults to the police before the disturbance, a witness told CNN. When the group dispersed, the police pursued the neighborhood.

In a village on the outskirts of the capital Naypyidaw, the riot squad uses tear gas grenades and fires rubber bullets into the air to disperse hundreds of protesters.

The AAPP said that as of Saturday, it had documented 854 people who had been arrested, charged or convicted since the February 1 coup. The group noted, however, that “hundreds of people” were arrested in Yangon and elsewhere on Saturday.