angon-Tens of thousands of protesters poured on to the streets of Yangon Sunday in the biggest rally yet against the Myanmar\u00a0coup, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military\u2019s ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some estimates put the number of protesters in Yangon at 100,000 and there were reports of large demonstrations in other cities, with rallies condemning the coup that brought Myanmar\u2019s 10-year experiment with democracy to a crashing halt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Backed by a din of car horns, chanting protesters in Yangon held up banners saying \u201cJustice for Myanmar\u201d, while others waved the signature red flags of Suu Kyi\u2019s National League for Democracy (NLD) party as they marched to City Hall. \u201cI completely despise the military coup and I am not afraid of a crackdown,\u201d said Kyi Phyu Kyaw, a 20-year-old university student.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI will join every day until Amay Suu (Mother Suu) is freed.\u201d Protesters announced that they would return to the streets at 10 am local time on Monday, defying the state of emergency imposed by the military and indicating no let-up in their resistance to the coup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They also called on civil servants and people employed in other industries to not go to work and join the protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many flashed the three-finger salute inspired by the \u201cHunger Games\u201d films, which became a symbol of resistance during the pro-democracy protests in Thailand last year. \u201cWe will fight until the end,\u201d said Ye Kyaw, an 18-year-old economics student. \u201cThe next generation can have democracy if we end this military dictatorship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a large demonstration also in the capital Naypyidaw, despite the heavy military presence there, while tens of thousands rallied against the coup in Mandalay, Myanmar\u2019s second-biggest city. Both those protests included people on armadas of motorcycles, waving flags and banners as they rode through the cities. There were also demonstrations in Mawlamyine city and the Magway region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The surge in popular dissent over the weekend overcame a nationwide internet blockade, similar in magnitude to an earlier shutdown that coincided with the arrest of Suu Kyi and other senior leaders on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Online calls to protest have prompted bold displays of defiance, including the nightly deafening clamour of people banging pots and pans — a practice traditionally associated with driving out evil spirits. Monitoring service NetBlocks said internet access was partially restored on some mobile networks in Myanmar Sunday afternoon, but social media platforms remained blocked and it was unclear how long the connectivity would last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Civil disobedience <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As protests gathered steam after the coup, the junta ordered telecom networks to freeze access to Facebook, an extremely popular service in the country and arguably its main mode of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The platform had hosted a rapidly growing \u201cCivil Disobedience Movement\u201d forum that had inspired civil servants, healthcare professionals and teachers to show their dissent by boycotting their jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, live Facebook video feeds from multiple cities showed protesters marching through the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It was not immediately clear how they bypassed the internet block.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
angon-Tens of thousands of protesters poured on to the streets of Yangon Sunday in the biggest rally yet against the Myanmar\u00a0coup, as an internet blackout failed to stifle growing outrage at the military\u2019s ouster of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Some estimates put the […]<\/p>\n
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