Supporters and opponents of Myanmar’s military were caught in a scuffle in the streets of Yangon on Thursday as authorities blocked students from leaving their campus to march. The clashes comes a day after the first attempt of diplomacy aimed at resolving the crisis.
There have been about three weeks of daily protests and strikes and students pledged to come out again in the commercial hub of Yangon on Thursday.
“We students have to bring down the dictatorship,” said Kaung Sat Wai, 25, outside Yangon’s main university campus.
“Since the coup our lives have become hopeless, our dreams have died.”
Police blocked the gates of the campus, stopping hundreds of students inside from coming out to march.
At the same time, about 1,000 supporters of the military gathered for a rally in central Yangon.
Some of them threatened news photographers, media workers said, and fights broke out between the pro- and anti-military demonstrators. A photographer was miildly hurt, he said.
Police blocked the gates of the campus, stopping hundreds of students inside from coming out to march.
At the same time, about 1,000 supporters of the military gathered for a rally in central Yangon.
Some of them threatened news photographers, media workers said, and fights broke out between the pro- and anti-military demonstrators. A photographer was miildly hurt, he said.
Later, military supporters threw stones and fired catapults, witnesses said, and there was an unconfirmed report of a stabbing.
The country has been in turmoil since the army seized power on Feb. 1 and detained civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership after the military complained of fraud in a November election.
The confrontation underscored the volatility in a country largely paralysed by protests and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the military, which many professionals and government workers have joined.
Doctors were due to hold a protest on Thursday as part of a so-called white coat revolution.
The security forces have shown more restraint compared with earlier crackdowns against people who pushed for democracy during almost half a century of direct military rule.
Military chief General Min Aung Hlaing says authorities are following a democratic path in dealing with the protests and police are using minimal force, such as rubber bullets, state media reported.
Nonetheless, three protesters and one policeman have been killed in violence.
A rights group said as of Wednesday 728 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in relation to the pro-democracy protests.