Huge demonstrations across Myanmar despite military’s warning

Images from photographers in the country and on social media Monday showed tens of thousands of people packing the streets in Yangon, Mandalay, and Naypyidaw, as well as in towns and cities across the country, including in southeastern Dawei, in Shan state’s Taunggyi, in Ayeyarwady’s Pathein, Kachin state’s Myitkyina, and in one of the country’s poorest regions Chin state.

In an ominous statement Sunday evening, the military junta said it could use lethal force against protesters.

“It is found that protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,” the State Administration Council — the name for the military junta now controlling the country — declared Sunday evening on state broadcaster MRTV.

Video from social media Sunday night and Monday morning showed barbed wire blocking roads to some foreign embassies in the largest city, Yangon, the focus point for many recent protests. Footage also showed what appeared to be police and military vehicles rolling through the streets.

Protesters called for all offices and shops to be closed on Monday, with activists urging all citizens to join the protest, known as the “Five Twos” — or the 22222 strike — in reference to Monday’s date.

“22.2.2021 will be a big historic day. Keep watching us and pray for us, friends,” leading protest activist group, the Civil Disobedience Movement said in a tweet Sunday.

Weekend protests

For more than two weeks, thousands of people in villages, towns and cities across Myanmar have come out to peacefully protest or take part in a non-violent civil disobedience movement against the military takeover, calling for the generals to hand back power and release of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratically-elected officials.

The junta has attempted to stop protests by imposing bans on gatherings of more than five people and curfews in certain areas and cutting the internet at night. They have also deployed troops to major cities, including members of elite counter-insurgency divisions documented to be engaged in human rights abuses and violent campaigns against ethnic minorities.

By day, Myanmar's protesters are defiant dissenters. By night, they're terrified of being dragged from their beds by the junta

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners Burma (AAPPB) said at least 640 people have been detained in relation to the coup.

But that has not stopped the protesters, who gathered in large numbers on Sunday following the fatal shootings in Mandalay.

In Yangon, demonstrators marched outside the US Embassy waving banners that read “Help Myanmar.” In Myitkyina, the capital of Kachin state in northern Myanmar, protesters could be seen chanting slogans and waving flags while riding on motorbikes.

And in the capital, Naypyidaw, large crowds gathered to attend the funeral of a young woman, who died on Friday after being shot in the head during an anti-coup protest.

Video of her funeral procession showed a hearse with her picture in front and a convoy of vehicles driving out of a hospital. As the procession drove through the streets, people on motorbikes and bystanders were seen raising the…