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Thousands protest against military coup in Myanmar's biggest city

A protester holds up a sign during a demonstration against the military coup in Myanmar's Yangon on February 6, 2021. (Photo by AFP)

Thousands of Myanmarese people have taken to the streets in the largest city of Yangon to denounce a military coup that ousted the country's de facto leader Aung San Suu Chi.

The demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Yangon against what they called military dictatorship and demanded that the army hand power back to the elected politicians.

Many of the protesters were in red, the color of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) party which won November 8 elections, a result the military generals have refused to recognize over allegations of fraud.

"Military dictator, fail, fail; Democracy, win, win," they chanted, also calling for the release of Suu Chi and other officials detained since February 1.

The Saturday protest was the largest demonstration since the military takeover of power in Myanmar on Monday.

Yangon was also the scene of protests on Friday by hundreds of people, led by university students and teachers, who staged several protests across Myanmar to denounce the coup and called for a return to civilian rule.

About 200 people participated in the demonstration at the Yangon University of Education in the city, and a similar number marched at the Dagon University, also in Yangon.

The military said on February 1 that it had arrested Suu Kyi and her associates over accusations of voter fraud in favor of her NLD party in November 2020 elections.

The military placed commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing in power and pledged to hold fresh elections in a year and hand over power to the winner, without giving a time frame.

Myanmar's military has tried to silence dissent by temporarily blocking Facebook and extended the social media crackdown to Twitter and Instagram in the face of the growing protest movement.

Authorities have ordered internet providers to deny access to Twitter and Instagram "until further notice."


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