Burma protests come to Cork
A man who held a protest against the military coup in Burma, also known as Myanmar, in Cork city has said it was important to do what he could to draw attention to the situation.
Myo Thet Tun protested on Monday on St Patrick Street from 12.30-1pm joining Burmese protests all over the world.
The Burmese military staged a coup on 1 February which overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi's democratically-elected government. She has not appeared in public since.
On Tuesday a woman was shot in the head at a protest in the capital Nay Pyi Taw against the coup and is in a critical condition. Reports suggest that police tried to disperse protesters using water cannons, rubber bullets and live rounds.
Thousands of people have taken to the street to protest the coup. Bans on large gatherings and a curfew at night are in place but protests continued yesterday for the fifth consecutive day. The leader of the military General Min Aung Hlaing justified the seizure of power by claiming Myanmar's electoral commission used the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse to not allow fair campaigning.
The military said no elections will be held but have not said when. A state of emergency is in place for one year.
Myo Thet Tun said he will take part in more protests that comply with Level 5 restrictions.
“I protested because I would like more people aware of the situation in our country. The situation in the country is getting serious day by day, such as clashes between police and protesters.
“Burmese people around the world are doing protests - both physically or online - to show the world and the military government itself that we do not want military rule again. And the most important thing is, we, the people, lost the revolutions against the military in 1988 and 2007.”
He said that his generation who were born in the 1980s and 1990s grew up under military rule but Burma has had a civilian democratically elected government since 2015.
“The majority of people have just elected the same party National League for Democracy (NLD) in 2020 and the military tried to control the country again.
“We do not want our next generation to live under the military rules like us. Young people, around the age of 20, know the differences between the military rules and democracy because they have experienced both military regime and democracy.”
Myo Thet Tun said there is a Burmese community in Cork, although he’s not sure exactly how big it is. It may be about 20-30 people, he thinks. He came to Cork in 2016 and graduated from Griffith College in December after completing a BSc (Hons) in Computer Science.
“The situation in Burma is complicated and hard to predict,” he said, adding that the military announced they will control the country for one year and then arrange an election. “Most people do not trust them because previously, the 1962 military coup lasted until 2010.”