now demonstrators in me and mahava
gathered in their largest numbers yet to
demand an end to
military rule opponents of the february
first
coup a doubt the military will keep its
promise to hold elections and hand back
power
deposed leader aung sang remains in jail
facing trivial criminal charges
hundreds of thousands joined rallies in
cities across the country despite fears
of a violent crackdown
[Music]
[Applause]
a battle cry for democracy tens of
thousands of protesters flooding the
streets of yangon
stepping up their open revolt against
the military takeover
cars uses roadblocks to keep security
forces from moving around the commercial
capital
in this cat and mouse game it appears
that for now it's the might
who have the upper hand
internet shutdowns and other attempts to
disrupt the demonstrations have largely
proved futile
even the junta's assurances of free and
fair elections have been met with deep
skepticism
exacerbated by fresh criminal charges
against aung san tsuchi
[Music]
the young people of this generation
don't have to believe in the military's
promises
they lied before and they'd hold an
election back in 1988
so we've already learned our lesson from
that page of history
there's growing concern that myanmar's
bloody history could be about to repeat
itself
the u.n says it's received reports of
soldiers being readied for a crackdown
in yangon
sparking fears that seems like this are
merely a taste of what's to come
but as this activist told dw news
they're not backing down
no i'm not afraid i'm not afraid we've
been we have been
under the military control for years
years years
so this is the time we have to finish
them
this time we will win this time we want
our true democracy we no longer want a
military anymore
ruling our country
as the world watches with baited breath
for many here in myanmar
there's only one way out of this forward
with their fists high even if no one
knows where that road will lead them
well let's go straight to yangon where
we joined journalist
a man thant uh welcome to dw
um the un's special rapporteur on human
rights
in myanmar says he's terrified about
signs of an impending military crackdown
in yangon
what are you seeing there
yeah i mean we've definitely seen an
escalation
from security forces in terms of both
who is on the ground
the type of equipment they're using as
well as a
general increase in the frequency of
usage of weapons
and so from the first few days of the
protest we really saw
the traffic police some riot police but
for the most part they were staying
behind barricades and then as we've
moved into the last couple days
we've seen more soldiers on the streets
as opposed to simply police
but we've seen tanks and armored
personnel carriers
as well as just more and more usage of
rubber bullets
water cannons um and just firing at uh
protesters both in
an attempt to disperse people but also
we've been seeing people getting beaten
and sort of being aimed at right
and away from the marches there's also a
campaign of civil disobedience what sort
of effect is that having
so the civil disobedience movement is
you know
it really started off as a way for civil
servants especially to strike
and to essentially refuse to cooperate
with the new government but it has
spread
to other parts of society as well and so
um
you know there's the sort of central
banks which have largely been shut down
because civil servants are not working
but also public banks
sorry private banks are also being shut
down because quite a number of people
are
on strike we see that rail raise are
being disrupted in myanmar
border trade especially along the border
which china has slowed
nearly to a halt today and you know the
public is joining in on these protests
and today we saw people essentially
pretending all of their cars
as well as trishaws and bicycles had
broken down in the middle of the street
as a way to
both disrupt people from who were trying
to go to work despite the strike
but also to disrupt any sort of security
force movement
in the cities and one of aung sang chi
now facing two criminal charges her
court date was pushed back what are you
hearing about her fate
so it's very unclear we we haven't
really gotten a good
um visualization of her situation really
since she was taken
we get information you know very
sporadically um
and sort of really late after the fact
on monday she was actually supposed to
have her first day of trial and instead
of that happening
she was her remand was extended
and we were told that her trial would
begin today but then yesterday we found
out that she had her first meeting
or she had a meeting with a judge and
that an additional charge
had been levied against her and then
as far as i understand her next court
date is actually march 1st
now but you know we don't really know
what's going to happen in the meantime
and she hasn't
officially been allowed to have legal
representation although
the nld her the the national
national league for democracy her party
has retained
lawyers on her behalf thank you so much
for that
update uh journalist amin thant in
yangon
you