YANGON - Tens of thousands of people in Myanmar marched in protest against the military coup for the second straight day on Sunday (Feb 7), as a partial restoration of Internet connection flooded Myanmar social media with images of the massive demonstrations.
“We want democracy!” the young crowd shouted in downtown Yangon, as they wove through cars stuck in the traffic and drivers blasted their horns in support.
Smaller protests also took place in Mandalay as well as Shan, Mon and Kayin states. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, with people holding up pictures of deposed state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – detained by the military regime since the Feb 1 coup – and three-finger salutes as a symbol against dictatorship.
In the eastern town of Myawaddy however, videos posted on Facebook showed policemen trying to break up demonstrators and shots being fired. It is not known if there were any casualties.
While there were no other reports of confrontations, analysts warned that the risk of a crackdown remained high.
During the 2007 protest led by monks that was dubbed the Saffron Revolution, the then ruling junta launched raids only after several days.
“If they feel greatly threatened by the crowds, they will take more immediate action,” political analyst Soe Myint Aung said of the military, when reached by The Straits Times on Sunday. “But from what I gathered from the army-run Myawaddy TV, the regime is trying to give an impression of normalcy.”
Television stations now commandeered by soldiers aired dance performances and educational programmes.
The protests were the biggest since the seizure of power by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing alleging massive fraud in the Nov 8 general election in which Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won 396 of the 476 contested seats in parliament.
He has promised to hold another election after a state of emergency imposed for one year.
Even before the coup, Myanmar’s military was essentially autonomous by virtue of the junta-drafted 2008 Constitution. It also controlled three ministries and a quarter of all parliamentary seats.
In a videoconference with diplomats on Friday, the regime-appointed minister for international cooperation Ko Ko Hlaing said his government understood “the concerns of the international community on the continuation of Myanmar’s democratic transition process”, reported the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.
“He reaffirmed that the very architect of this process is the Tatmadaw (military). In fact, the last thing (the) architect would love to do is to destroy this own structure,” reported the paper.
Protesters hold placards and flowers during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
To thwart protests and acts of civil disobedience swiftly organised and spread through social media, the regime banned Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When users tried to get around them with virtual private networks, the regime shut down Internet access on Saturday.
Partial Internet access was restored on Sunday afternoon from around 2pm local time, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks.
A 25-year-old protestor in Yangon who gave his name as Aung, told The Straits Times he was taking a stand for the “truth”, rather than the NLD.
“We will protest until the military regime transfers authority back to the elected government,” he said. “We will protest until we send the commander-in-chief to jail.”
YANGON - Tens of thousands of people in Myanmar marched in protest against the military coup for the second straight day on Sunday (Feb 7), as a partial restoration of Internet connection flooded Myanmar social media with images of the massive demonstrations.
“We want democracy!” the young crowd shouted in downtown Yangon, as they wove through cars stuck in the traffic and drivers blasted their horns in support.
Smaller protests also took place in Mandalay as well as Shan, Mon and Kayin states. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, with people holding up pictures of deposed state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi – detained by the military regime since the Feb 1 coup – and three-finger salutes as a symbol against dictatorship.
In the eastern town of Myawaddy however, videos posted on Facebook showed policemen trying to break up demonstrators and shots being fired. It is not known if there were any casualties.
While there were no other reports of confrontations, analysts warned that the risk of a crackdown remained high.
During the 2007 protest led by monks that was dubbed the Saffron Revolution, the then ruling junta launched raids only after several days.
“If they feel greatly threatened by the crowds, they will take more immediate action,” political analyst Soe Myint Aung said of the military, when reached by The Straits Times on Sunday. “But from what I gathered from the army-run Myawaddy TV, the regime is trying to give an impression of normalcy.”
Television stations now commandeered by soldiers aired dance performances and educational programmes.
The protests were the biggest since the seizure of power by commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing alleging massive fraud in the Nov 8 general election in which Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party won 396 of the 476 contested seats in parliament.
He has promised to hold another election after a state of emergency imposed for one year.
Even before the coup, Myanmar’s military was essentially autonomous by virtue of the junta-drafted 2008 Constitution. It also controlled three ministries and a quarter of all parliamentary seats.
In a videoconference with diplomats on Friday, the regime-appointed minister for international cooperation Ko Ko Hlaing said his government understood “the concerns of the international community on the continuation of Myanmar’s democratic transition process”, reported the state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar.
“He reaffirmed that the very architect of this process is the Tatmadaw (military). In fact, the last thing (the) architect would love to do is to destroy this own structure,” reported the paper.
Protesters hold placards and flowers during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. PHOTO: AFP
To thwart protests and acts of civil disobedience swiftly organised and spread through social media, the regime banned Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. When users tried to get around them with virtual private networks, the regime shut down Internet access on Saturday.
Partial Internet access was restored on Sunday afternoon from around 2pm local time, according to internet monitoring group NetBlocks.
A 25-year-old protestor in Yangon who gave his name as Aung, told The Straits Times he was taking a stand for the “truth”, rather than the NLD.
“We will protest until the military regime transfers authority back to the elected government,” he said. “We will protest until we send the commander-in-chief to jail.”
NEW DELHI: Nine people were confirmed dead and at least 140 missing in northern India, after a Himalayan glacier broke and swept away a hydroelectric dam on Sunday (Feb 7), with floods forcing the evacuation of villages downstream.
Surjeet Singh, a police official, said nine bodies were recovered so far amid intensified rescue operations.
The flood was caused when a portion of Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand on Sunday morning, sending a massive flood of water and debris slamming into two dams and damaging a number of homes.
A video shared by officials and taken from the side of steep hillside shows a wall of water surging into one of the dams and breaking it into pieces with little resistance before continuing to roar downstream.
A view of the damaged Dhauliganga hydropower project at Reni village in Chamoli district after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: AP)
An eyewitness said he saw a wall of dust, rock and water as an avalanche roared down the Dhauli Ganga river valley located more than 500km north of New Delhi.
"It came very fast, there was no time to alert anyone," Sanjay Singh Rana, who lives on the upper reaches of Raini village in Uttarakhand, told Reuters by phone. "I felt that even we would be swept away."
Uttarakhand's Police Chief Ashok Kumar told reporters more than 50 people working at the dam, the Rishiganga Hydroelectric Project, were feared dead though some others had been rescued.
Kumar also said authorities had evacuated other dams to contain the water rushing in from the flooded Alakananda river.
Indo Tibetan Border Police begin rescue work after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: Indo Tibetan Border Police via AP)
Uttarakhand is prone to flash floods and landslides and the latest disaster prompted calls by environment groups for a review of power projects in the ecologically sensitive mountains.
State utility NTPC said Sunday's avalanche had damaged a part of its Tapovan Vishnugad hydropower plant that was under construction further down the river. It gave no details but said the situation is being monitored continuously.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was closely monitoring the situation.
"India stands with Uttarakhand and the nation prays for everyone's safety there," he said on Twitter after speaking with the state's Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat.
People inspect the site near the damaged Dhauliganga hydropower project at Reni village in Chamoli district after a portion of the Nanda Devi glacier broke off in the Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: AP)
India's air force was being readied to help with rescue operations, the federal government said, while Home Minister Amit Shah said disaster response teams were being airlifted in to help with relief and rescue. Army soldiers have already been deployed and its helicopters were doing an aerial reconnaissance of the area.
"All the concerned officers are working on a war footing," Shah said on Twitter, referring to Uttarakhand by its nickname, the Hindi term for "land of the gods" - due to the numerous Hindu temples and pilgrimage centres located across the state.
State Disaster Response Fund personnel prepare for deployment in Srinagar of Uttarakhand state on Feb 7, 2021 after a glacier broke off in Chamoli district causing flash floods in the Dhauli Ganga river. (Photo: AFP)
A police officer asks pilgrims to leave as ghats along the river Ganges are emptied as a precautionary measure in Haridwar, India, Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: AP)
The neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, India's most populous, put its riverside areas on high alert.
Footage shared by locals showed the water washing away parts of the Rishiganga dam as well as whatever else was in its path.
Videos on social media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed water surging through a small dam site, washing away construction equipment.
"Currently no additional water flows are being reported and there is no flood situation anywhere," Chief Minister Rawat said on Twitter.
"No loss has been reported from villages along Alaknanda."
This screen grab from video provided by KK Productions shows a massive flood of water, mud and debris flowing at Chamoli District after a portion of Nanda Devi glacier broke off in Tapovan area of the northern state of Uttarakhand, India, Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: KK Productions via AP)
"HIMALAYAN TSUNAMI"
It was not immediately clear what had set off the avalanche at a time when it is not the flood season. In June 2013, monsoon rains in Uttarakhand caused devastating floods that claimed close to 6,000 lives.
That disaster was dubbed the "Himalayan tsunami" by the media because of the torrents of water unleashed in the mountainous area, which sent mud and rocks crashing down, burying homes, sweeping away buildings, roads and bridges.
Uma Bharti, India's former water resources minister and a senior leader of Modi's party, criticised the construction of a power project in the area.
Police personnel prepare in Srinagar of Uttarakhand state on Feb 7, 2021 after a glacier broke off in Chamoli district causing flash floods in the Dhauli Ganga river. (Photo: AFP)
"When I was a minister I had requested that Himalaya is a very sensitive place, so power projects should not be built on Ganga and its main tributaries," she said on Twitter, referring to the main river that flows from the mountain.
Environmental experts called for a halt to big hydroelectric projects in the state.
"This disaster again calls for a serious scrutiny of the hydropower dams building spree in this eco-sensitive region," said Ranjan Panda, a volunteer for the Combat Climate Change Network that works on water, environment and climate change issues.
"The government should no longer ignore warnings from experts and stop building hydropower projects and extensive highway networks in this fragile ecosystem."
KUALA LUMPUR - The Malaysian government on Sunday (Feb 7) revised its Chinese New Year health protocols to allow up to 15 people to attend the reunion dinner, following a barrage of criticism from Chinese groups and politicians.
The National Unity Ministry revealed new standard operating procedures just days ahead of the festivities. The previous SOPs restricted reunion dinners to only members of the same household.
Malaysia is currently under movement controls that limit travel and large gatherings as it tackles rising coronavirus infections that have strained its healthcare system.
The new SOPs allow for a gathering of 15 individuals within a 10km radius for reunion dinners.
The Ministry also said in its statement that Chinese New Year prayers are now allowed at temples on Feb 11, 12 and 19, with a maximum of 30 individuals able to be present at any given time.
“Unity Ministry officials have been appointed as supervising officers under the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988 and will monitor the compliance of the SOPs,” the ministry said.
Last Thursday, Senior Minister for Security Ismail Sabri Yaakob said reunion dinners were only allowed among “members of the same household” and that no visitations were allowed for Chinese New Year. Prayers at temples were forbidden, and only temple committee members could be on temple premises.
The rules, which coincided with the government saying it would reopen hair salons and night markets despite extending the nationwide Movement Control Order (MCO) for another two weeks, were roundly criticised.
Malaysians mocked the restrictions against house gathering while night markets were allowed to open. The Malaysian Chinese Association (MCA) party weighed in on the criticism.
Malaysia has been under the MCO, which bars inter-district and interstate travel, since Jan 13, as the country battles a worsening third wave of the pandemic.
Unlike last year’s MCO, which was a near total lockdown, the country has allowed several sectors of the economy to stay open, such as the manufacturing, palm oil and construction sectors.
Malaysia’s highest daily coronavirus tally- 5,278 cases- was recorded on Jan 30. The country recorded 3,731 cases on Sunday with another 15 deaths. The country now has a total of 242,452 cases with 872 deaths. It currently has 51,241 active cases.
Malaysia is also under a state of emergency from January 11 until August 1 to battle the pandemic. Its first vaccines are due to arrive at the end of this month.
YANGON: Internet access was partially restored in Myanmar on Sunday (Feb 7), as a nationwide web and social media blockade failed to curb public outrage and massive protests against the military coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
"Partial restoration of Internet connectivity confirmed in #Myanmar from 2pm local time on multiple providers following information blackout," said Internet monitoring service Netblocks on Twitter.
Myanmar was plunged into cyber darkness on Saturday at the military's orders.
Netblocks said social media platforms remained off limits on Sunday afternoon.
But mobile phone customers using services with MPT, Ooredoo, Telenor and Mytel are now able to access mobile Internet data and Wi-Fi.
Earlier on Sunday Netblocks said connectivity in Myanmar was at 14 per cent of usual levels.
Protesters march during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: AFP/Ye Aung Thu)
In a second day of widespread protests against the military junta, crowds in the biggest city, Yangon, sported red shirts, red flags and red balloons, the colour representing Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD). They chanted, “We don’t want military dictatorship! We want democracy!”
Sunday's gathering was much bigger than one on Saturday when tens of thousands took to the streets in the first mass protests against the coup and in spite of a blockade on the Internet ordered by the junta in the name of ensuring calm.
On Sunday, massive crowds from all corners of Yangon gathered in townships and headed toward the Sule Pagoda at the heart of downtown Yangon, also a rallying point during the Buddhist monk-led 2007 protests and others in 1988.
They gestured with the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of protest against the coup. Drivers honked their horns and passengers held up photos of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
"We don't want to live under military boots," said 29-year-old protester Ye Yint.
Protesters face off with police standing guard during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: STR / AFP)
Despite the Internet shutdown, a few people were able to broadcast on Facebook Live. Users said Internet access appeared to have been restored on Sunday afternoon.
Telecom Myanmar said in a tweet at about 2.30pm local time (4pm, Singapore time) that its Internet services had been restored in the country.
There was no comment from the junta in the capital Naypyidaw, more than 350km north of Yangon.
An internal note for United Nations staff estimated that 1,000 people joined a protest in Naypyidaw while there were 60,000 in Yangon alone. Protests also were reported in the second city of Mandalay and many towns across the country of 53 million people.
GUNSHOTS
The demonstrations have largely been peaceful, unlike the bloody crackdowns seen in 1998 and 2007.
But shots were heard in the southeastern town of Myawaddy as uniformed police with guns charged a group of a couple of hundred protesters, live video showed. There was no immediate report of casualties.
"Anti-coup protests show every sign of gaining steam. On the one hand, given history, we can well expect the reaction to come," wrote author and historian Thant Myint-U on Twitter.
"On the other, Myanmar society today is entirely different from 1988 and even 2007. Anything's possible."
Police stand guard on a street during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: STR / AFP)
With no Internet and official information scarce, rumours swirled about the fate of Aung San Suu Kyi and her Cabinet. A story that she had been released drew crowds out to celebrate on Saturday, but it was quickly quashed by her lawyer.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, faces charges of illegally importing six walkie-talkies and is being held in police detention for investigation until Feb 15. Her lawyer said he has not been allowed to see her.
She spent nearly 15 years under house arrest during decades of struggling to end almost half a century of army rule before the start of a troubled transition to democracy in 2011.
Army commander Min Aung Hlaing carried out the coup on the grounds of fraud in a Nov 8 election in which Suu Kyi's party won a landslide. The electoral commission dismissed the allegations of malpractice.
Protesters take part in a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Feb 7, 2021. (Photo: STR / AFP)
More than 160 people have been arrested since the military seized power, said Thomas Andrews, the United Nations special rapporteur on Myanmar.
"The generals are now attempting to paralyse the citizen movement of resistance - and keep the outside world in the dark - by cutting virtually all Internet access," Andrews said in a statement on Sunday.
"We must all stand with the people of Myanmar in their hour of danger and need. They deserve nothing less."
WUHAN (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - Scientists probing the origins of the coronavirus are wrapping up a lengthy investigation in China and have found important clues about a Wuhan seafood market's role in the outbreak.
Dr Peter Daszak, a New York-based zoologist assisting the World Health Organisation-sponsored mission, said he anticipates the main findings will be released before his planned Feb 10 departure.
Speaking from the central city of Wuhan, where Covid-19 mushroomed in December 2019, Dr Daszak said the 14-member group worked with experts in China and visited key hot spots and research centres to uncover "some real clues about what happened".
Investigators want to know how the Sars-CoV-2 virus - whose closest known relative came from bats 1,000 miles (1,609km) away - spread explosively in Wuhan before causing the worst contagion in more than a century.
Dr Daszak said the investigation heralds a turning point in pandemic mitigation.
"It's the beginning of hopefully a really deep understanding of what happened so we can stop the next one," he said over Zoom late last Friday (Feb 5).
"That's what this is all about - trying to understand why these things emerge so we don't continually have global economic crashes and horrific mortality while we wait for vaccines. It's just not a tenable future."
Worldwide, Covid-19 has caused more than 105.7 million infections and 2.3 million deaths.
The WHO was asked in May last year to help "identify the zoonotic source of the virus and the route of introduction to the human population, including the possible role of intermediate hosts".
Scientists visited the lab and asked Dr Shi Zhengli, who has collected and analysed these viruses for more than a decade, about the research and the earliest known coronavirus cases.
"We really have to cover the whole gamut of key lines of investigation," Dr Daszak said. "To be fair to our hosts here in China, they've been doing the same for the last few months. They've been working behind the scenes, digging up the information, looking at it and getting it ready."
The work has been collaborative, with Chinese counterparts helping mission investigators dig deeper for clues, he said.
"We sat down with them every single day and went through information, new data, and then said we want to go to the key places," the British scientist said. "They asked for a list. We suggested where we should go and the people we should meet. We went to every place on that list and they were really forthcoming with that."
Dr Daszak is one of 10 independent experts assisting the WHO mission. The agency also has five staff members participating, and the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Paris-based World Organisation for Animal Health have two each.
Cars carrying members of the World Health Organisation team leave Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, on Jan 31, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
Joining threads
Mission delegates worked in three groups that focused on the potential involvement of animals, the epidemiology or spread of the disease, and the findings from environmental sampling. Genetic sequencing data are helping investigators identify threads linking the information across patients and wildlife, Dr Daszak said.
"My feeling is we will be able to say something of some value at the end of this trip - quite a lot of value, but I don't want to get into what that's going to be or which way it points," he said, adding that the group's findings are confidential until they are released publicly.
The market sold mostly seafood, as well as meat that included freshly prepared wildlife. It was a focus early in the outbreak, when cases occurred among workers and shoppers, suggesting it might have been where the virus jumped from animals to humans.
Important clues
Subsequent research found earlier cases among people not linked to the market, undermining that theory. Investigators looked further and found important clues about the market's role, Dr Daszak said, declining to elaborate.
"Right now, we're trying to tease everything together," he said. "We've looked at these three strands separately. Now we're going to bring it together and see what everything tells us."
While the market was shuttered and cleaned almost immediately after cases were recognised, "it's still pretty intact", Dr Daszak said. "People left in a hurry and they left equipment, they left utensils, they left evidence of what was going on, and that's what we looked at."
Scientists in China who took environmental samples inside the market identified sites where traces of Sars-CoV-2 were detected, he said. Investigators also benefited from greater understanding of Covid-19.
"We know now what we didn't know then - that for every sick case, there were others that were asymptomatic or difficult to distinguish from a cold or cough," Dr Daszak said. "And so it's not unexpected that there would have been other cases other than ones that got into hospital. But how many others, when did this start? That's the sort of thing we're still working on."
Viruses are passed along "convoluted rivers of emergence" and tracing that journey is complicated and will take "a really long time", Dr Daszak said. "What I have seen already tells me that there are some real clues about what happened, and I hope that we'll be able to make a solid explanation of that by the end of this trip."
Meanwhile, another member of the team said he has been surprised by the complexity of getting to the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic and that years of research lay ahead.
Said Dr Dominic Dwyer, a microbiologist and infectious diseases expert: "Everybody knows how it really exploded out of Huanan market in Wuhan, but the key is what was happening around that time and before."
A member (right) of the World Health Organisation team at a hotel in Wuhan, on Feb 6, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS
Dr Dwyer, an Australian specialist in HIV/Aids who previously worked with the WHO during the Sars and avian flu outbreaks, said the conundrum of Covid-19 was that early asymptomatic carriers may not have known they had it.
"It would be naive to think that we're going to get virus zero," Dr Dwyer said. The early cases were identified in November, "but it's just the bit beforehand that's the very interesting part and the tricky part and the difficult part".
Dr Dwyer echoed Dr Daszak in his emphasis on the difficulty of understanding the disease. Dr Dwyer said more work needed to be done investigating how the virus could have been transmitted by animals, including bats, as well as into antibodies to coronavirus in people who did not show symptoms of the disease.
The short term was "reviewing what we know now and bringing all that data together and there are going to be a series of longer term projects, and this could take some years", Dr Dwyer said.
