YANGON: Thousands of anti-coup activists took to the streets in Myanmar on Thursday (Mar 25), a day after a nationwide silent strike saw businesses shut and people stay at home in protest against the military coup in the country.
Street protests were held in the commercial capital Yangon, the central city of Monywa and several other towns, according to witnesses and social media posts.
"Are we united? Yes we are," protesters shouted in Monywa. "The revolution must prevail."
Nant Khi Phyu Aye, one of those on the street, said many of the protesters were youngsters. "They want to protest every day without skipping one day," she told Reuters.
Police broke up a street demonstration in the city of Mawlamyine and arrested 20 people, the Hinthar Media Corporation said. At least two people were injured, but there were no other reports immediately of casualties elsewhere.
In a sign of further international pressure over a Feb 1 coup, the United States is planning to impose sanctions on two conglomerates controlled by Myanmar's military, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Marking a switch in tactics by protesters, Wednesday's silent strike left normally bustling areas of commercial hubs like Yangon in the south and Monywa in central Myanmar deserted.
A car is driven on an empty road in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, Mar 24, 2021. (Photo: AP)
While the scale of the street protests had been dropping in recent days, activists called for a big demonstration on Thursday.
"The strongest storm comes after the silence," protest leader Ei Thinzar Maung said in a social media post.
Candle-lit vigils took place across Myanmar again overnight, photographs on social media showed, with some small early protests already starting on Thursday morning.
In Thanlyin on the outskirts of Yangon protesters held up placards reading: "We don't accept military coup," while medical staff wearing white coats held a dawn march in the second city of Mandalay.
This handout photo obtained from an anonymous source and taken on Mar 23, 2021 shows a candle-lit demonstration against the military coup in Yangon's Thaketa township.
At least 286 people have been killed as the security forces employ lethal force to quell unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
Five more people were wounded overnight in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city, Myanmar Now media outlet reported.
A 16-year-old man later died after being shot in the back, the outlet said.
The funeral of a seven-year-old girl killed on Tuesday, the youngest known victim of the crackdown, took place on Wednesday in Mandalay.
A spokesman for the military, which said on Tuesday 164 protesters had been killed, did not answer calls seeking comment.
SINGAPORE FOREIGN MINISTER IN JAKARTA
The junta on Wednesday freed hundreds of people arrested in its crackdown on protests against the overthrow of the elected government of Aung Sang Suu Kyi.
There was no word from authorities on how many prisoners were let out, but AAPP said 628 people were released after more than 2,900 had been arrested since the coup.
The junta has faced international condemnation for staging the coup that halted Myanmar's slow transition to democracy and for its deadly suppression of dissent.
Protesters run during a crackdown on anti-coup protests at Hlaing Township in Yangon, Myanmar, Mar 17, 2021. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
It has tried to justify the takeover by saying a Nov 8 election won by Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was fraudulent - an accusation the electoral commission has rejected. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date and have declared a state of emergency.
The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Monday against individuals involved in the coup and the repression of the demonstrators.
Meanwhile, a move by the US Treasury to blacklist two conglomerates controlled by the military - Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC) and Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd (MEHL) - and freeze any assets they hold in the United States could come as early as Thursday, sources said.
The military controls vast swathes of Myanmar's economy through the holding firms and their subsidiaries.
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her campaign to bring democratic civilian rule to Myanmar, has been in detention since the coup and faces charges that her lawyer says have been cooked up to discredit her.
Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan is due to meet his Indonesian counterpart Retno Marsudi in Jakarta on a trip starting on Thursday that is expected to include discussions on Myanmar.
Malaysia and Indonesia are seeking an urgent meeting of Southeast Asia's ASEAN regional grouping, of which Myanmar is a member to discuss the crisis.
DUBAI: Tugs worked Wednesday (Mar 24) to free a giant container ship stuck in the Suez Canal after it veered off course in a sandstorm, officials said, creating huge tailbacks on one of the world's busiest trade routes.
Egypt's Suez Canal Authority (SCA) said it was doing all it could to refloat the Taiwan-run but Panama-flagged MV Ever Given, a 400m-long and 59m-wide vessel, which was lodged at an angle across the waterway.
Historic sections of the canal have been reopened in a bid to ease the bottleneck of backed up marine traffic.
"The container accidentally ran aground after a suspected gust of wind hit it," ship operator Evergreen Marine Corp told AFP.
The MV Ever Given sits with its bow stuck into the wall on Mar 24, 2021. (Photo: Suez Canal Authority via AP)
The SCA said the ship was caught up in a sandstorm, a common occurrence in Egypt's Sinai desert at this time of year, blotting out light and limiting the captain's ability to see.
It was "mainly due to the lack of visibility due to the weather conditions when winds reached 40 knots, which affected the control" of the ship, the SCA said in a statement.
After being stranded for more than a day, the ship has been partially refloated and traffic is expected to resume soon, said port agent GAC, citing the SCA.
The Ever Given container ship was now alongside the canal bank, GAC said on its website.
According to satellite data from MarineTraffic.com earlier, the vessel's bow was touching the canal's eastern wall, while its stern looked lodged against its western wall.
The Ever Given is among the largest cargo ships in the world. It can carry about 20,000 containers at a time.
Taiwan's Evergreen Marine Corp, which is leasing the vessel under a time charter, said the shipowner informed it that the ship "was suspected of being hit by a sudden strong wind, causing the hull to deviate from waterway and accidentally hit the bottom and run aground".
"The company has urged the shipowner to report the cause of the incident and has been in discussions with relevant parties including the canal management authority to assist the ship as soon as possible."
All crew are safe and accounted for, said Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, which manages the MV Ever Given. "There have been no reports of injuries or pollution."
Screengrab from MarineTraffic.com of the Ever Given cargo ship stuck in the Suez Canal.
STUCK SIDEWAYS
MarineTraffic recorded that the vessel had been in the same position since at least Tuesday afternoon.
SCA chairman Admiral Osama Rabie said in a statement that "rescue and tug units are continuing their efforts" to free the Ever Given.
Bloomberg reported the incident had caused a build-up of more than 100 ships seeking to transit the canal.
Photographs released by the SCA showed excavators onshore digging soil from the canal's bank, with the earth-moving equipment dwarfed by the giant hull towering above.
Instagram user Julianne Cona posted a photo of the grounded ship from the Maersk Denver, now also stuck behind the Ever Given.
"Ship in front of us ran aground while going through the canal and is now stuck sideways," she wrote. "Looks like we might be here for a little bit."
More than 150 years old, the Suez Canal is one of the world's most important trade routes, providing passage for 10 per cent of all international maritime trade.
Nearly 19,000 ships passed through it last year with a total tonnage of 1.17 billion, according to the SCA.
Map of the Suez Canal locating a huge container ship causing a traffic jam of vessels in both directions since Mar 23, 2021. (Image: AFP)
KNOCK-ON EFFECT
The ship appeared to be stuck about 6km north of the southerly mouth of the canal near the city of Suez, an area of the canal that is a single lane.
That could have a major knock-on effect for global shipping moving between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea, warned Salvatore R Mercogliano, a former merchant mariner and associate professor of history at North Carolina's Campbell University.
"Every day, 50 vessels on average go through that canal, so the closing of the canal means no vessels are transiting north and south," Mercogliano told the AP.
"Every day the canal is closed ... container ships and tankers are not delivering food, fuel and manufactured goods to Europe and goods are not being exported from Europe to the Far East."
Cargo ships and oil tankers appeared to be lining up at the southern end of the Suez Canal, waiting to be able to pass through the waterway to the Mediterranean Sea, according to MarineTraffic data.
This satellite image from Planet Labs shows the cargo ship MV Ever Given stuck in the Suez Canal near Suez, Egypt, Mar 23, 2021. (Photo: Planet Labs via AP)
The Ever Given had listed its destination as Rotterdam in the Netherlands prior to getting stuck in the canal.
Opened in 1869, the Suez Canal provides a crucial link for oil, natural gas and cargo being shipping from East to West. Around 10 per cent of the world's trade flows through the waterway and it remains one of Egypt's top foreign currency earners.
In 2015, the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi completed a major expansion of the canal, allowing it to accommodate the world’s largest vessels.
