TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Leader of shadow civilian government calls for 'revolution' in Myanmar
Mahn Win Khaing Than, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the ruling National League for Democracy Party, addressed the public via Facebook, saying, "This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close".
Change Size
(Left-right) Myanmar military commander in chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, speaker of upper house of parliament Mahn Win Khaing Than and Vice President Henry Van Thio speak next to Myanmar State Counsellor and Foreign Minister Aung San Suu Kyi after the opening ceremony of the peace conference in Naypyidaw on August 31, 2016. (Agence France Presse/Aung Htet)
T
he acting leader of Myanmar's parallel civilian government, appointed by ousted lawmakers in the wake of a Feb. 1 military coup, addressed the public for the first time on Saturday from hiding and vowed to pursue a "revolution" to overturn the junta.
Mahn Win Khaing Than, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the ruling National League for Democracy Party, addressed the public via Facebook, saying, "This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close".
Witnesses and local media Myanmar Now and BBC Burmese said at least 12 protesters were killed on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days since the coup in which Myanmar's army seized power and detained most of the civilian leadership including Aung San Suu Kyi.
Mahn Win Khaing Than was appointed last week as acting vice-president by representatives of Myanmar's ousted lawmakers, the Committee for Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw (CRPH), which is pushing for recognition as the rightful government.
It has announced its intention to create a federal democracy and leaders have been meeting representatives of Myanmar's largest ethnic armed organizations, which already control vast swathes of territory across the country. Some have pledged their support.
"In order to form a federal democracy, which all ethnic brothers, who have been suffering various kinds of oppression from the dictatorship for decades, really desired, this revolution is the chance for us to put our efforts together," Mahn Win Khaing Than said.
The junta, which could not be reached for comment on Saturday, has declared CRPH illegal and said anyone involved with it could be charged with treason, which carries the death penalty.
The CRPH has declared the junta a "terrorist organisation".
Mahn Win Khaing Than said the CRPH would "attempt to legislate the required laws so that the people have the right to defend themselves" and that public administration would be handled by an "interim people's administration team".
A civil disobedience movement that started with government employees such as doctors and teachers has expanded into a general strike that has paralysed many sectors of the economy and taken a large portion of the workings of government out of the military's hands.
