Myanmar: Protesters don flowers in hair to mark Aung San Suu Kyi's 76th Birthday

Pro-Democracy protesters in Myanmar, on June 19, donned flowers in their hair to mark the birthday of ousted State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. The Burmese politician, who turned 76 today, continues to be under house arrest along with other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) party and is set to be presented for a trial next week. On Saturday, many of the locals, also participated in anti-coup protests to mark the leader's birthday. 

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of Myanmar residents aped Suu Kyi’s style of flowers tucked in a hair bun and shared pictures on social media websites. Among them was Myanmar Miss Universe beauty queen Thuzar Wint Lwin, who wore red flowers in her hair and wrote: "May our leader be healthy." Others shared pictures and video clips on Twitter using #76thflowerstrike. 

Known as 'Myanmar's Gandhi', Su Kyi has made a significant contribution to the Southeast Asian state's politics and development. On Saturday, supporters in Yangon put up posters reading "Happy Birthday Mother Suu. We are right behind you" on power lines. In Dawei, supporters made a colossal pink coloured birthday cake and brought it along in their demonstrations. Some of the rebel soldiers in Karen also joined in the occasion with flowers tucked behind their ears whilst holding a gun.  

This comes as United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), on June 18 (local time), urged all its member states to prevent the “flow of arms” into Myanmar, stopping short of calling for a global embargo. The non-binding resolution, which takes aim at the growing unrest in the country, also demanded Tatmadaw to immediately stop all violence against “peaceful demonstrators”. It is imperative to note that the resolution came on the same day as UN Security Council, another UN agency held informal talks on the situation in the South-East Asian nation.

Nearly 900 killed

The Southeast Asian nation has been hit with gruelling violence after military leader Min Aung Hlaing declared a coup d’état on February 1. Not only have Myanmar’s democratically elected lawmakers including ousted state counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi detained but hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives in the “fight for democracy”. According to the rights group AAPP, more than 970 people have been killed, 6164 total arrested,4983 currently detained or sentenced while 1937 people are evading an arrest warrant as of June 18

Image: mikthazin_29twt/Twitter