Hundreds of people took to the streets in downtown Yangon, the country’s largest city, to send a message within hours of the start of an ASEAN summit, to be attended by Junta Leader Min Aung Hlaing.
Demonstrators carried signs reading ‘ASEAN, please support the people of Myanmar’ and ‘ASEAN, do you need more blood… to make the right decision?’
The so-called Government of National Unity, a group of legislators from the former government of Myanmar and representatives of ethnic minorities, is also angered by the bloc’s invitation to Hlaing.
Interpol was asked on Thursday to arrest the general, the same day that Myanmar’s state media announced that lawmakers from the ousted regime were wanted for high treason.
The country has been in crisis since February 1, when the army ousted the administration in a military coup, citing fraud in the November elections.
Demonstrations have been taking place on a daily basis ever since, and according to a local monitoring group, security forces have killed at least 739 people in crackdowns on protesters.
jg/llp/agp/lp