Tens of thousands of people marched for a second day today in Myanmar's largest city and thousands more rallied across the country to protest the military junta coup and the ouster of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The protests, which took place despite the Internet shutdown and restrictions on telephone communications, were the largest demonstrations in the country since 2007 and the Saffron Revolution, as the mass protests led by Buddhist monks were then called.
Crowds in Yangon, the country's commercial capital, held red balloons, the color of the National League for the People's Republic of China, and shouted “We do not want a military dictatorship! We want democracy! “
Myanmar's armed forces seized power in the early hours of Monday morning, brutally halting the democratic transition in the Southeast Asian country and sparking international outrage.
Yesterday, Saturday, tens of thousands took to the streets, in the first mass demonstrations since the coup.
This morning, large crowds from all corners of Yangon gathered in the area of Hledan, some marching in the middle of the road and passing among the cars that had been stopped.
The demonstrators held flags of the National League for Democracy and greeted with three fingers that has become a symbol of protest against the coup. Drivers were honking their horns and passengers were holding pictures of Nobel Peace Prize winner Su Ki.
The images, which were retransmitted via Facebook, were among the few to leave the country as the junta shut down the Internet yesterday, Saturday, and imposed restrictions on telephone communications. Speaking as he filmed the streets, the man who posted on Facebook said that if information was leaked outside the country, it could help keep protesters safe.
There has been no comment from the junta in the capital, Naipaitou, more than 350km north of Yangon.
