Myanmar protesters launch 'blue shirt campaign'

YANGON, Myanmar

Myanmar activists on Wednesday launched a "blue shirt campaign" to show solidarity with those who were detained for their involvement in anti-regime movements.

Arrest, torture, and forced disappearances have been taking place daily in Myanmar since the Feb.1 military coup, with the tallies by a local monitoring group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) show over 3,300 people have been arrested and detained as of Tuesday.

People dressed in blue shirts on Wednesday posted selfie-photos with a raising hand on which each writes a name of a person who was tortured or killed during custody after being detained by the security forces for their anti-regime activities.

“As long as political prisoners are not released, we all are prisoners. In other words, the concept is that we all are with you,” read the posters alongside the photos on social media.

“All are urged to participate in this campaign on April 21, 2021,” they said, with notes that the campaign was to raise public awareness about the growing number of political prisoners.

Wednesday was also the seventh death anniversary of Win Tin, the co-founder of the National League of Democracy party and the longest-held political prisoner in Myanmar history, who wore a blue prison shirt from his release in 2008 till his death in 2014 in solidarity with political prisoners.

Through the state-owned TV channels, the junta has released images, on daily basis, of the detainees tortured during detentions.

“The AAPP is concerned for all those detained, particularly in undisclosed locations,” the group said in a press release on Sunday after the junta released images of six young detainees, including two women, who appeared in bruises and blood.

Despite the brutal crackdown by security forces, the protesters continue the anti-regime movements in several cities and towns across the country.

The AAPP said at least 738 people have been killed by the security forces as of Tuesday.

A local news outlet Monywa Gazette reported late Tuesday that six villagers were shot dead during a raid by security forces in some villages in the Yinmabin township of the central Sagain region on Tuesday.

A resident of the Thee Gone village in the area said more than 2,000 villagers also fled their homes on Tuesday night to escape the random shootings by the troops.

“They raided villages to seize riffle guns [traditionally possessed by villagers for hunting] yesterday [Tuesday]. There were about 200 or 300 soldiers and police,” the 34-year old resident told Anadolu Agency over the phone on Wednesday.

“Soldiers and police still station in at least two villages,” he said.