Advertisement
When Myanmar’s military seized control of the civilian government and declared a year-long state of emergency, Ei San was shaken.
On February 1, the military arrested elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and hundreds of other lawmakers, after declaring that a landslide election won by the National League for Democracy (NLD) party in November was fraudulent. In the days that followed, hundreds of thousands of people – particularly from the younger generations – have taken to the streets in protest, amidst an escalating crackdown by security forces.
Since the start of the civil disobedience movement, Ei San, a 27-year-old research assistant in Hong Kong who is from Myanmar, has been following the news from afar and worrying about loved ones back home. With others in the Myanmar community, she decided to form a solidarity group in the city. On February 9, they released a statement condemning the takeover as “illegal,” demanding the release of detainees who were “unlawfully arrested,” and calling for the international community to support the “fight against the military dictatorship.”