Asia

In pictures: Protests spread in Myanmar over coup

  • Medical staff in masks protesting with the three-finger salute

    Doctors and nurses on the frontline

    Less than 24 hours after the coup, doctors and nurses from many state hospitals announced that they were going on strike. They also called on others to join a campaign of civil disobedience.

  • Crowd of protesters in Yangon, Myanmar

    Broad coalition

    Since then, students, teachers, blue-collar workers and many other social groups have joined the protests. The demonstrators sing and chant slogans such as "Give power back to the people!" or " Our goal is to get democracy!"

  • Buddhist monks marching in protest along a street in Mandaly, Myanmar

    Monks support the protests

    Buddhist monks are also among the demonstrators. The "sangha," the monastic community, has always played an important role in this predominantly Buddhist country.

  • Demonstrators in Muse in Shan State

    Nationwide protests

    Demonstrations are taking place not just in the big urban centers of Yangon and Mandalay — people are also taking to the street in ethnic minority regions, as here in Shan State.

  • Hand showing the three-finger salute against the backdrop of a crowd of demonstrators

    Three-finger greeting

    As in Thailand, the demonstrators have adopted as their symbol the three-finger greeting from the Hollywood blockbuster "The Hunger Games."

  • Three people holding NLD party flags on a balcony in Yangon, with young child on the ground holding onto the railings

    Encouragement from the balcony

    Many people who are not actively demonstrating themselves applaud the demonstrators and support them by providing them with food and water.

  • Myanmar Aung San Suu Kyi getting into a car after a hearing on the Rohingya genocide case before the ICJ in The Hague, December 12, 2019

    NLD leadership arrested

    The demonstrators are demanding a return to democratic government and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi (seen here in The Hague in December 2019) and other high-ranking politicians of the de facto governing party, the National League for Democracy. The military arrested Aung San Suu Kyi and other NLD members on Monday.

  • Pro-military demonstrators on the back of a flatbed truck in Naypyitaw

    Support for the military government

    Supporters of the military government and the generals' proxy party, the USDP (Union Solidarity and Development Party), have also held a few isolated rallies around the country.

  • Soldiers intervening at a demonstration in 1988 in Myanmar

    Memories of the 1988 coup

    The coup of 1988 is constantly on people's minds during the current protests. Back then, public order collapsed amid anti-government protests and was restored by the military with the utmost severity. Thousands of people died, tens of thousands were arrested, and many students and activists fled abroad.

  • Police firing a water cannon at protests in Naypyitaw

    Water cannon in Naypyitaw

    The capital, Naypyitaw , in the remote center of the country, was purpose-built by the military and unveiled in 2005. Security forces here have deployed water cannon against the demonstrators.

  • Police with rifles dispersing protesters in Myawaddy, Myanmar

    Tense situation

    The violence threatened to escalate in Myawaddy, a town in southern Kayin State, on Sunday evening. Police deployed tear gas and rubber bullets.

  • Protester hands a rose to a policeman during a protest in Yangon

    Flowers for the security forces

    On Monday evening, the military announced that the people did not tolerate "lawless troublemakers" and that these must be removed. The demonstrators responded to this threat by giving police officers flowers.


A week after a military coup there, Myanmar is seeing nationwide protests. A broad coalition of doctors, teachers and blue-collar workers is demanding the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy.

  • Date 08.02.2021
  • Author Rodion Ebbighausen