Burma
People take part in a flower strike to mark Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's 78th birthday on Monday in Monywa in Sagaing Region. / Monywa-Amyint Leading Strike Committee
Nearly 100 people, most of them women, were arrested in Myanmar for wearing, holding, selling or buying flowers on Monday, the 78th birthday of detained civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
It was another sign of how complete the loss of human rights has been in Myanmar in less than two-and-a-half years since the coup.
The regime’s detention of women wearing, holding, buying or selling flowers on Monday followed a call by resistance forces to stage a nationwide flower strike on the birthday of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
She was arrested by the regime on the first day of the coup in February 2021 and is being detained in Naypyitaw prison. She has been sentenced by a military council court to a total of 33 years in prison in 19 cases.
Many Myanmar people at home and abroad embraced the call for a flower strike by wearing flowers to show their support for a civilian leader who almost always wore flowers before she was jailed.
About 40 women were detained by the regime for wearing flowers in the central market of Sagaing Region’s Kale Town.
In Yangon’s Kamayut Township, 15 women who wore or held flowers were arrested by the regime troops, according to the Kamayut Information group.
Video footage shows armed regime troops checking pedestrians near a shopping mall in in the township and arresting two women who were holding flowers.
Regime troops also arrested three flower vendors and two women wearing flowers in a market in the Township, the Kamayut Information Group said.
Elderly, middle aged and young women were arrested, it said.
“We heard that three flower vendors were released last night, but the fate of the others is still unknown,” a member of Kamayut Information Group told The Irrawaddy.
The regime arrested 13 women staff at Thamardi gold shop in Yangon for wearing roses.
A man from Yangon’s Mingaladon Township was arrested on Monday. He was accused of participating in the flower strike.
About 20 women from Myit Nge Township in Mandalay Region were arrested on Monday for wearing flowers, according to local residents.
Wearing flowers is not a crime, said Ma Zu Zu, a joint secretary of the Burmese Women’s Union. It is an individual right and no one can ban this, she said.
“Almost all women wear flowers in Myanmar and it is natural. So, they take part in flower strikes, but the military is afraid of women’s involvement in revolution. Therefore, they repress people with fear,” Ma Zu Zu told The Irrawaddy.
The junta’s enthusiasts on Telegram urged it to arrest 20 people, 13 women and seven men, for participating in the flower strike.
