Opponents, supporters of Myanmar coup scuffle as more protests planned

Supporters and opponents of Myanmar’s military clashed on the streets of Yangon on Thursday as authorities blocked students from leaving their campus to march, a day after the first flurry of diplomacy aimed at resolving the crisis.

The country has been in turmoil since the army seized power on Feb. 1 and detained civilian government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership after the military complained of fraud in a November election.

There have been about three weeks of daily protests and strikes and students pledged to come out again in the commercial hub of Yangon on Thursday.

“We students have to bring down the dictatorship,” said Kaung Sat Wai, 25, outside Yangon’s main university campus.

“Since the coup, our lives have become hopeless, our dreams have died.”

But police blocked the gates of the campus, stopping hundreds of students inside from coming out to march.

At the same time, about 1,000 supporters of the military gathered for a rally in central Yangon.

Some of them threatened news photographers, media workers said, and scuffles broke out between the pro-and anti-military demonstrators. One photographer was slightly hurt, he said.

Later, military supporters threw stones and fired catapults, witnesses said, and there was an unconfirmed report of a stabbing.

The confrontation underscored the volatility in a country largely paralysed by protests and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the military, which many professionals and government workers have joined.

Doctors were due to hold a protest on Thursday as part of a so-called white coat revolution.