EXPATS IN JAPAN ASK FOR MYANMAR HELP

With the turmoil in Myanmar showing no signs of abating a month after the coup, some Myanmar people living in Japan are urging their host country to suspend aid to the Southeast Asian nation as part of international pressure on the military to restore the democratically elected government, according to a report from Kyodo News

In a bid to block arms supply to the Myanmar military from major providers China and Russia as violent crackdowns on anti-coup demonstrators continue, the expats are calling on Japan to lobby other U.N. members so that the Security Council urgently imposes a global arms embargo on the junta led by Min Aung Hlaing, the army chief who ended Myanmar's decade-long democratic reform.

"We would like Japan to halt development assistance to the junta and press China to stop supplying weapons to the military. We hope such measures, together with U.S. sanctions, will compel the generals to reverse course," said Lae Lae Lwin, a Myanmar nurse working in Japan.

"We know Japan has developed ties with both Aung San Suu Kyi and the Tatmadaw," she said, referring to the ousted civilian leader and the armed forces. "But at this juncture, we want Japan to side with us, the people of Myanmar, not the Tatmadaw."

Min Aung Hlaing seized power after detaining Suu Kyi and other senior members of her party, the National League for Democracy, alleging fraud in November's election that gave the NLD a landslide victory.

The election commission, however, said the vote was fair.

"The coup has not only shattered my dream to introduce Japan's advanced health care and nursing systems to Myanmar, but more importantly deprived people in Myanmar of hard-won freedom and democracy," Lae Lae Lwin, one of about 32,000 Myanmar residents in Japan, said in an interview in Tokyo.

She made the remarks when Myanmar security forces killed at least 18 protesters and injured over 30 others around the country on Sunday in the bloodiest day since the Feb. 1 coup, according to the U.N. Human Rights Office.

Also on Sunday, some 2,500 Myanmar residents and others held a demonstration in front of the United Nations University in Tokyo, demanding that the junta immediately release Suu Kyi and relinquish power and calling for help from the world body and Japan.

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