taken from Free Myanmar Campaign USA Facebook page
Hundreds of members of the Burmese-Chin community and their allies gathered at the Monument Circle in Indianapolis, Indiana to protest the military coup that occurred in Myanmar Monday, The Indianapolis Star reports. A wave of protests swept across the globe in support of Aung San Suu Kyi, a polarizing Myanmar leader who was detained during the coup, with similar movements growing in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Battle Creek, Michigan; and Tokyo.
The military stated that the reason for Suu Kyi’s detainment was the lack of investigation into alleged voting irregularities during the November 2020 elections in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party “won by a landslide.” Besides Suu Kyi, Myanmar President U Win Myint has also been detained. Several cabinet members, lawmakers and prominent writers and activists have also been reported as missing by friends and family.
The Indianapolis protests were organized by the newly-formed Free Myanmar Campaign USA (FMCUSA). According to the foundation, its mission is “to send a clear message that we stand in solidarity with the people of Myanmar, we honor Myanmar’s 2020 democratic election results, and we denounce the coup by the military junta.”
At the Monument Circle, protestors chanted, “Save Myanmar!”, “Free Myanmar!” and “End to dictatorships!” in Burmese as they played the Burma national anthem.
“For more than half a century Burma has been oppressed, living in extreme poverty and with violations to their human rights,” Elaisa Vahnie, executive director of the Burmese American Community Institute in Indianapolis, told The Indianapolis Star. “So now more than 50 million people over there felt like they could finally breathe a little bit with the hope that we’d move towards democracy and then suddenly this happens.”
The White House has since released a statement threatening sanctions against Myanmar for what it describes as “a direct assault on the country’s transition to democracy and the rule of law.”
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Why are these people protesting in indianapolis? Not sure what the purpose would be. Why not head to washington and talk to your house members and senators, if you want us to do something militarily.