Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
FILE - Gen. Aung San, then leader of the Myanmar government, arrives at 10 Downing Street, the residence and office of Britain's Prime Minister, in London, on Jan. 13, 1947. Myanmar’s military-ruled government and its opponents on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, marked the 75th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, the father of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
FILE - Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi receives a final report from Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State, at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Jan. 20, 2020. Myanmar’s military-ruled government and its opponents on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, marked the 75th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, the father of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
BANGKOK (AP) — Myanmar’s military-ruled government and its opponents on Tuesday marked the 75th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, the father of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Scattered pro-democracy rallies were held Tuesday in several cities across the country commemorating Aung San, six Cabinet colleagues and two other officials who were killed 75 years ago at a Cabinet meeting less than six months before the country, then called Burma, achieved its independence from British colonial rule.
Aung San was 32 years old when he was gunned down by a group of armed men in uniform in the secretariat office in Yangon, the country’s biggest city. A political rival, former Prime Minister U Saw, was tried and hanged for plotting this political assassination.
Tuesday's protests, generally dispersed within a short time to avoid confrontations with security forces, also paid tribute to those who have died protesting the military takeover in February last year that ousted Suu Kyi and her elected government.
In Yangon, neighborhoods heard wailing sirens and car horns bellowing out for one minute at 10:37 a.m., the time of the 1947 attack.
Photos and videos on social media showed protesters carrying banners and chanting “Eradicate racism, there are more than nine Martyrs” in Yangon.
As of Monday, 2,091 civilians including poets, activists, politicians and others had been killed by the security forces since February 2021, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
An official memorial ceremony was held, as every year, at Martyrs’ Mausoleum in Yangon, near the foot of the famous Shwedagon Pagoda.
The historic secretariat office building where the attack took place and Bogyoke Aung San Museum, the last residence of Aung San and his family just before his assassination, which had been closed for the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic, were reopened to the public under strict safety protocols.
Residents who live near the memorial sites said security was tight and few visitors were seen on nearby roads coming to pay respects. They said the scene was very different from when Suu Kyi’s government ruled.
Neither Suu Kyi, who is under arrest, nor Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who currently heads its government and ruling military council, attended the ceremony this year. Vice-Senior Gen. Soe Win, vice-chairman of the military council, was the highest-ranking official in attendance. An official of the ceremony's subcommittee laid a wreath on behalf of Suu Kyi’s family.
Suu Kyi, 77, who was arrested when Myanmar’s military seized power from her elected government in February last year, has not been seen in public apart from one photo shown on state television in May 2021, taken inside a court at the start of criminal proceedings against her.
Suu Kyi has been sentenced to 11 years in prison and was transferred from a secret detention location to a custom-built solitary facility at a prison in the capital Naypyitaw last month.
She is now being tried on a slew of legal cases brought by the military at a new facility constructed in the same prison compound. Suu Kyi’s supporters and independent analysts say all the charges against her are politically motivated and an attempt to discredit her and legitimize the military’s seizure of power.
The opposition National Unity Government, which was established by elected lawmakers and considers itself the country’s legitimate administrative body, broadcasted a livestream of the commemorating ceremony on social media. The military has branded NUG as a terrorist organization.
Mahn Winn Khaing Thann, Prime Minister of NUG, promised to fight the military alongside the people until the revolution succeeds.
“I would like to reiterate that the entire ethnic population, including monks, students, and youth, can only exercise their freedom of choice and fully enjoy their rights after ending the military dictatorship and flourishing the federal democracy system," he said. “Therefore, I would like to make a promise that we will work hard until the success of the spring revolution that we are carrying out together with the people.”
Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.
A new report says many Texas prison inmates fear dying or falling gravely ill from the hot weather and believe actions taken by officials to mitigate the dangerous conditions continue to fall short. The report by the Texas A&M University Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center and Texas Prisons Community Advocates comes as the current summer heat wave has pushed temperatures in some Texas prisons without air conditioning to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Advocates and others have been highly critical of the lack of air conditioning in the Texas prison system. Only 30% of Texas prison units are fully air-conditioned. The head of the Texas prison system says it would cost $1.1 billion to install air conditioning in all prison units.
The House has approved a significant expansion of health care and disability benefits for millions of veterans who were exposed to toxic burn pits while serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. The vote all but assures the measure will soon go to President Joe Biden to be signed into law. The Senate will have to vote again because of a technical fix the House made to the bill, but the essence of the bill is the same as the one senators overwhelmingly passed last month. The measure expands access to health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs and will make it easier for many veterans to get disability payments.
Jury selection has begun in the trial of former Trump presidential adviser Steve Bannon. Bannon faces criminal contempt of Congress charges after refusing for months to cooperate with the House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection. In the trial, underway Monday, Bannon is charged in Washington’s federal court with defying a subpoena that sought his records and testimony. Bannon is one of the most prominent of former President Donald Trump's allies to refuse to testify before the committee. A conviction on each count could carry a minimum of 30 days of jail and as long as a year behind bars.
Sen. Joe Manchin is roiling budget talks with Democratic leaders anew. The West Virginia Democrat says the latest inflation surge makes him more cautious about agreeing to federal spending increases that could drive consumers’ costs even higher. In December, Manchin single-handedly killed Democrats’ roughly $2 trillion, 10-year social and environment bill before Christmas. In recent months, he's been bargaining with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over a new economic package that would be around half that size and focus on health, energy and taxes. But Manchin says grim new inflation figures mean the compromise he’s trying to reach with Schumer must be reviewed.
A judge says Democrat Shelia Edwards can remain on the ballot for Georgia’s Public Service Commission, even though she doesn’t live in the district she would represent. Senior Superior Court Judge David Emerson says in a Wednesday ruling that the District 3 election is exempt from the residency rule. The judge says that's because candidates are running to fill two unexpired years remaining on the term of former Commissioner Chuck Eaton. Gov. Brian Kemp appointed Republican Fitz Johnson after Eaton stepped down. Johnson is running this year to stay on the commission until 2024. Democrats nominated Edwards in May. But she doesn't live in the district, prompting legal questions.
Republican primaries this year have revealed a new political strategy for numerous candidates. They're running on a platform that denies President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020. And as some of those same candidates lose their own primaries, they’re insisting without evidence that their races were rigged, too. The primary losers have a role model in Trump himself. After he lost the Iowa caucuses in 2016, Trump baselessly claimed fraud and demanded an investigation. When he was elected president later that year, he claimed that fraud was the reason Democrat Hillary Clinton won more votes than he did. Trump set up a commission to try to prove that. That commission was disbanded when it failed to produce any evidence.
A prominent Black community leader says a nonprofit director in San Francisco's Fillmore district was brutally beaten by two allegedly homeless men. Police say they arrived at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center around 11 a.m. Friday to find one of two suspects and the victim. Rev. Amos Brown says James Spingola was beaten with a wooden plank after asking two men to move away from the center's front doorstep. Brown says the Black neighborhood is under siege by homeless people engaging in crime and drugs. He wants more action by city leaders to protect the neighborhood and help homeless people.
A prime-time hearing Thursday will offer the most compelling evidence yet of then-President Donald Trump’s “dereliction of duty” on the day of the Jan. 6 insurrection. That's according to the House committee investigating last year's attack. GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger says the hearing is “going to open people’s eyes in a big way” in showing how Trump did nothing as a mob stormed the Capitol. Another panel member, Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria, says fresh witnesses “will add a lot of value and information” to the probe. Thursday's hearing may be the last, but the committee's investigation will press on.
The House has voted to restore abortion access nationwide. It's Democrats' first legislative response to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion. But the House bill approved Friday has little chance of becoming law, with the necessary support lacking in the 50-50 Senate. But the vote marks the beginning of a new era in the abortion debate as lawmakers, governors and legislatures grapple with the impact of the Supreme Court decision. The House also passed a separate bill to prohibit punishment for a woman or child who decides to travel to another state to get an abortion.
Sri Lanka’s president, who had announced he would resign Wednesday, has fled the country after months of turmoil culminated in protesters converging on the presidential palace. The prime minister also said he will quit after a new government is installed. He earlier warned the debt-laden economy has “collapsed.” Short of cash to pay for imports of food and fuel and defaulting on its debt, it is seeking help from neighboring India and China and from the International Monetary Fund. Sri Lankans are skipping meals as they endure shortages, lining up for hours to try to buy necessities. It’s a harsh reality for a country whose economy had been growing quickly, with a growing and comfortable middle class, until the latest crisis deepened.
FILE - Gen. Aung San, then leader of the Myanmar government, arrives at 10 Downing Street, the residence and office of Britain's Prime Minister, in London, on Jan. 13, 1947. Myanmar’s military-ruled government and its opponents on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, marked the 75th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, the father of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
FILE - Myanmar's leader Aung San Suu Kyi receives a final report from Philippine diplomat Rosario Manalo, a member of the Independent Commission of Enquiry for Rakhine State, at the Presidential Palace in Naypyitaw, Myanmar, on Jan. 20, 2020. Myanmar’s military-ruled government and its opponents on Tuesday, July 19, 2022, marked the 75th anniversary of the assassination of independence hero Gen. Aung San, the father of the country’s ousted leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device.