JURIST EXCLUSIVE – A Friday update from one of our law student correspondents reporting for JURIST in Myanmar, sent just before the now-daily military-imposed Internet blackout from 1 AM – 9 AM MMT (1:30 PM – 9:30 PM EST):

Today, there was no bad news except from what happened in Myitkyina, in the northern part of Myanmar, Kachin State [where marching female teachers were beaten by riot police, as reported earlier].

But we all know that this battle for democracy will be a long one. It can go on for months. According to the news, there will be a shortage of fuel after two months because our country mainly depends on imports. People start to worry about the economy and their financial status. The government banks are not reliable now. The private banks have been closed since Feb 1. If there is no more circulation of money, there will be an economic crisis and shortage of food supplies, and people will have to face hunger and poverty and perhaps theft, robbery and violence.

We don’t want these things to happen. The military junta is trying to do this and lead us that way. They will make over 50 million people suffer for their own interest. They are dragging down the country.

The main important thing is that we, citizens, do not recognize the military junta and we want to have our government elected by us. I hope the CRPH, Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw [established by members of the deposed Myanmar Parliament from the Suu Kyi-led National League of Democracy] will gain recognition by the international community.

But, I am sure for one thing. We will definitely win this time and time matters. We citizens just want true democracy, just want to sleep peacefully at night,  we just want to learn peacefully.

To all the international community, thanks for supporting us and please keep it up. We all are human and the military junta have violated our fundamental human rights. They are stealing the Nation.