JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Thousands attended a peaceful sit-in rally near Zay Cho Market in downtown Mandalay Sunday, loudly voicing their denunciation of Myanmar’s military junta a day after protesters were killed by police and soldiers in the port area of the city Saturday afternoon. According to a law student at the rally for JURIST, the crowd chanted (in Burmese): “To Fall Down Military Dictatorship – Our Duties, Our Duties”, “To Get Democracy – Our Duties, Our Duties”, “Do We Have Unity? – Unity Have Unity” and “Uprising, Shall Win!”.

Our correspondent writes:

Despite the violent crackdown by military resulting in loss of lives, several injured and arrested people yesterday, Mandalay’s strike got stronger today. Thousands of people including medical staff and students from various universities joined the peaceful sit-in strike against the military coup today (Sunday morning). They hurt Mandalay yesterday, we become stronger today.

Another of our law student correspondents writes: “this shows the whole world how people boycott peacefully and how they [the military] crack down brutally.”

Massive demonstrations are expected across Myanmar Monday as a general strike has been called to protest Saturday’s killings and military oppression that has resulted in the detention of more than 500 people since the coup that removed Myanmar’s civilian leadership on February 1.  South Asia media are saying that the turnout could be in the millions, which would rival the number that came out in support of the 1988 Revolution that eventually paved the way for democratic civilian government in the past decade under the effective leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi.