Flash mobs in Myanmar's biggest city avoid deadly response

A flash mob of mostly young people in Myanmar’s biggest city have staged a brief protest march against military rule, the latest in a series of actions aimed at reducing the chances of a deadly response by the authorities

BANGKOK -- A flash mob of mostly young people in Myanmar’s biggest city staged a brief protest march Thursday against military rule, the latest in a series of actions aimed at reducing the chances of a deadly response by the authorities. In the five-minute protest in Yangon, about 70 marchers chanted slogans in support of the civil disobedience movement that opposes February’s army coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. They then scattered into the downtown crowds. Protests also took place in other cities and towns including Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city, where Buddhist monks marched, and Dawei in the southeast, where the demonstrators included engineers, teachers, university students and members of LGBT groups. In Yangon in particular, small protests publicized by word of mouth have become popular. They contrast with weeks of confrontations in which security forces increasingly used lethal force, with some militant protesters responding with homemade weapons such as gasoline bombs in self-defense.