Anti-coup protesters on Thursday took to the streets of Myanmar for a sixth consecutive day, after US President Joe Biden announced sanctions against the Southeast Asian nation’s generals and demanded they relinquish power.

There has been an outpouring of anger and defiance since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last week and detained her along with other senior figures of her National League for Democracy party.

Security forces have used tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets against the protesters, with isolated reports of live rounds also being fired. Police also ramped up their harassment of the NLD with a raid on its headquarters.

But demonstrators again marched peacefully on Thursday in Naypyidaw—the capital and military stronghold—as well as Yangon, the largest city and commercial hub.

“Don’t go to the office,” chanted a group of protesters outside Myanmar’s central bank in Yangon, part of a civil disobedience effort urging civil servants and people in other industries to boycott work and put pressure on the junta.

“We aren’t doing this for a week or a month—we are determined to do this until the end when (Suu Kyi) and President U Win Myint are released,” one bank employee who had joined the protest told AFP.

There were also fresh rallies in the cities of Dawei and Mandalay, with protesters carrying signs that said “Restore our Democracy!” and “We condemn the military coup”.

US sanctions

Western nations have repeatedly denounced the coup, with the United States leading calls for the generals to relinquish power.

In the most significant concrete action to pressure the junta, Biden announced Wednesday that his administration was cutting of the generals’ access to $1 billion in funds in the United States.

“I again call on the Burmese military to immediately release democratic political leaders and activists,” Biden said, as he flagged further sanctions.

“The military must relinquish power.”   

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has also warned the bloc could impose fresh sanctions on Myanmar’s military.

“This seems like a well calibrated set of measures… Also a strong signal that President Biden himself announced them,” Myanmar-based political analyst Richard Horsey tweeted, describing the sanctions as a “clear message” to the military.

Crackdown deepens

There were more reports of arrests on Thursday, including the deputy speaker of the parliament’s lower house and a key aide to Suu Kyi, taking the number of coup-linked detentions to more than 200, according to monitor Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

The military justified last week’s power grab by claiming widespread voter fraud in the November polls, which saw a landslide for Suu Kyi’s party.

It quickly moved to stack courts and political offices with loyalists as it ended a decade of civilian rule.

Fears are growing over how long the junta will tolerate the masses of people taking to the streets.

Live rounds were fired at a rally in Naypyidaw this week, critically wounding two people—including a woman who was shot in the head.

Images depicting the woman have been shared widely online alongside expressions of grief and fury.

“They can shoot a young woman but they can’t steal the hope and resolve of a determined people,” UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews tweeted Wednesday.

The military’s clampdown on information using internet blackouts—with tech companies ordered to cut communications intermittently—has drawn widespread condemnation.

Concern was also building Thursday that the junta was planning to impose a much harsher and sustained internet crackdown.

Tech-focused Myanmar civil society organisation MIDO tweeted that a draft cyber security bill had been sent to telecom companies, which would allow the military to order blackouts and website bans.

It would also require social media platforms to hand over users’ metadata.

Source: AFP

The helicopter crash that killed NBA legend Kobe Bryant, his daughter and six other passengers was probably caused by the pilot becoming disoriented after flying into clouds, investigators said Tuesday.

Ara Zobayan, the pilot of the chartered Island Express helicopter, probably suffered “spatial disorientation,” the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said.

Also likely contributing to the January 26, 2020 crash in Calabasas, California was “self-induced pressure” on the pilot to complete the flight for his celebrity client, the NTSB said.

The NTSB also cited “inadequate review and oversight” of safety management processes by Island Express as a probable cause of the crash but did not find that the helicopter had experienced any mechanical problems.

Bryant, 41, was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and six other passengers when the Sikorsky S-76 helicopter slammed into a fog-shrouded hillside west of Los Angeles. There were no survivors.

The NTSB said weather conditions were marginal on the morning of the flight but acceptable for flying under visual flight rules, where a pilot stays out of the clouds and maintains eye contact with the ground.

Shortly before the crash, the pilot said he was climbing to 4,000 feet (1,200 meters) to get above the clouds but the helicopter was actually in a steep left turn and descending rapidly, NTSB investigators said.

While the pilot perceived that the helicopter was climbing it was actually descending, they added.

“We are talking about spatial disorientation where literally the pilot may not know which way is up or down, whether he or she is leaning left or right,” NTSB chairman Robert Sumwalt said.

In its findings, the NTSB said “the probable cause of this accident was the pilot’s decision to continue flight under visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions which resulted in the pilot’s spatial disorientation and loss of control.”

Island Express was not certified to fly passengers in instrument conditions and the pilot violated the rules by trying to fly through the clouds, it said.

“He would have been illegal by going into the clouds,” Sumwalt said.

‘Likely self-induced pressure’

The NTSB also said in its findings that “contributing to the accident was the pilot’s likely self-induced pressure.”

“Self-induced pressure is a real thing,” Sumwalt said.

“Pilots are ‘can-do’ oriented. The pilot is paid to fly. “He wants to get the job done.”

Zobayan was ferrying Bryant that day from Orange County to Camarillo for a basketball game to be played by a team featuring the former NBA star’s daughter. Bryant was the youth team’s coach.

Two of Gianna Bryant’s 13-year-old teammates were among those who died in the crash along with an assistant coach on the Mamba Sports Academy team.

The NTSB chairman said the accident was avoidable.

“It could have been landed safely all the way up to the point where he went into the clouds,” Sumwalt said. “There were opportunities along the way to have reversed course and prevent this crash by simply landing.”

The NTSB said there had been “inadequate review and oversight” of Island Express’s safety management processes but it was not considered an unsafe operator overall.

“We did not find significant glaring issues with the organization,” Sumwalt said.

“They had cancelled a number of flights due to weather and that’s what we want companies to do.”

And while the 50-year-old Zobayan was considered an experienced pilot with more than 8,500 hours of flight time he “did make mistakes,” Sumwalt said.

“It was an issue of judgement and decision-making that led to this tragic situation,” he said.

Bryant was one of the greatest basketball players ever, an iconic figure who became a face of his sport during a glittering two-decade career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.

He also was a two-time Olympic gold medalist, helping spark the US squad of NBA stars to titles in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.

Source: AFP