Protesters in coup-hit Myanmar marked the birthday of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing Saturday by burning his portrait and staging mock funerals.

The nation has experienced mass protests and a brutal military response since the February 1 coup which ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Almost 890 civilians have died in a crackdown by the State Administration Council -- as the junta calls itself -- and almost 6,500 have been arrested, according to a local monitoring group.

On Saturday, anti-coup demonstrators posted pictures on social media of a traditional noodle soup dish called mohinga, which is often served at funerals in Myanmar.

"I made (mohinga) on his birthday because I want him to die soon," one Yangon resident told AFP.

"Many innocent people lost their lives because of him. So, if he died, the whole country would be happy."

In Mandalay, the country's second-largest city, some activists burnt pictures of the junta leader and set fire to fake coffins at mock funerals.

"Because of this man, our Myanmar has many problems," a Mandalay resident told AFP.

"He actually should not have been born. Therefore, we hold his funeral as we want to say he should be dead."

Min Aung Hlaing turns 65 Saturday -- the age he would have been subject to mandatory retirement while he headed up the armed forces, as stipulated by the country's 2008 constitution.

Some analysts believe that was a factor in his power-grab because he had not been able to see a path to higher office with the help of the military-backed political party, which was routed in an election last year.

Before the coup, Min Aung Hlaing was considered an international pariah, condemned for presiding over the brutal 2017 crackdown on the country's stateless Rohingya population.

He has been banned from Facebook for stoking hate speech against the persecuted minority, and UN investigators have called on him and other top army leaders to be prosecuted for genocide.

But for years, he has steadfastly denied nearly all allegations of human rights abuses and says the military operations, which drove around 750,000 Rohingya refugees into Bangladesh, were justified to root out insurgents.

He was tapped to lead Myanmar's armed forces in 2011, just as a previous generation of military leaders was transitioning the country to a parliamentary system after decades of junta rule.

Min Aung Hlaing's regime has faced international condemnation and sanctions since the putsch, with concerns over mounting violence, political prisoners, internet shutdowns and a clawing back of press freedom.

His State Administration Council on Saturday insisted it was working on achieving "enduring peace for the entire nation", according to a state-run newspaper.

US sanctions 22, including Myanmar ministers, over military coup
Washington (AFP) July 2, 2021 - The United States on Friday imposed fresh sanctions on 22 individuals including four Myanmar government ministers in response to the February military coup and attacks against the country's pro-democracy movement.

In a two-pronged action, the Treasury and Commerce Departments announced the punishments as part of Washington's continued response to the overthrow of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement that the new sanctions were levied "in response to the brutal campaign of violence perpetrated by the Burmese military regime and to continue imposing costs in connection with the military coup."

The sanctions do not target the Myanmar people, but are aimed at pressuring the military to "immediately restore Burma's path to democracy," Blinken said.

The sanctions target Myanmar's minister of information Chit Naing, minister for investment Aung Naing Oo, labor and immigration minister Myint Kyaing, and Thet Thet Khine, the minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement.

Three members of the powerful State Administrative Council were also hit with sanctions, as were 15 spouses and adult children of officials, in an expansion of US punishments imposed in February, March and May following the coup.

Under the sanctions, all US property in the name of the individuals are blocked, and Americans or people in the United States are prohibited from conducting property or interest transactions with them.

Andrea Gacki, director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said in a statement the action demonstrates Washington "will continue to impose increasing costs on Burma's military and promote accountability for those responsible for the military coup and ongoing violence."

- Death toll -

The Commerce Department meanwhile slapped sanctions on four business entities: King Royal Technologies Co., which provides satellite communications services supporting the military; and Wanbao Mining and its two subsidiaries, which have revenue-sharing agreements with a company that helps fund the country's defense ministry.

The actions come as Myanmar rejected new figures released by the United Nations, which said there were reports from within the country that security forces have killed at least 883 unarmed people, including at least 40 who are believed to have died in custody.

At a Tuesday briefing, a spokesman for UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told reporters that the global agency's country team also determined that 5,202 people were in detention as a result of their opposition to the military takeover.

Myanmar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs "strongly objects" to the numbers presented by the United Nations, spokesperson Nay Pyi Taw said in a statement.

"The United Nations is requested not to release one-sided remarks without verification and to verify sensitive information with relevant focal ministries before its release," the spokesperson added.

Authorities Wednesday released more than 2,000 anti-coup protesters from prisons across Myanmar, including local journalists jailed after reporting critically on the junta's crackdown.

Freed American journalist remembers horrors of Myanmar junta jail
Fairfax, United States (AFP) July 3, 2021 - Journalist Nathan Maung turned to meditation when he was jailed for reporting on Myanmar's bloody coup, but even back home in sleepy Virginia, he can't forget those left behind, including a colleague still at the mercy of their jailers.

In March, as the junta moved to crush mass pro-democracy protests on Myanmar's streets, about 45 soldiers arrived at Maung's office in the commercial capital Yangon, he told AFP in an interview.

As the squad battered their way through the gate and a locked door, Maung was frantically sending messages to friends telling them he was about to be arrested, he said.

When the soldiers finally broke through and stormed in with their guns up, "I said, 'Please, don't shoot us'."

Myanmar has been rocked by a huge uprising since the February putsch that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi and her government.

The junta has responded with force -- shooting protesters, arresting suspected dissidents, rounding up journalists and shutting down news outlets.

Maung and his colleague Hanthar Nyein watched the squad take "everything from our office" -- cash, jewelry, and even shoes -- before they were brought to an interrogation center in northern Yangon.

There, he said, he was held "for four days" -- during three of which he was denied food, and for two, water.

"I kept practicing Vipassana meditation to be mindful," said Maung, who is a Myanmar-born US citizen.

And with the first sip of water came hope.

"After I drank my first water, I thought I could live," he said. "I wouldn't be killed."

- Crackdown on dissent -

More than 880 people have been killed and almost 6,500 arrested in the crackdown according to a local monitoring group, although the State Administration Council -- as the junta calls itself -- disputes these figures.

Another group, Reporting ASEAN, says 89 journalists have been detained since the coup.

In March, one journalist livestreamed his own arrest on his employer's official Facebook page, with the chaotic footage showing loud bangs outside his apartment building.

Kamayut Media, which Maung founded, faced similar charges under a colonial-era law that criminalizes encouraging dissent against the military.

As well as brute force, the military has re-tooled a colonial-era law to make spreading "fake news" a crime as it tightens its grip on dissent.

- 'Cigarette burns' -

Maung soon found out how brutal the consequences of being brought in could be.

"They hit my eardrums with their bare hands several times, they beat my face and shoulders," he said.

"(They) kicked... my sides."

His phone had been broken by the time he got to the center, and was of no use to his interrogators looking for contacts of dissidents and other journalists.

But Hanthar Nyein's was still working, and they needed his password.

"They put his legs on the ice block for hours, burnt his skin with a cigarette," Maung said.

He refused to tell them until they threatened to rape him, Maung said, and when they found pictures of him with Suu Kyi and other political figures, he was beaten again.

The junta's information team says all investigations and interrogations are being carried out according to the law.

- 'I left him behind' -

Maung believes US diplomacy was one of the factors in all charges against him being dropped, and his release in June.

It is a freedom not yet afforded to fellow US citizen and journalist Danny Fenster, who has been held since May 24, the only foreign reporter remaining in junta custody.

In Fredericksburg, Virginia, Maung said he is committed to continuing his work and a "free Burma" -- using a previous name for Myanmar -- and to work to free other imprisoned journalists, such as his colleague Hanthar.

Until then, he has demons to live with.

"I contacted our lawyers when I arrived in the States, and I was told that he was crying in the court when I left him behind," he said.

"It broke my heart... I do not enjoy my freedom at all."

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