Myanmar: Satellite images reveal protests and defiance

Satellite images reveal defiance in Myanmar's streets

Updated 2150 GMT (0550 HKT) February 16, 2021

It is a struggle cut off from the world, where outside condemnation may not be heard, yet local outrage over a coup continues.

CNN has obtained powerful pictures of protest from satellite imagery specialists Maxar, where defiance against Myanmar's military junta is literally visible from space.

These images come as coup leaders levy new charges against the country's democratically elected civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi -- who is currently in detention -- and amid reports of the third night in a row of a near-total internet blackout in Myanmar.

"As we have before, we call on the Burmese military to immediately release all unjustly detained civilian and political leaders, journalists, and human rights activists and other members of civil society, as well as to restore the democratically elected government," US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said at a press briefing Tuesday.

"As the president has said, the military seizure of power is a direct assault on the country's transition to democracy and the rule of law," he added.

One image taken Tuesday shows a vast slogan written on a main thoroughfare of the city Mandalay, near what appears to be the Ministry of Information, declaring "WE WANT DEMOCRACY."

Another image from Tuesday shows the railway station in the same city seemingly devoid of commuters, but with five large, seemingly identical closed-cargo trucks -- which appear to be army personnel trucks -- parked neatly in a row in front of the main entrance. CNN has spoken to one person who attended a large protest in Mandalay on Monday. He said there was a large presence by Myanmar's security forces.

Another photograph, taken February 13, shows the significant presence of protestors in the streets of Myitkyina, the capital of troubled Kachin state. The protestors are on one side of the street, filling the lane more than one city block in length, traffic blocked slightly by their passage.

Another view of protests in Myitkyina, Kachin state.

In another image of Myitkyina, protesters converge on a crossroads near the city's football stadium.

A powerful picture from that same day in Yangon shows a crowd of protestors amassing near the city hall. A crowd of hundreds appears gathered between the Sule Pagoda, Maha Bandula Park, and City Hall. More than a dozen large vehicles, which appear to be army trucks and police water cannons, block the road facing City Hall.

A smaller crowd is on the other side of the City Hall, also blocked by police.

Another two images, dated February 13th, show protestors in Naypyitaw, face to face with what appears to be a line of police along the central Taungnyo Road, causing them to stop in the highway.

The crowd in Naypyitaw seems blocked further down the road by vehicles that appear to be water cannons and army personnel trucks.

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Satellite images reveal defiance in Myanmar’s streets