NAYPYITAW, Myanmar (NBC) – About 70 Myanmar lawmakers defied the new military government Thursday.
They convened a symbolic meeting of the parliament, which was prevented from opening when the generals launched their coup on Monday.
The members of parliament signed their oaths of office at a government guesthouse compound in the capital, where around 400 of them were initially detained in the aftermath of the takeover.
They have since been told they are free to return to their home districts.
The unofficial convening was a symbolic gesture to assert that they, not the military, are the country’s legitimate lawmakers.
More of the MPs departed the compound, expressing their anger and their determination to resist.
The military blocked access to Facebook in response to growing civil disobedience in opposition to their takeover.
Medical personnel have declared they will not work for the military government while residents in Yangon have engaged in “noise protests,” banging pots and pans and honking car horns under cover of darkness.
The majority party, the NLD, won a second successive general election landslide in last November’s polls.
The military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party performed badly with its number of seats greatly reduced.
The military responded with unsubstantiated claims of massive voter fraud, which the election commission and the NLD rejected.
International observers judged the election satisfactory.
The generals cited the failure to investigate their claims as the reason for their coup.
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