Anti-coup protesters returned to the streets across Myanmar on Thursday, with some burning copies of the 2008 Constitution that guarantees the military's role in politics, a day after pro-democracy forces announced a provisional charter in its place.
The opposition group called the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, or CRPH, which consists mostly of members of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy and fashions itself as a provisional government, also announced the rescinding of the 2008 Constitution.
Sasa, international envoy of the CRPH, said on Twitter that the charter drafted by "brutal generals," which guarantees the military one-quarter of the seats in the parliament, is now "dead."
"Today is the beginning of a new era," he said.
The group's provisional constitution, called the Federal Democracy Charter, envisages a federal democratic union based on equal rights and justice for all people in the country.
It also favors greater autonomy for local governments, seen as a move to seek support from ethnic minority groups that have waged insurgencies over the decades.
The military has recently conducted airstrikes on parts of southeastern Kayin State controlled by the Karen National Union, an ethnic armed group that has clashed with the military and whose members are said to have joined forces with anti-coup protesters.
Social media posts showed protesters in the country's largest city Yangon and the second-largest Mandalay torching the copies of the 2008 Constitution and showing their support for the parallel civilian government.
The 2008 Constitution gives the military an effective veto over constitutional amendments. It also bars Suu Kyi, whose NLD party won the last two general elections, from becoming president.
Over 500 people have been killed in Myanmar since the military seized power in the Feb. 1 coup, ousting Suu Kyi's elected government, with security forces increasingly resorting to the use of deadly force to quell a wave of protests.
