‘Everything will be OK’: Slain Myanmar teen’s T-shirt slogan spurs defiance

“Every part can be OK,” learn 19-year-old Angel’s T-shirt because the dancer and taekwondo champion joined anti-coup protesters in Myanmar on Wednesday.

However she had recognized it won’t be OK — leaving particulars of her blood group, a contact quantity and a request to donate her physique within the occasion of her demise.

Angel, also referred to as Kyal Sin, was killed by a shot to the pinnacle on the streets of Mandalay as she fought for a tentative democracy during which she had proudly voted for the primary time final 12 months, an election overturned by the Feb. 1 coup.

Seen in footage of her on the protest, the phrase from Angel’s T-shirt rapidly went viral on social media as customers posted it in defiance of safety forces who killed no less than 18 folks round Myanmar over the day.

A spokesman for the junta didn’t reply to a request for touch upon the killings.

Myat Thu, who was along with her on the protests, recalled a courageous younger lady who kicked open a water pipe in order that protesters might wash tear fuel from their eyes, and who lobbed a tear fuel canister again towards the police.

“When the police opened fireplace she advised me ‘Sit! Sit! Bullets will hit you. You appear to be you’re on a stage,’” recalled Myat Thu, 23. “She cared for and guarded others as a comrade.”

Myat Thu mentioned he and Angel had been amongst tons of who had gathered peacefully in Myanmar’s second metropolis to denounce the coup and name for the discharge of detained chief Aung San Suu Kyi.

Earlier than the police assault, Angel may be heard on video shouting, “We received’t run” and “blood should not be shed.”

First police hit them with tear fuel, Myat Thu mentioned. Then the bullets got here. Photos taken earlier than she was killed present Angel mendacity down for canopy beside a protest banner, along with her head barely raised.

Everybody scattered, Myat Thu mentioned. It was solely later that he acquired the message: One lady was lifeless.

“I didn’t know that it was her,” Myat Thu mentioned, however footage quickly appeared on Fb displaying her mendacity beside one other sufferer.

Wednesday’s bloodletting greater than doubled the demise toll at protests which have drawn tons of of 1000’s of individuals to Myanmar’s streets. The military, which says one policeman has died, has mentioned it is going to act in opposition to “riotous protesters.”

Myat Thu acquired to know Angel at a taekwondo class. She was an skilled within the martial artwork in addition to a dancer at Mandalay’s DA-Star Dance Membership, posting movies of her newest strikes on Fb.

She additionally shared her pleasure in voting for the primary time on Nov. 8 — posting an image of herself kissing her finger, stained purple to indicate she had voted.

“My very first vote, from the underside of my coronary heart,” she posted, with six crimson hearts. “I did my obligation for my nation.”

The military seized energy to annul that vote, alleging that the sweeping victory of Suu Kyi’s celebration was right down to fraud. Its accusations had been rejected by the electoral fee.

On the day of the coup, Angel joked on Fb that she hadn’t recognized what was occurring when the web was reduce off.

Within the days that adopted, she made her stand clear — out on the road waving the crimson flag of Suu Kyi’s Nationwide League for Democracy. In a single set of images she posed as her father tied a crimson ribbon to her wrist.

She stored going at the same time as protests grew extra harmful and because the junta deployed fight troops with assault rifles alongside police.

Like Angel, greater than a dozen different protesters have been killed by pictures to the pinnacle, elevating suspicions amongst rights teams that they had been deliberately focused. One other lady — a bystander — was shot within the head in Mandalay on Sunday.

Angel had recognized she was risking her life.

One good friend, Kyaw Zin Hein, shared a duplicate of her final message to him on social media. It learn: “This may be the final time I say this. Love you a lot. Don’t overlook.”

On Fb, she had posted her medical particulars and the request to donate her physique if she had been killed. Messages of grief and acclaim flooded the web page on Wednesday.

“She was a cheerful lady, she beloved her household and her father beloved her a lot too,” mentioned Myat Thu, who’s now in hiding. “We’re not in a warfare. There isn’t any motive to make use of reside bullets on folks. If they’re human, they won’t do it.”