Hundreds mourn Myanmar’s ‘Everything will be OK’ protester
YANGON: "Everything will be OK," read Angel's T-shirt as the dancer and taekwondo champion joined anti-coup protesters in Myanmar on Wednesday.
But the 19-year-old had known it might not be okay - leaving details of her blood group, a contact number and a request to donate her body in the event of her death.
Angel, also known as Miss Kyal Sin, was killed by a shot to the head on the streets of Mandalay. Yesterday morning, mourners sang the popular revolutionary song We Won't Forget Until The End Of The World as they filed past her coffin carrying bouquets and floral wreaths.
Leading the funeral procession to the cemetery was a truck covered in flowers with a "hero" poster on the front followed by a black and gold hearse.
Seen in pictures of her at the protest, the phrase from Angel's T-shirt quickly went viral on social media as users posted it in defiance of security forces.
Mr Myat Thu, who was with her at the protests, recalled a brave woman who kicked open a water pipe so protesters could wash tear gas from their eyes and who lobbed a tear gas canister back towards the police.
"When the police opened fire she told me, 'Sit! Sit! Bullets will hit you. You look like you are on a stage,'" recalled Mr Myat Thu, 23. "She cared for and protected others as a comrade."
Before the police assault, Angel can be heard on video shouting, "We won't run" and "blood must not be shed".
First, the police hit them with tear gas. Then the bullets came. Everyone scattered, Mr Myat Thu said. It was only later that he got the message: One girl was dead.
"I didn't know it was her," he said, but pictures soon appeared on Facebook showing her lying beside another victim.
TAEKWONDO
Mr Myat Thu got to know Angel at a taekwondo class. She was an expert in the martial art as well as a dancer at Mandalay's DA-Star Dance Club.
She also shared her pride in voting for the first time on Nov 8 - posting a picture of herself kissing her finger, stained purple to show she had voted.
On Facebook, Angel posted her medical details and the request to donate her body if she were killed. Messages of grief and acclaim flooded the page on Wednesday.
Said Mr Myat Thu, now in hiding: "We are not in a war. There is no reason to use live bullets on people. If they are human, they will not do it." - REUTERS
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