Wagga's Burmese community calls for end to Myanmar coup

At the beginning of the month, military forces carried out a coup d'etat, detaining National League for Democracy (NLD) leader Aung San Suu Kyi as she was about to begin her second term following a November election.

Protestors at the Victory Memorial Gardens called for the release of Suu Kyi and NLD leaders, and expressed their concerns about military tactics used to quell protests in Myanmar.

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Wagga's Lat Aung said many Burmese families in the city had their own negative experiences of military rule, which he said had caused fear, stress and a lack of freedom for decades.

"The military has ruled our country for nearly 60 years, even myself, I grew up under the military," he said.

"I don't want the military to rule the country again, if we go back to military again our hopes and our goals, it's like a cut off, no hope."

Mr Aung said the NLD had strong support from the Burmese community because they had brought democracy and greater freedoms to the country.

Phillip Kyaw said if the coup succeeded, he was worried it could take decades to bring democracy back.

The reason why we cannot let the military take over again is we don't want our future young generations to have to live under the military without freedom, without a free government," he said.

"They're saying that they will hold on just one year, but one year could be two, and 10 years, 20 years, when they've got power they will stay in there.

That's why we really want to show our support, Burma is still our home town even though we are here."

Robert Gumring said they were concerned about news they had heard over the past couple of days of late night arrests of protestors, and reports of prisoners being released with instructions to destabilise peaceful protests and create riots.

Mr Kyaw said these were tactics the military had used before, and the community was calling on all governments and global organisations to do what they could to return Suu Kyi to power.