and how the pandemic is change the world and our relationship with film a week on this island of watching movies is an attempt to at least to scrape the surface of the sense of isolation felt by millions during the lockdowns of the past year cinemas journey away from theatres and into the home began a long time ago going to the movies in the company of strangers make it more appealing again once the pandemic finally ends. al-jazeera how there where sweden. so this is our desert these are the top stories and more than 4000 people have been arrested across russia as they defy bans on protests demonstrations are demanding the release of jailed opposition politician alexina valmy eccentric or far has more now from moscow the organizers announced that that is it for today that they made their point by managing to reach detention center where now vitally has been

held but that didn't come easy today 1st of all the original point where the protests were supposed to gather was completely sealed off the whole center of moscow the heart of moscow was sealed off with buses not running metro not stopping so they started together at the reserve points and these points were changing in an hour because every time they would start gathering coming out on the streets then police would immediately detain people. heavy presence of police on the streets of homs today offices have been forcefully breaking up protesters demonstrating against a cave in 1000 curfew it went into effect last week sparking riots hundreds have been arrested nationwide it's the worst civil unrest in the lenses faced in 4 decades. and hundreds have been arrested in belgians capital cheering and he looked down protest the crowds also rally against tough restrictions and a 9 pm curfew

a ban on non-essential travel to and from belgium was introduced on wednesday a car bomb has killed at least 6 people in the syrian town of azaz north of aleppo and dozens more have been left in jeddah dolphin explosion near a market no one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack was as is near the southern turkish city of kilis has been controlled by protectors backed rebels since the 2016 operation to drive out to eisele in the region another car bomb about 20 kilometers away in africa killed 8 people on saturday 3 people are killed have been killed after a car bomb exploded in the somali capital of mogadishu near a hotel frequented by government officials witnesses on the scene say they heard heavy gunfire after an initial explosion and the man was seen entering the hotel the rebel group has claimed responsibility for the attack there's a headlines more news coming up right after inside story.

could mean more as military stage another coup the streets are tense as army chiefs downplay comments about scrapping the constitution so how much power do they still hold a decade into me and mars' transition to democracy this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. members of me and mars new parliament are about to take their seats for the 1st time. as national league for democracy want to landslide

for a 2nd time in last november's election the military has since discredited the result making unfounded allegations of voting fraud a top general has suggested abolishing the constitution if it isn't followed the un and several nations have warned against a coup the army now says the comments were taken out of context and insists soldiers will abide by the law but this hasn't calmed fears of an attempted power grab as alley foul reports from me and on. tension on the streets of me a modest week as the country braces for a possible political crisis and. we're not saying the military will take power but we're not saying it warrants either. this was the moment that it all began in a press conference on tuesday military spokesperson zalman turner refused to rule out the possibility of a coup. the following day military chief men on lying stoked fears when he said the constitution should be repealed if it was not abided by the comments follow weeks

of complaints from the military a voter fraud in november election and demands for an investigation. fear escalated after reports of an increasing security presence and sightings of armored vehicles being moved around various cities as tensions reached their peak on saturday the military issued a new statement saying the commander in chief's comments had been misinterpreted. but just hours later emboldened by rumors hundreds of protesters gathered in yangon at a pro-military rally where speeches welcomed a coup with support of the people protests like this have been happening on an almost daily basis over the last week while they have been gaining attention they fail to draw the numbers forward because the popular support better crowd is gaining confidence and if so can fit in the community as the pressure builds to have been violent attacks on analgesic quarters watching on. the n l

d say accusations of voter fraud a just being used as an excuse to sow fear. your way real a senior general minong is making me an elderly scared and making the people skewed his main intention is to extend his senior general position. military chief men online is due to retire in july and may be fearful of losing power although imminent action from the military now appears less likely tension remains high as relations between the civilian government and the military reach an all time low alley file al-jazeera younger. the military ruled me and more for nearly 50 years until 2011 when it handed power to a nominally civilian government but the army still controls the defense interior and borders ministries and is given a quarter of the seats in parliament in 2015 also suchi is national league for democracy won enough seats to form a government she became state councillor a year later equivalent to a prime minister sochi has been criticized for failing to condemn the military

crackdown on muslim or he has and other minority groups last year army generals rejected constitutional changes to reduce to further reduce their power. all right let's bring in our guests and yang on men's executive director of the me and more institute for peace and security in bangkok phil robertson is deputy asia director of human rights watch also in yangon bindon and managing editor at frontier me and marc welcome to the program men let me start with you today why these mixed messages from the military in me and maher and how tense does the situation remain there. the military was upset that the concern some of the point there is about that irregular tease what the excuse nor by the government and the you see and the you he sees also refused to released those voting records and the military tried to attain some of those

records by its own means and pointed out some of the irregular deeds so we don't know how. these data actually represent the accuracy because the itself refused to release those data so the tension was really high in recent weeks and a sort of us i was informed that the a lot of the senior ministers from the government and the military when negotiating the last 2 days how rebel since yesterday negotiation seized without breath or outcome. tomorrow that would be the 1st convention of the the parliament the convening of the parliament and then the 1st time we have concerned that that could trigger some action from the military phil from your vantage point after this latest statement from the military where they seem to take

a step back from the earlier statement there's the possibility of a coup in myanmar seem less likely. well it may seem less likely but there shouldn't be any uncertainty about this i mean the burmese military should absolutely state that they will not engage in a military coup and they should stop their intimidation of the civilian government they have certainly the right to raise issues and there is now a proceeding at the supreme court to consider some of these issues about allegations of electoral fraud but it's important to recognize that no evidence has really been brought forward by the. pro-military us g.p. and another small party that filed that complaint we don't actually know the sort of full content of the complaints that they're alleging just that you know they're saying there may be as many as over 8000000 irregularities you know it's so i mean without evidence you know to engage in this sort of war of words and you know real

saber rattling that the military has done with you know sending armored vehicles onto the streets it's outrageous and it's unacceptable been i want to take a step back for a moment and look at the issue of a transition to democracy in me and more we hear a lot about this but broadly speaking how has this transition actually been going there. the transition to democracy adam as it's often called i mean it starts well short of full democracy under the constitution not. the military itself or when he was reading the country does have the military a. quarter parliamentary seats which in turn allows it to all changes to the constitution it also allows it to control

several very important ministries that you know control the police senate all of the internal administration so in a very obvious way it's and in complete transition however uncertain she she strategy for the last few years has been not to antagonize the ministry she's. going to be commenting on a condom nearing the various internal wars and there was a hope that you know through that through and less confrontational approach she could. with a military a matter and get them to agree to changing the constitution now and that that strategy and has not worked and you know we're seeing very strong evidence of that now at relations between her image the chief of the very awful the last few years and they seem to really come to a head now does it look to you like these pro military demonstrations will be

growing in the days and weeks ahead. well these demonstrations were there but on the other hand these people were cracked down very recently one of the leaders of the use pro-military a demonstrator i rested up when the police raided said those protests around if you don't know we're also to crack down so we can see if the police acting on them. and arresting some of those members but our concern is those. the paramilitary protester us and the pro-government protesters if they come up with the streets who good head to head and it could. trigger that instability of the time off.

military coup but if the military tried at something to prevent the parliament from convening the 1st section fill that minimize military has been coming in crete and has been coming under increased pressure from international bodies because of the atrocities committed against the ring in 2017 you know there is this case in the international court of justice alleging that a genocide was perpetrated against the regime rights groups have been urging businesses around the world to cut ties with me and mars military i'm just curious about in this kind of climate when military generals have been sanctioned in the past and where there is this momentum that is building to try to hold me in march military to account because of what happened would a coup have backfired. well if there was a coup i think you would see a new round of sanctions coming against myanmar and against whatever government replaces the elected government of aung san suu kyi and the n l

d. i would expect that there would be increased isolation for me and mar and you know really a return to the previous days when you had a purely military government which was a pariah state it's very clear that that would be the reaction of the international community and and i think it's worth noting that as soon as it became clear that there was. basically threats being made for a military takeover you had a very strong reaction by over 15 western embassies putting out a joint statement and a statement by the spokes person of the u.n. secretary general in both cases calling for the election results to be respected and for the law to be upheld so there's there's no appetite in the international community to sort of be soft on a any sort of games being played by the military here certainly there would be i think a very very strong international reaction and

a very well deserved reaction if you know men are lying in the military decide to try to take over been reports emerged last week that president joe biden's administration in the united states was going to be reviewing what had happened in iraq kind state and perhaps making a determination about if they perceive what happened to have been a genocide is this something that is currently worrying generals in myanmar. i am me if i am it imagine that it is i mean i think when i'm a terry did launch its. crackdown in northern rakhine state in late 2017. i think maybe he didn't expect that there would be a case at the international court of justice. as there has been you know again it's the country is being represented and since he and i magine that they are

banking on the fact that in the us is an overall approach to the country will be informed by an. order designed to counter china you know got that does seem to be driving a lot of u.s. policy. in this part of the world and and he does i. counted china would most likely involve you know sort of maintaining fairly strong relationships with. geopolitical rivalry. pretty banking on dr surance thanks been men is this the most direct confrontation yet between the civilian government and the military in myanmar and how do you see this playing out going forward. well this confrontation is likely to move forward. because it now it appears that the negotiation.

has been stopped and the government will move ahead with the parliamentary convention and then the military may vika or something and if that continue and leading to a military coup then the military at accordingly with the 2000 a constitution which only allows the military to hole on to power or 4 to 6 month extension so that the someone he a maximum of they could hold onto power after that they would have to hold the election and and return the power to the civilian government if there's any coupe so that estimate by the military you were subdued on a constitution not the extra. extra courtesy to chanel. couture dummies like that they will not abolish the death of a constitution they were do so with the truth of

a constitution however the coup devastate the current development and the political transition in myanmar and it could be a very. double meant for the country as for phil i saw you nodding to some of what men were saying just then did you want to jump in. well i do i do think that it would be a disaster for myanmar if there was a coup you know all the progress that's been made you know moving towards you know a more democratic side system there you know there are still of obviously major problems that do exist with the existing elections i mean obviously the rohingya were disenfranchised there's many by there's many election areas that didn't have elections because of security issues there's a there's a whole problem of the 2008 constitution which is an undemocratic constitution you know written by the military for the military in some ways so i think that it would be foolish for the military to take this dispute and then take it to its the

extent that they would commit a coupe but we don't know i mean the the military has done very stupid things in the past and you know we can't know what they're actually thinking ben if you could i'd like to ask you to expand a little bit on what phil was talking about there because in november's elections voting was canceled in large parts of conflict hit states including record and catch and minorities like the ringer were not allowed to vote this is really made observers question the credibility of the election right. yes true and in. the military's attempts to discredit the outcome of the election they are do you have some. i mean ition to work with and the fact that the and then an actual. commission is. not an independent institution and is wholly appointed by the president so the

f.o.i. by the ruling party its decisions cannot be reviewed by an independent cool or by a condiment so this kind of. sort of fuel to the intricacy i don't think it's important to state that several am independent. groups. having the elections such as the. human space condescend. weapon free elections for instance and they will get what he concluded out of some . procedural problems and action is not increase immediately exclude loss numbers of people it. was a credible outcome i'm not at. the end of the. political nature rule is very i robot and i think it's good to point out these flaws that. there are been

sort of nodes every groups that recall the fundamental credibility of the election into question meant the fact that the military chief is set to retire fairly soon is that setting off a power grab amongst army generals i mean is that playing into this at all. i don't think that critical matter biggest if the military the site to extend itself the government cannot prevent the military for doing so because according to the current constitution the military council which is composed of the military top generals can make their own decisions will be the come in and chief they can extend the tenure of the come in and chief even though if that was said by that 2 to 65 years that was the one that was set up the

go to community was a well was set up that was suggested that 65 years so he if he was a change it they could change it or didn't even have a a different structure making that comment as some sort of like a council of the military or some got the supreme positions so the government can do very little or all about how the military with half their own leadership so that it's no necessarily the big issue in this current crisis phil you know you often hear that the civilian government doesn't have as much power as the military does in me and more i so want to try to clarify this i mean what does the power sharing deal there look like and how fragile it. well i mean i've never really bought that there's not that a strong a civilian government because the civilian government in the n l d has had an absolute majority to pass almost any laws it wants. you know it had

that from the 2015 election on words and it's going to have even a larger majority in the incoming parliament so it has the entire law making power it just hasn't used it that much to be honest i mean i think that with the with the dominant majority like that i'm surprised that they haven't pushed a lot further but there is the ongoing issue that when you talk about implementing something particularly when you're dealing with for instance a ministry of home affairs which is controlled by the military and it's actually set out in the constitution that there has to be a serving military officer as the minister you run into problems because things that are ordered from naypyidaw don't get done on the ground and this is the big challenge that you have a sort of a 2 headed government here with the military having its own power through these ministries and and the d. having a power of the people through the election and somehow this needs to be resolved in a way that the 2 sides can work together to promote development human rights in the

country been if we're talking with the civilian government let me ask you how much support does awesome suchi currently have in myanmar. she has a tremendous as a pole and she was really. front and center of the reading pony's election campaign. and that no i mean the election you know which was city of lucky seen as an endorsement of her role during anti-air. 19 crisis you know she's been giving incredibly regular speeches you know a guy being a. lost cause and social media and they get a huge amount of positive and aged men and and nothing to say is that. representation of the country at the ranger genocide trial at the

i.c.j. was you know obviously criticised a huge mountain ash lee but yeah and the country. was hugely popular you know they were pretty beat ronnie's in. the big city looks and people are saying ah we signed with us to so really authority and her appeal has only grown in the last few years and. to a large extent you could say that the reading party is the. party men when the new parliament is seated on monday will army generals be losing more of their power. well not necessarily the military already have this 25 percent and some of the management of the security institutions in manama so they were not necessarily losing more power than this not what that and that the government just struck today at all. of all that

tension the current tension between the military and civilian government if if when the result of it will have a significant impact on the governance of the country the fuss of military may even with all its participation in the parliament and if the military refuse to cooperate with the government the government when they'll be able to move forward with the current ongoing peace process with a like of this $21.00 plus groups which the government consider a one of the priorities in next 5 years so if the military doesn't cooperate the government will have a very bad time very hard to continue with the peace negotiations so debbie a lot of the can sequence is on the governance and also the peace process and other issues related to the security so now the military doesn't even like

a globalized tried to avoid direct confrontation with the un groups and other groups are moving into some of the stereo and a start and also a kidnap and the military but just sitting and just looking at them without acting it so we've missed see if some sort of this sort of like a security deteriorations in coming months government and the military failed to reach any sort of grieving all right we've run out of times we're going to have to leave the conversation there thanks so much to all our guests men's our phil robertson and benton and. and thank you too for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website al-jazeera dot com and for further discussion go to our facebook page that's facebook dot com forward slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter our handle is at a.j. inside story for me mama june the whole team here bye for now.

talk to o.j. is there are we. are in a case where somebody is up compensated civilians or we listen to the only music you hear if you own the most beautiful music in the world the silence we meet with global newsmakers and talk about the stories that although to 0 it was the 1st trial of its kind for my ugandan child soldier dominic on when is accused of recruiting more children to fight as he rose through the ranks of the in famous moods resistance army. now he is about to learn his fate at the international

criminal court in the hague. i really did bad thing. would i be able to forgive somebody like me a convicted war criminal seeks out the survivors of a prison camp to apologize for the crimes of his past i just can't get. better i showing. the unforgiven a weakness documentary on al-jazeera my old team ask jack. to laugh but. as information on governments responses to covert 19 across the world emerges so too as a deeply disturbing question. people in power investigates allegations of systemic discrimination against the pandemics disabled victims and asks has there been a shameful failure to protect some of the world's most vulnerable citizens. coverts

disabled victims talk one on the jersey. this is al-jazeera. this is a new life and coming up the next 60 minutes. chanting in russia will be free demonstrators ignored police warnings in march to demand the release of opposition leader and. a wave of anger sweep through parts of europe.