YANGON: Myanmar’s junta cut the nation’s internet and deployed extra troops around the country on Monday as fears built of a widespread crackdown on anti-coup protests and defiant demonstrators again took to the streets.
The military has steadily escalated efforts to quell an uprising against their seizure of power two weeks ago, which saw civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi detained along with hundreds of other members of her democratically elected government.
With protesters refusing to back down, the generals imposed an internet shutdown on Monday morning and ratcheted up the military’s presence across the country. Extra troops were seen in key locations of Yangon, the nation’s commercial hub and biggest city, including armoured personnel carriers near the central bank.
Live-stream images shared on social media platforms before the internet blackout showed more military vehicles and soldiers moving through others parts of the country. However, fresh protests again flared in Yangon on Monday morning, including near the central bank.
Monitoring group NetBlocks initially said the “state-ordered information blackout” had taken Myanmar almost entirely offline. Deepening fears the military was going to impose a far harsher crackdown, troops in the northern city of Myitkyina fired tear gas then shot at a crowd on Sunday night.
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A joint statement from the US, British and European Union ambassadors urged security forces not to harm civilians. “We call on security forces to refrain from violence against demonstrators, who are protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government,” they said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed that call, pushing authorities to “ensure the right of peaceful assembly is fully respected and demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals”. Guterres also asked the military to urgently allow Swiss diplomat Christine Schraner Burgener to visit Myanmar “to assess the situation first hand”.
The US embassy advised American citizens to shelter in place and not risk defying an overnight curfew imposed by the regime. UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said the junta efforts to rein in the country’s burgeoning protest movement was a sign of “desperation” and amounted to a declaration of war against its own people. “Attention generals: You WILL be held accountable,” he wrote on Twitter.
Much of the country has been in an uproar since soldiers detained Aung San Suu Kyi and her top political allies on February 1, ending a decade-old fledgling democracy after generations of junta rule.
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An internet blackout last weekend failed to quell resistance that has seen huge crowds throng big urban centres and isolated frontier villages alike. Fear of arrest did not deter big crowds from returning to streets around the country for a ninth straight day of street protests on Sunday.
In the southern city of Dawei, seven police officers broke ranks to join anti-coup protesters, mirroring local media reports of isolated defections from the force in recent days.
Parts of the country had in recent days formed neighbourhood watch brigades to monitor their communities and prevent the arrests of residents joining the civil disobedience movement.
The country’s new military leadership has so far been unmoved by a torrent of international condemnation. The junta insists it took power lawfully and has instructed journalists in the country not to refer to itself as a government that took power in a coup.
