UN warns Myanmar against harsh response to protesters

WASHINGTON: The United Nations special envoy has warned Myanmar’s army of “severe consequences” for any harsh response to protesters demonstrating against the coup in a call with the military leadership, a UN spokesman said.

Despite the deployment of armoured vehicles and soldiers to some major cities, protesters have kept up demonstrations to denounce the takeover and demand the release of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.

Protests on Monday were smaller than the hundreds of thousands who had joined earlier demonstrations but broke out in many parts of the country. A small crowd began gathering outside the central bank early on Tuesday to press staff there to join a civil disobedience movement.

The army cut off the internet for a second consecutive night early on Tuesday though it was again restored. The internet suspensions have raised concern among coup opponents, particularly after the army suspended legal constraints on its search and detention powers.

“There is suspicion this blackout was to commit unjust activities, including arbitrary arrests,” said the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners group, which has recorded 426 arrests after the coup.

UN Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener spoke on Monday to the deputy head of the junta in what has become a rare channel of communication between Myanmar’s army and the outside world.

“Ms Schraner Burgener has reinforced that the right of peaceful assembly must fully be respected and that demonstrators are not subjected to reprisals,” UN spokesman Farhan Haq said at the United Nations. “She has conveyed to the Myanmar military that the world is watching closely, and any form of heavy-handed response is likely to have severe consequences.”

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In an account of the meeting, Myanmar’s army said junta Number Two, Soe Win, had discussed the administration’s plans and information on “the true situation of what’s happening in Myanmar”.

The unrest has revived memories of bloody outbreaks of opposition to almost half a century of direct army rule that ended in 2011 when the military began a process of withdrawing from civilian politics.

The army said late on Monday that protests were harming stability and had left people in fear. Violence during the protests has been limited compared with that under previous juntas, but police have opened fire several times, mostly with rubber bullets, to disperse protesters. As well as the demonstrations in towns and cities, a civil disobedience movement has brought strikes that are crippling many functions of government.

The army took power alleging fraud in a November 8 general election in which Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party had won a landslide. The electoral commission had dismissed the army’s complaints.