Protesters gather next to military vehicles parked along a street in downtown Yangon on Monday, the morning after Myanmar’s military cut the nation’s internet and deployed extra troops around the country. AFP
Myanmar’s junta cut the nation’s internet and deployed extra troops around the country on February 15 as it intensified a crackdown on anti-coup protests, but 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, including members of her democratically elected government.
With protesters refusing to back down, the generals imposed an hours-long internet shutdown on February 15 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 video streams on social media platforms before the blackout showed more military vehicles and soldiers moving through other parts of the country.
However, fresh protests again flared in Yangon on February 15 morning, including near the central bank.
Hundreds of engineering and technology students protested in a northern district of the city, according to an AFP journalist.
There was a fresh rally in the southern city of Dawei too, a verified live stream on Facebook showed, with hundreds of protesters accompanied by a marching band.
Some carried banners against the military that read: “They kill in [the] day. They steal at night. They lie on TV.”
Monitoring group NetBlocks reported that a “state-ordered information blackout” had taken Myanmar almost entirely offline, but services began resuming around the start of the working day.
“Network data show national connectivity rising to ordinary levels after information blackout,” NetBlocks reported, adding that the outage lasted around eight hours.
But the monitor noted that most users in Myanmar were still barred from social media.
Intensifying 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 February 14 night.
A journalist at the scene said it was unclear whether police had used rubber bullets or live rounds.
Local media outlets said at least five journalists monitoring the protest were detained and published pictures of some people wounded in the incident.
A joint statement from the US, British and EU ambassadors urged security forces not to harm civilians.
They said: “We call on security forces to refrain from violence against demonstrators, who are protesting the overthrow of their legitimate government.”
UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres echoed that call. Through his spokesman, he 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 its citizens to shelter in place and not risk defying an overnight curfew imposed by the regime.
UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said the junta’s efforts to rein in the burgeoning protest movement was a sign of “desperation” and amounted to a declaration of war against its people.
He tweeted: “Attention generals: You WILL be held accountable.”
Much of the country has been in 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.
The Nobel laureate spent years under house arrest during an earlier dictatorship and has not been seen in public since she was detained.
