Police in Myanmar have surrounded and arrested at least 200 students and civilians protesting against the military coup on the outskirts of Yangon, according to witnesses who said those detained were driven away in unmarked trucks.
Video footage from North Okkalapa showed protesters fleeing under fire. At least one person appeared to be seriously wounded.
ရိုနေဆန်းလွင် Ro Nay San Lwin
(@nslwin)
#Myanmar military & police arrested Hundreds of peaceful protesters in North Okkalapa, Yangon this afternoon. They are now being taken to unknown places with prisoners transporting trucks.#WhatsHappeningInMyanmar #MilkTeaAlliance #Mar10Coup pic.twitter.com/9iFDpd7NE7
March 10, 2021
Earlier, military forces raided a compound in a Yangon neighbourhood that is home to state railway workers who have been on strike. Riot police sealed off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt area where the Ma Hlwa Kone train station and housing for rail employees are located.
Photographs on social media showed officers blocking streets and what appeared to be people escaping. At least three arrests were reported. These could not immediately be confirmed. There was no apparent resistance to the raid, and local media said the authorities forced at least some residents from their homes.
The latest clampdown follows mass arrests a week ago when about 400 young people were put in prison.
As demonstrations continued in towns and cities across the country, the US embassy in Yangon condemned the police action against “innocent” people. It urged security forces to withdraw and to release all of those arrested.
The military junta, led by Min Aung Hlaing, appears determined to crush the country’s general strike. Hlaing seized power on 1 February, overthrowing a civilian government led by Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won elections in November and was about start a second term.
The coup undid years of slow progress towards democracy following five decades of military rule, and sparked a wave of non-violent protests. A civil disobedience movement has united large numbers of public-sector employees – some of whom have taken to the streets – and there has been a boycott of military-owned companies.
The raid on state rail workers comes days after several unions issued a joint call for a nationwide work stoppage. They said their strike would be part of a broader effort for “the full, extended shutdown of the Myanmar economy”.
Despite the increasingly violent tactics of security forces, protests continued on Wednesday in cities including in Mandalay, Monywa, Dawei, Myitkyina, Myitkyina, Bago, Kalaw and Myingyan. Some were met with police force, while others were brief and free of violence.
Riot police in the small southern city of Dawei fired teargas, forcing marchers to disperse and hide. There were reports of the use of rubber bullets. No injuries have been confirmed. A leading organiser of protests was arrested, according to the Dawei Watch news service. The city has become a hotspot for anti-coup protests and been subjected to heavy police crackdowns. Up to five deaths have occurred.
Reuters and the BBC carried interviews on Wednesday with police officers who had abandoned their positions and fled across the border to India. They said their superior officers had commanded them to shoot directly at protesters. “I had no choice,” one officer, Tha Peng (giving only part of his name), told Reuters.
Security forces have used lethal force on numerous occasions as the situation in Myanmar has worsened. At least 60 protesters have been killed since the military takeover, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
Authorities have moved to shut down independent reporting through arrests of journalists and the closure of independent media outlets. On Tuesday the military regime revoked the licence of five publications including Mizzima Media, whose offices were raided.
State railway workers in Yangon and across the country were among the earliest organised supporters of the protest movement, and their strike began soon after the coup. Last month police attempted to intimidate railway workers in Mandalay, the country’s second biggest city, by roaming through their housing area one night, shouting and randomly firing guns.
The junta now in control of the country, formally called the state administration council, indirectly acknowledged the effectiveness of the rail strike. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper on Tuesday cited officials saying that rail transport between Yangon and Mandalay would resume “in the near future”. It also acknowledged that the banking sector had been affected.
The dawn raid on the railway workers on Wednesday followed another night of intimidation by police marching through residential areas in several cities after the 8pm curfew, firing guns and stun grenades and staging selective raids to arrest people.
The Democratic Voice of Burma news service reported on Wednesday that the anti-military People’s party said a protester detained at Insein prison in northern Yangon had died and that his body was left unclaimed. The prison has been notorious for decades for holding political prisoners, and many of the hundreds of people arrested in Yangon in recent weeks are inside.
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