Myanmar policemen cross border into India after refusing to carry out orders set by new military junta
It is the latest sign of growing dissent within the security forces and civil service officials who are opposed to the military coup
5 March 2021 • 12:30pm
Myanmar s security forces have killed scores of demonstrators protesting a coup
Credit: AP
At least 19 Myanmar police officers have crossed the border into India in the latest sign of growing dissent within the security forces and civil service officials who are opposed to the military coup.
The first reported case of police fleeing the country came as one of the country’s top diplomats resigned from his post at the United Nations after being promoted to the role of ambassador by the junta.
Myanmar people s uprising grows as police and civil servants join protest against military rule
AKIPRESS.COM - Tens of thousands of protesters gathered across Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, for the sixth consecutive day on February 11 as mass demonstrations against the military junta gained momentum across the country, Arab News reported.
Civil servants and police officers have been seen joining the anti-junta rallies triggered by a coup that toppled the country’s civilian leadership earlier this month. The number of civil servants participating in the Civil Disobedience Movement continues to rise as employees from the General Administration Department in Yangon’s Shwe Pyi Thar township joined the movement on Wednesday.
Starve the government of legitimacy and recognition; stop it from functioning by staging strikes; and cut off its sources of funding. That is the strategy emerging from a mass movement in Myanmar aimed at toppling the new military dictatorship.
As protesters defying the February 1 coup brave beatings, arrests, water cannon, and even live ammunition, activists hope a “no recognition, no participation” approach can sustain pressure even if demonstrations are stamped out with violence.
“The immediate aim is to take away the military’s power by stopping all of its governance mechanisms from working,” said Thinzar Shunlei Yi, who like many activists is now in hiding to avoid arrest.