The head of Myanmar’s new military government has warned civil servants to return to work and urged people to stop mass gatherings to avoid spreading the coronavirus, as a sixth day of protests against army rule spanned the country.
Meanwhile, the US has imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s acting president and several other military officers as Washington seeks to punish those it deems responsible for the military coup in Myanmar.
The February 1 coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, along with scores of others, have prompted the biggest demonstrations since a 2007 “Saffron Revolution” that ultimately became a step towards democratic reforms in a country that spent decades under military rule after a 1962 coup.
Burma Junta Cracks Down on Crowds Defying Protest Ban
Reports of many injured demonstrators drew strong concern from the U.N.’s office in Burma.
“According to reports from Nay Pyi Taw, Mandalay and other cities, numerous demonstrators have been injured, some of them seriously, by security forces in connection with the current protests across the country,” the U.N. said.
“The use of disproportionate force against demonstrators is unacceptable,” said Ola Almgren, the U.N. resident coordinator in Burma.
Water cannons were used in Mandalay, Burma’s second-biggest city, where witnesses said at least two warning shots were fired in early attempts to break up the crowd. Gunfire could be heard on videos from the city, some of which showed riot police flailing wildly with their batons at people trying to flee. Reports on social media said police arrested more than two dozen people there.
China Daily | Updated: 2021-02-06 09:33 Share CLOSE Myanmar State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi smiles as she attends a photo opportunity after the opening ceremony of the 21st Century Panglong Conference in Naypyitaw, Myanmar on May 24, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]
U Win Htein, patron of Myanmar s National League for Democracy, or NLD, was arrested late on Thursday, an official from the Myanmar Police Force said on Friday.
The 80-year-old, who is believed to be a trusted confidant of the party s chairwoman Aung San Suu Kyi, was taken to a district police station in Nay Pyi Taw soon after his arrival in Yangon from the national capital on Thursday, Kyi Toe, a member of the party s information committee, wrote on his social media account earlier.
YANGON: Hundreds of teachers and students protested at a Myanmar university on Friday as the military widened a dragnet against officials ousted in a coup that has drawn global condemnation and the threat of new sanctions.
The rally took place after the arrest of Win Htein, a key aide to national leader Aung Sang Suu Kyi, who has not been seen in public since being detained along with president Win Myint on Monday.
A representative of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy said on Friday she was being held at her residence in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital, and was “in good health”.