On Sunday, protesters marched around the Yangon University area, changing roadblocks and changing directions to avoid any confrontation with police. A witness has seen several police trucks in the area.
Resistance to the uprising initially proved limited, due to the difficulties of widespread communication, as well as the fear of further conflict.
The country was in the midst of another “national” Internet blackout as the military sought to secure its grip on power, Internet monitoring service Netblocks said on Saturday.
According to Netblocks, real-time network data shows that connectivity has fallen to 16% of normal levels and users are having trouble getting online.
According to the Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor Group, which operates Telenor Myanmar, Myanmar’s Ministry of Transport and Communications on Saturday ordered a nationwide shutdown of the data network.
The group, writing on Twitter, said the ministry had “referred to Myanmar’s telecommunications law, and fake news based on the order, as a reference to the stability of the nation and the interests of the people.”
According to a Yangon witness, communication between protesters on Sunday was largely via SMS text, phone calls and word of mouth. On Saturday, the crowd announced where to gather Sunday, resulting in an apparently improved organization, the witness said.
Members of the Student Union, Labor Union, and Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party (NLD) were expected to join the protest on Sunday.
Rebellion demonstrates protest
For more than a decade, Myanmar – also known as Burma – has been ruled by a gradual military regime that plunged the country into poverty and brutally suppressed any divisions. During this time thousands of critics, activists, journalists, academics and artists were regularly imprisoned and tortured.
The NLD is reported to have won a more decisive victory in the November 2020 general election, given five years in power and shattered the hopes of some military figures that the opposition party backed them could take power democratically.
Sudden seizure of power as the new parliament opened and the alleged election irregularities erupted several months later between the civilian government and the powerful army known as Tatmadaw. The country’s election commission has repeatedly denied voter fraud.
Hundreds of NLD legislators were detained on Monday in the capital, Naypyidaw, where they had traveled to take seats. The junta has since removed 24 ministers and deputies from the government and named 11 of its own allies as replacements who will take over their roles in the new administration.
The NLD called on the United Nations to take “drastic measures” to restore order, in a statement released to the media this week.
It said UN leaders were to “impose carefully targeted sanctions against the military regime, its leaders, their businesses and allies.” He “urged the suspension of economic relations between all businesses with the military regime.”
The ousted political party has also called on the UN to refrain from “actions that harm the people of Myanmar” – especially blanket bans and suspended aid. “We invite, agree, and the world urgently comes to our aid.”
CNN’s Helen Reagan and James Griffiths contributed to this report.
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