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YANGON: Opposition to Myanmar’s new military regime intensified on Saturday (February 13) when spontaneous neighborhood watch groups mobilized to thwart the arrests of anti-coup activists and the UN demanded the release of the ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The army’s takeover of power that ended a decade-long democracy last week has unleashed a storm of anger and defiance, with huge daily protests paralyzing urban centers across the country.
Since arresting Aung San Suu Kyi and her top allies, troops have stepped up arrests of civil servants, doctors and others who joined the strikes demanding that the generals resign from power.
READ: Comment: Myanmar’s resistance against coups against powerful ethnic nationalism with a large popular base
Crowds defied night curfews to hold mass in the streets at nightfall, hours after the end of a seventh consecutive day of demonstrations, following rumors that police were preparing to launch a new wave of arrests.
A group invaded a hospital in the city of Pathein over rumors that it would take a popular local doctor, chanting a Buddhist prayer urging protection from harm.
“If I have problems, I will ask for your help,” said Dr. Than Min Htut to the group that had come to help him, showing the three-finger salute symbolizing resistance to the blow.
Than Min Htut spoke to AFP on Saturday to confirm that he was still free and that he would continue to participate in a civil disobedience campaign against the military government.
People in Yangon circumvented a board ban on Facebook to organize neighborhood watch groups to warn of rumors of arrests.
They signaled calls to gather outside buildings banging on pots and pans, a nocturnal phenomenon in the days after the coup traditionally associated with the expulsion of evil.
“We didn’t know who they would take, but when we heard the sound, we went out to meet our neighbors,” said Tin Zar, a merchant in northern Yangon.
“Even if they shoot, we are not afraid,” he told AFP.
More than 320 people have been arrested since last week’s coup, according to the monitoring group of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners.
An emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva called for the new regime to release all “arbitrarily detained” people and return power to the Aung San Suu Kyi administration.
UN Deputy Human Rights Chief Nada al-Nashif warned Myanmar during Friday’s meeting that “the world is watching” developments in the country.
PROTESTS AT THE NATIONAL LEVEL
Hundreds of thousands have joined the nationwide protests that have remained largely peaceful, although authorities have used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse some demonstrations.
READ: Myanmar police shoot into the air to disperse protest, four injured by rubber bullets
At least two people in Naypyidaw were shot by the police and seriously injured, including a 20-year-old woman who remains in intensive care and has since become a symbol of opposition to the junta.
Officers cleared a protest sit-in by college students in the port city of Mawlamyine on Friday with rubber bullets, wounding several protesters.
The three-finger salute used by Myanmar’s anti-coup protesters has come to symbolize defiance of the new military regime (Photo: AFP / STR)
Another nine detainees were released after a crowd stormed a police station and demanded their release.
Authorities claimed that protesters had thrown stones at officers who had tried to disperse the crowd, according to a report Saturday in Global New Light of Myanmar.
The state newspaper also reported counter-protests by military supporters in various parts of the country, citing crowd estimates that represent a small fraction of the anti-coup demonstrations observed this week.
Army chief Min Aung Hlaing has warned striking civil servants to return to work and the new regime has established a hotline to report that government employees are joining the demonstrations.
“INTERNAL AFFAIRS”
So far, the generals have not been intimidated by the widespread condemnation in the streets and abroad.
They justified the seizure of power with claims of widespread electoral fraud in the November elections, which the Aung San Suu Kyi National League for Democracy won in a landslide.
Washington this week imposed targeted sanctions against senior military officials.
But traditional allies of the country’s armed forces, including Russia and China, have criticized the international protest against the coup as interference in Myanmar’s “internal affairs.”
Aung San Suu Kyi has not been seen since her arrest nearly two weeks ago.
