Burmese protesters gather on the streets of Yangon to continue their protest against the military coup. (Feb. 18, 2021)
The popular resistance to the military coup in Burma is still going strong. Protests continued in Myanmar’s main cities on Thursday (Feb. 18), with police using water cannons and rocks to disperse crowds of demonstrators. The civil disobedience movement is showing results. Rail transport has been disrupted and many government agencies have been paralyzed.
The Burmese military recently promised to hold new elections and called on civil servants to return to their jobs. The military also warned them that action would be taken against them if they did not comply. But these measures have failed to quell street protests and strikes, and the wave of protests shows no sign of abating. Many government institutions have come to a standstill.
One citizen in Yangon told Reuters, “I don’t want to wake up to dictatorship. Let’s not live in fear.”
Burmese protesters gather near the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon. (Feb. 17, 2021)
The Sule Pagoda neighborhood in downtown Yangon is once again the place where people gather. Many young people gathered at another place where protests often take place, a transportation center near the Yangon University campus. The streets were crowded with people protesting and demonstrating as police tried to disperse them.
The demonstrations are much more peaceful now than in the past when the military government ruled, and there is no bloody crackdown of the past. However, the effects of the civil disobedience movement are continuing to spread.
Many motorcycle riders on the streets of Yangon are moving very slowly as a way to express their opposition to the military coup. The day before, many motorcyclists pretended that their cars had broken down and stopped on the road, blocking the passage of police and military vehicles.
One of the motorcycle riders said, “I would be happy if government officials couldn’t get to work on Time or couldn’t get to their offices.”
Protesters in Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, held a rally demanding the military release State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and Burmese President Win Myint. Police in the capital Naypyidaw used water cannons to attack crowds walking toward a cordon set up by police.
The situation in the northern Burmese city of Myitkyina was more tense. One citizen said police and soldiers used rocks to disperse a protest rally. Pictures circulated by social media showed soldiers and rows of police trucks there.
One activist said, “They are not acting in accordance with the constitution and the rule of law. They are acting like terrorists.” No response from local police has been seen yet.
Rail operations in Myanmar have been severely disrupted. On Wednesday evening, security forces in Mandalay confronted rail workers on strike, and residents said the army fired rubber bullets and threw rocks at the workers.
One charity worker was wounded in the leg by a rubber bullet.
Neither the military nor police have commented on the incident. But the military said on Facebook that they are restoring order across the country and “making sure people have peace and can sleep well.”
National rail workers called for workers to go on strike last Sunday. Before that, elements of the medical establishment formed a loosely structured civil disobedience movement that formed a major force in the fight against the military coup.
The Associated Press quoted a labor activist as saying, “Many workers and citizens in Burma believe that the disobedience movement has had a clear effect in thwarting the military government.” “That’s why employees of different government departments and banks, such as health care, Education and transportation, have joined the movement.”
The Burmese military staged a military coup on Feb. 1, overthrowing the democratically elected government and arresting elected officials such as Aung San Suu Kyi. The military’s explanation for this was that there was fraud in last year’s general election. The National Democratic Front, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won a landslide victory in the election.
The U.S. government has imposed new sanctions on Burma as a result of the military coup, and the United Nations and many governments around the world have called on Burmese authorities to restore the democratically elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.
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