Burma’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup escalated amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the expulsion of the elected government and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Facebook is especially popular in Burma and this is the way most people access the internet.
The military took power shortly before a new session of parliament convened on Monday, holding Suu Kyi and other top politicians.
BURMA MAKES FORM EXHIBITED LEADER SUU KYI
It said it had acted because the government refused to address its complaints that the November general election, in which Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide victory, was violated by widespread voting irregularities. The state election commission refuted the allegations.
About 70 newly elected lawmakers defied the new military government on Thursday by convening a symbolic session of Parliament that was prevented from opening. They signed their oath of office in a government guest house in the capital, Naypyitaw, where about 400 of them were detained in the aftermath of the takeover. Meanwhile, they were told that they could return to their home districts.
The unofficial gathering was a symbolic gesture to claim that they, not the military, are the country’s legitimate legislators.
Some expressed their anger and their determination to resist the coup when they left the guest house.
“It violates the human rights of the whole citizen. It is not a coup. It is a betrayal of the government. I will have to say it is a betrayal,” said Khin Soe Soe Kyi, a member of Suu Kyi’s National League, said. for Democracy Party.
The military declared a one-year state of emergency and placed all state powers in the hands of the junta, including legislative functions. It is said that at the end of the period it will call an election and hand over power to the winner.
Anti-coup graffiti appears in Yangon, the largest city in the country, with the slogan “Do not want dictatorship” scratched on a wall in a busy street.
In Mandalay, a city known for its activist politics, an enthusiastic protest by about 20 people in front of the University of Medicine was broken up by the police. Three were arrested.
Medical personnel have stated that they will not be working for the military government. Health workers are highly respected for their work during the coronavirus pandemic that is taxing the country’s dangerously inadequate health system.
A street vendor checks his cellphone in Yangon, Burma, on Tuesday, February 4, 2021. Burma’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup intensified amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the expulsion of the elected civilian government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (AP Photo)
Yangon residents made noise for a second night on Wednesday, hitting pots and pans and hitting car horns.
The protests revived a song related to a failed uprising in 1988 against military dictatorship. Burma was under a military government for five decades after a coup in 1962, and Suu Kyi’s five years as leader were the most democratic period since then, despite the continued use of oppressive laws from the colonial era.
Videos posted on social media showed medical staff and others singing ‘Kabar Makyay Bu’ – or ‘We Won’t Be Satisfied until the End of the World’ – sung to the tune of ‘Dust in the Wind’ , a 1977 song by the American rock band Kansas.
Thousands of people in Naypyitaw on Thursday joined a rally in support of the military coup, the latest in a series of events aimed at gaining a foothold in accepting the coup.
Suu Kyi remains very popular. Her party said on Wednesday that she was charged with possession of illegally imported walkie-talkies (allegedly used by her bodyguards) found in her home.
The charge, which carries a fine of up to three years in prison, allows her to be in custody until at least February 15. Deposed President Win Myint is being held on a separate charge. Suu Kyi is apparently under house arrest in her home.
Facebook users said service outages began late Wednesday night.
“Telecommunications providers in Burma have been ordered to temporarily block Facebook. We call on authorities to reconnect so that people in Burma can communicate with family and friends and access important information,” Facebook said in a statement.
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In 2018, Facebook removed several accounts related to Burma’s army, including those of senior gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the officer who led this week’s coup, after complaints that it appears to be inciting hatred towards the Muslim Rohingya minority in the country. The Rohingya were targeted in a brutal 2017 insurgency campaign that drove more than 700,000 to neighboring Bangladesh. Critics say the army’s actions are genocide.