The military government in Myanmar has increasingly used night arrests, legal threats, a curfew and a ban on large gatherings to tame the protests by the week the cities spread to the countryside. Now the civil society groups fear that the military is preparing a new law that will further restrict online expression and restrict the privacy rights of citizens.
One telecommunications company, Telenor, said on Friday that it was aware of the proposal and was reviewing it. A coalition of 158 civic organizations has signed a statement of concern that the potential new law would lead to the widespread arrest of government critics.
Myanmar already has strict laws restricting online speech, but opponents of the military say the proposed law is so broad that it will allow authorities to arrest and imprison anyone who criticizes the government online for up to three years. Critics also said the proposed law requires telecommunications companies to work with the government and provide information about their customers.
The military government declined to comment.
Concerns about the proposal come amid fears that the military could use greater force if the protests continue, as in the past. Two protesters have already been shot. But the proposal also suggests that the military may seek in different ways to curb the protests.
The military, which has ruled the country for most of the past 60 years, has used a long history of violence to suppress protests, including the abolition of pro-democracy protesters in 1988 and 2007. The Myanmar army, or Tatmadaw, was never ashamed. about the depth of its cruelty, killing monks in the street and launching a murderous hooliganism against the Rohingya, which in 2017 led to an exodus of the Muslim minority.
But a violent response to largely peaceful protests that swept the country after the February 1 coup could further isolate Myanmar at a time when military leaders want to maintain normal economic relations. Apart from a national speech on Tuesday night by the coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the generals behind the junta were largely silent as the civil disobedience movement grew.
On Thursday, Genl. Few. Aung Hlaing posted a statement on Facebook in which he said that vaccinations against coronavirus were continuing and reiterated his call for ‘disciplined multiparty democracy’.
Since taking power, the military has sometimes shut down the internet and blocked Facebook from disrupting communications between protesters.
During the past ten days, a civil disobedience movement against the military takeover has tapped into almost every aspect of society. Many bank employees, railway workers, government officials, doctors and nurses refused to work, which reduced the availability of medical care, delayed financial transactions and stopped rail transport.
An outing by railroad workers earlier this week, the closure of the Myanmar Railway, which served under coronavirus restrictions, served only a few thousand commuters near Yangon, the country’s largest city. There was no indication of when it would reopen.
In Yangon, where hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets earlier this week, actions have been more subdued as smaller improvisations pop up in different neighborhoods. On Friday, thousands of protesters held demonstrations at foreign missions in the city, including the Chinese and Russian embassies.
Protesters have also become more creative since the restrictions on rallies were announced Tuesday. Some paraded in horse-drawn carriages or dressed in ball gowns. One group of animal lovers brought their dogs, the other their snakes and lizards. Musicians were playing on the street, weightlifters were exposing their chests, and some young women were wearing bikinis while carrying signs against the coup.
“It’s great to see all kinds of people protesting,” said U Wai Zin Thant, a private company manager in Mandalay, who watched them online. “I never thought I would see a fashion show, a music concert and a historic protest against the military coup at the same time.”
The protests even reached the tranquil Inle Lake in central Myanmar, where the inhabitants apparently live in a bygone era. They live in houses built on stilts, grow vegetables in floating gardens and travel in long, narrow wooden boats. The fishermen are known for standing on one leg while rowing with the other.
But the community is not so remote that it is being bypassed by the protests. On Thursday, more than a thousand Inle Lake residents gathered by boat in a floating protest, with anti-military slogans written on their wooden shovels and posters spelling out words in English such as: “Get out dictators.”
“Maybe people think we live a peaceful life because we grow our vegetables for food and make our own boats to transport,” said Ko Ngwe Toe, a resident of Inle. “But we can not neglect the country’s democracy being raped by the military.”
During several protests earlier in the week, police officers marched to the protesters’ side to great cheers from the crowd. In the city of Loikaw in the state of Kayah, at least 40 male and female officers sang along, ‘No dictatorship’ and ‘People’s Police’, after they alternated.
But in the capital, Naypyidaw, two protesters were shot dead by police on Tuesday, apparently with live ammunition. One victim, Mya Thwate Thwate Khing (19), was shot in the head. She is kept alive by a fan, said dr. Wai Yan Kyaw said at the Naypyidaw Thousand-Bed General Hospital, where she is being treated.
“According to her injury, it may not be a rubber bullet,” the doctor said. “It must be a real bullet.”
A second patient, a man shot in the chest, has been released, he said.
The young woman’s sister, Mya Tha Toe Nwe, said the two of them took cover during the protest to avoid the spray mist from a water cannon of the police and were gone when she was shot.
“There is no hope even with an operation,” she said. “I’m very sad.” But she said she would not be deterred.
“We took part in the protest against the military coup because it is not just for one person or one party,” she said. “We must eliminate the military dictatorship from our country, and I will continue to fight.”
Many protesters on Wednesday praised President Biden’s decision to impose sanctions on the generals behind the coup that would prevent them from gaining access to $ 1 billion in funds kept by their government in the United States.
Mr. Biden, who demanded that the military release civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi from house arrest, said he would announce additional action against the military leaders and their families. The United Nations Human Rights Council was to meet in a special session on Friday to act.
In recent days, the army has assembled prominent leaders with Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, in midnight raids, including the prime ministers of 14 states, the popular mayor of Mandalay and her Australian economic adviser.
Among those detained was the chairman and a member of the Union Electoral Commission, which oversaw the November election that won the National League for Democracy by a landslide. The military justified its coup by alleging electoral fraud. Authorities also raided the party’s headquarters in Yangon and confiscated financial records, computers and computer devices.
A doctor located in the civil disobedience in Ingapu in southern Myanmar was arrested by police officers on Thursday afternoon and dragged away while in the middle of a patient, his family said. He has not been heard from since.
The military announced on Friday that it would release more than 23,000 prisoners under amnesty in honor of Union Day, a national holiday commemorating a 1947 independence agreement. Such mass amnesties are not uncommon in Myanmar; the civilian government released nearly 25,000 prisoners in April.
But Democratic advocates have expressed concern online that the junta could organize some of the inmates in crowds to attack protesters, a tactic used by critics in the past.
Hannah Beech reported.