(Reuters) – Myanmar security forces arrested one of the main leaders of the campaign against military rule on Thursday after they hit him with a car as he led a protest on a motorcycle, friends and colleagues said.
Opponents of a February 1 coup that ousted an elected government led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi continued their campaign against the military this traditional New Year’s week with marches and various other resistance.
‘Our brother Wai Moe Naing has been arrested. His motorcycle was hit by an unmarked police car, ‘said Win Zaw Khiang, a member of a protest organization group, on social media.
Wai Moe Naing, a 25-year-old Muslim, emerged as one of the most conspicuous leaders of opposition to the coup.
Reuters had earlier spoken to Wai Moe Naing by telephone as he was on his way to lead the protest in the central city of Monywa, about 700 km (435 miles) north of the capital Yangon.
The video posted on social media showed an oncoming car swerving into a group of motorcycles. Reuters could not confirm the footage.
The number plate of the black car shown in two videos that turned into the protest does not match the vehicle model listed for the number in the Myanmar vehicle database.
A junta spokesman could not be reached for comment.
Monywa was one of the main centers of the democracy campaign with large gatherings day after day and repeated repression by the security forces.
Some colleagues said they feared for Wai Moe Naing’s safety.
The Swedish embassy said it was following its case and insisted that all prisoners should be allowed proper health care and that their human rights be respected.
Another protest leader, Tayzar San, said on Facebook: “We must continue the fight by doubling our energy for Ko Wai Moe Naing, for the truth, for the present and future of the country.”
PROTECTION OF MEDICAL
In the capital Yangon, security forces detained Myo Aye, director of the Solidarity trade union in Myanmar, activist Ei Thinzar Maung said on Facebook. Myo Aye also played a major role in organizing the protests.
The coup plunged Myanmar into a crisis after ten years of tentative steps towards democracy, with in addition to the daily protests, strikes by workers in many sectors that brought the economy to a standstill.
An activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, says security forces have killed 715 protesters since the ousted Suu Kyi government.
Earlier Thursday, soldiers in the city of Mandalay opened fire to disperse protesting medical workers and one man was killed and several wounded when security forces fired on a nearby neighborhood, media reported.
Medical workers, some of whom were at the forefront of the campaign against the coup, gathered early in the second city, but the troops soon arrived and detained several people, witnesses and the BBC’s Burmese language.
The BBC and other newspapers did not provide details about victims or arrests during the protest, but the media of Khit Thit said a man was shot dead in the assembly of a nearby mosque while security forces broke the medics’ protest.
“There was no protest here. It looks like the soldiers are looking for someone, ‘said a resident of the neighborhood where the mosque is located, said by telephone and did not want to be identified.
The five-day New Year’s holiday, known as Thingyan, began on Tuesday, but pro-democracy activists canceled the regular festivities to focus on their opposition to the generals.
Hundreds of people took part in protest rallies and car marches in various towns, according to photos posted by media channels.
The military says protests are mounting, but the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper has reported that ‘rioters’ have increasingly committed ‘acts of terror’, attacking security forces with grenades, planting ‘homemade mines’ and setting fires. has.
Reporting by Reuters staff; Writing by Robert Birsel; Edited by Clarence Fernandez, Simon Cameron-Moore and Toby Chopra