MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) – Residents of Myanmar’s second-largest city helped striking railway workers move out of their state-run housing on Saturday after authorities said they would have to leave if they supported the protest move against last month’s military coup.
Mandalay residents transported the workers’ furniture and other household items to trucks, vans and vans.
The state railway workers went on strike last month as key and early supporters of the civil disobedience movement against the February 1 coup that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. The military regime has tried to force them back to work through intimidation, which includes a night gun patrol last month through their housing area in Mandalay and a raid in the railway workers housing area in Yangon.
Protests against the coup continued on Saturday in cities and towns across the country, including in Mandalay and Yangon.
The coup turned years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar into five decades of military rule. In the face of persistent strikes and protests against the takeover, the junta has responded with increasingly violent repression and efforts to severely curb information reaching the outside world.
Internet access is severely restricted, private newspapers cannot publish and protesters, journalists and politicians have been arrested.
The Independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners verified 235 deaths and said the actual total – including those where verification was difficult – is likely to be much higher. “It is said that it has been confirmed that 2 330 people have been arrested or charged since the coup, with 1 980 still detained or charged.
In addition to using deadly force to try to break up protests, security forces carried out a campaign of harassment and stole from homes they raided, the group said. They also accused security forces of using people who arrested them as human shields. they tried to break demonstrations.
Numerous social media reports, including videos, have shown that security forces are vandalizing cars parked on the street.
The UN agencies UNICEF and UNESCO, together with the private humanitarian group Save the Children, issued a statement on Friday criticizing the occupation of educational facilities in Myanmar by security forces as a serious violation of children’s rights.
Security forces are said to have occupied more than 60 schools and university campuses in 13 states and regions.
“This will exacerbate the learning crisis for nearly 12 million children and youth in Myanmar, which was already under tremendous pressure as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent widespread school closures,” the statement said. “Save the Children, UNESCO and UNICEF call on security forces to evacuate immediately occupied premises and ensure that schools and educational facilities are not used by military or security personnel.
“Schools may not be used by security forces under any circumstances,” he said.
Calls for international action to stop the violence are still increasing.
“The junta cannot unite the people of Myanmar in peaceful opposition,” Tom Andrews, the UN’s independent expert on human rights for Myanmar, wrote on Twitter on Friday. “Desperate, it launches relentless attacks to provoke a violent reaction to try to justify even more violence. It does not work. The world must respond by reducing their access to money and weapons. Now. ”
Unexpectedly strong statements were issued on Friday by two of Myanmar’s counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations with ten members.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo has called for an end to the violence and called on other regional leaders to hold a crisis.
Widodo’s move comes after ASEAN foreign ministers held a March 2 meeting that reached no consensus on the crisis.
Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin issued a statement in support of Widodo’s call for an ASEAN summit, saying he was “upset about the continued use of deadly force against unarmed civilians, which has led to a large number of deaths and injuries, as well as suffering across the country. “