Burma’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook as resistance to Monday’s coup grew amid calls for civil disobedience to protest the overthrow of the elected government and its leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
Facebook is especially popular in Burma and is the way most people access the Internet.
The military seized power shortly before a new session of Parliament met on Monday and arrested Suu Kyi and other top politicians.
BURMA FORMALLY CHARGES OUSTED LEADER SUU KYI
He said he acted because the government refused to respond to his complaints that last November’s general election, in which Suu Kyi’s party won an overwhelming victory, was marked by widespread voting irregularities. The state Election Commission refuted the allegations.
Some 70 newly elected legislators challenged the new military government on Thursday by calling a symbolic meeting of Parliament that was barred from being opened. They signed their oaths of office at a government guesthouse in the capital, Naypyitaw, where about 400 of them were detained after the acquisition. They have already been informed that they can return to their home districts.
The unofficial summons was a symbolic gesture to claim that they, and not the military, are the country’s legitimate lawmakers.
Some expressed their anger and their determination to resist the blow by leaving the guesthouse.
“It violates the human rights of all citizens. This is not a coup. This is a betrayal against the government. I must say that this is betrayal by the state,” said Khin Soe Soe Kyi, a member of the Suu Kyi National League for the 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. He stated that, at the end of that period, he will call an election and hand over power to the winner.
Anti-coup graffiti appeared in Yangon, the country’s largest city, with the slogan “I don’t want dictatorship” scrawled on the wall of a busy street.
In Mandalay, a city known for its activist politics, a lively protest of about 20 people in front of the University of Medicine was stopped by the police. Three were arrested.
Medical personnel have declared that they will not work for the military government. Health workers are highly respected for their work during the coronavirus pandemic, which is overwhelming the country’s dangerously inadequate health system.
A street vendor checks his cell phone in Yangon, Burma, Tuesday, February 4, 2021. Burma’s new military government has blocked access to Facebook while resistance to Monday’s coup has increased amid calls for disobedience to protest the overthrow of the elected civilian government and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi. (Photo AP)
For the second night of Wednesday, Yangon residents conducted loud protests, banging pots and car horns.
The protests revived a song associated with a failed 1988 uprising against the military dictatorship. Burma was under military rule for five decades after a 1962 coup, and Suu Kyi’s five years as leader was the most democratic period since then, despite the continued use of repressive laws from the colonial era.
Videos posted on social media showed medical teams and others singing “Kabar Makyay Bu” – or “We won’t be satisfied until the end of the world” – sung to the sound of “Dust in the Wind”, a 1977 song by the American rock group Kansas.
Thousands of people in Naypyitaw participated in a demonstration in support of the military coup on Thursday, the latest in a series of events aimed at projecting an image of popular acceptance of the takeover.
Suu Kyi remains very popular. Her party said on Wednesday that she was accused of carrying illegally imported walkie-talkies – allegedly used by her bodyguards – that were found in her home.
The charge, which carries a sentence of up to three years in prison, allows her to be held in custody until at least February 15. Outgoing President Win Myint is being held on a separate charge. Suu Kyi is under house arrest at his residence.
Facebook users said service interruptions started on Wednesday night.
“Telecommunications providers in Burma have been forced to temporarily block Facebook. We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Burma can communicate with family and friends and access important information,” said Facebook in a statement.
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In 2018, Facebook removed several accounts linked to Burma’s military, including that of General Min Aung Hlaing, the officer who led this week’s coup, after complaints that they seemed to fuel hatred against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority. The Rohingya were the targets of a brutal army counterinsurgency campaign in 2017, which took more than 700,000 to neighboring Bangladesh. Critics say the army’s actions constituted genocide.