YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Social media giant Facebook announced on Thursday that it was banning all accounts related to Myanmar’s military, as well as ads for military-controlled companies, after the army seized power on February 1. .
He said in a statement that he was treating the post-coup situation in Myanmar as an “emergency”, explaining that the ban was precipitated by events since the coup, including “deadly violence”.
Facebook’s action comes as diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis intensify and protests continue in Yangon and other cities urging the country’s coup d’état to resign and return the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi to power .
Facebook has banned several military-related accounts since the coup, including army-controlled Myawaddy TV and state television station MRTV.
Bans are also being enforced on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
Facebook and other social media platforms came under heavy criticism in 2017, when right-wing groups said they did not act enough to stop the hate speech against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
The army launched a brutal counter-insurgency operation that year that prompted more than 700,000 Rohingya to seek security in neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps. Myanmar’s security forces set villages on fire, killed civilians and were involved in mass rape in his campaign, which the World Court is investigating as a crime of genocide.
Facebook in 2018 banned the accounts of several Myanmar military leaders, including General Min Aung Hlaing, who led this month’s coup that overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and his National League for Democracy party. The general heads the junta that now acts as a government,
The board tried to block Facebook and other social media platforms, but its efforts have proved ineffective. For more than a week, he also disabled internet access every night from 1 am.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi visited the Thai capital Bangkok on Wednesday and held talks with his Thai counterpart Don Pramudwinai and the new foreign minister of Myanmar, the retired army colonel. Wunna Maung Lwin, who also traveled to Thailand. The meeting was part of Marsudi’s efforts to coordinate a regional response to the crisis triggered by the military coup in Myanmar.
Indonesia and other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations are trying to promote some concessions from the Myanmar military that could ease tensions to prevent further violence. The regional group, to which Thailand and Myanmar also belong, believes that dialogue with generals is a more effective method of obtaining concessions than methods of confrontation, such as the sanctions often advocated by Western nations.
At a virtual news conference after his return to Indonesia, Marsudi said he expressed his country’s concern over the situation in Myanmar.
“We ask all parties to exercise restraint and not to use violence. . . to avoid casualties and bloodshed, ”she said, emphasizing the need for dialogue, reconciliation and building trust.
Marsudi said he had delivered the same message to a group of elected members of Myanmar’s parliament who were prevented by the military coup from taking their seats. Lawmakers are from the Suu Kyi National League for Democracy party, which won an overwhelming victory in last November’s elections, which would give him a second five-year term.
After the coup, the group, called the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw Representative Committee, named after the combined houses of Parliament, announced that it was meeting the body in an online session and called on the UN and foreign countries to treat it as the legitimate government of Myanmar.
It received increasing support from the Myanmar protest movement, but little or no foreign endorsement. Indonesia’s recognition that the group has a role to play could pave the way for negotiations between the Myanmar ruling junta and its opponents.
Opposition to the coup continues within Myanmar, with large demonstrations in many cities and towns.
The anti-coup demonstrations took on a new look on Thursday, with protesters spreading a traditional yellow paste on their faces, as a proclamation of their national identity.
Outside the Hledan Center in Yangon, where about 1,000 people gathered to maintain pressure on the new military regime, protesters used the mixture, called thanaka, in wide bands on their foreheads, cheeks and noses.
Some had slogans written on the designs.
Thanaka is made from powdered tree bark. It is said to be good for the skin and protects it from sunburn. It is ubiquitous in Myanmar and is a symbol of its culture as much as the sarong-like longyi skirt or the Shwedagon temple in Yangon.
There was a tense clash on Wednesday in the country’s second largest city, Mandalay, where police holding shock shields and rifles blocking the path of some 3,000 teachers and students.
After about two hours, during which protesters played protest songs and heard speeches condemning the coup, the crowd moved away.
On Saturday, police and soldiers shot and killed two people in Mandalay while interrupting a dockers’ strike.
The military says they took power because last November’s election was marked by widespread voting irregularities, a claim that was refuted by the state electoral commission, whose members were replaced by the governing board.
Despite the overwhelming victory of Suu Kyi’s party at the polls, the army prevented Parliament from meeting and detained it, along with President Win Myint and other important members of his government.
The board said it would rule for a year under a state of emergency and then hold new elections.