YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Police in Myanmar stepped up their crackdown on protesters against this month’s military takeover, deploying early and hard on Saturday, as protesters tried to gather in the country’s two largest cities and elsewhere .
Security forces in some areas appeared to become more aggressive in using force and making arrests, using more plainclothes police than previously revealed. Photos posted on social media showed that residents of at least two cities, Yangon and Monywa, resisted by building improvised barricades on the streets to try to stop the police from advancing.
The Myanmar crisis took a dramatic turn on the international stage at a special session of the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, when the country’s ambassador to the UN declared his loyalty to the deposed civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi and asked the world to pressure the military to cede power.
There were arrests on Saturday in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, where protesters have taken to the streets daily to peacefully demand the restoration of the Suu Kyi government, whose National League for Democracy party won an overwhelming electoral victory in November. The police have increasingly enforced a junta order banning meetings of five or more people.
Many other cities also hosted major protests against the February 1 coup.
Police in Dawei, in the southeast, and Monywa, 135 kilometers (85 miles) northwest of Mandalay, used force against the protesters. Both cities, with a population of less than 200,000 each, have seen major demonstrations.
Social media published unconfirmed reports of a protester shot dead in Monywa. The reports could not be independently confirmed, but they appeared reliable, with photos and identification of the victim. Monywa’s reports also said that dozens or more people were arrested.
The military conquest reversed years of slow progress towards democracy, after five decades of military rule. Suu Kyi’s party would have been installed for a second five-year term, but the army prevented Parliament from meeting and detained her and President Win Myint, as well as other important members of his government.
At the General Assembly in New York, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UN, Kyaw Moe Tun, declared in an emotional speech to the other delegates that he represented Suu Kyi’s “civil government elected by the people” and supported the fight against the military regime.
He urged all countries to make public statements strongly condemning the coup and refusing to recognize the military regime. He also called for stronger international measures to stem the violence of security forces against peaceful protesters.
He drew much applause from many diplomats in 193 nations, as well as warm praise from other Burmese on social media, who described him as a hero. The ambassador gave a three-finger salute that was adopted by the civil disobedience movement at the end of his speech in which he addressed the people at his home in Burmese.
In Yangon, on Saturday morning, police began arresting early at the intersection of the Hledan Center, which has become the meeting point for protesters who spread to other parts of the city. The police took similar measures in residential neighborhoods.
Security forces also tried to stop the protests in Mandalay, where roadblocks were set up at several major intersections and regular sites for demonstrations were flooded by the police.
Buddhist monks were prominent on Saturday’s march in Mandalay, as they have been doing regularly, lending moral authority to the civil disobedience movement that is challenging military rulers.
Mandalay has been the scene of several violent clashes, and at least four of the eight confirmed deaths linked to the protests, according to the independent Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners. On Friday, at least three people were injured, including two who were shot in the chest by rubber bullets and one who suffered what appeared to be a gunshot wound to the leg.
According to the association, as of Friday, 771 people have been arrested, charged or convicted at some point in connection with the coup, and 689 were being detained or wanted to be arrested.
The board said it took power because last year’s polls were marked by major irregularities. The electoral commission before the military took power refuted the allegation of widespread fraud. The board dismissed members of the old commission and appointed new ones, who on Friday overturned the election result.
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Associated Press writer Edith Lederer, United Nations, contributed to this report.