YANGON, Myanmar – The 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.
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 as well, 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 that pressured the military to cede power.
On Saturday, arrests were made in Myanmar’s two largest cities, Yangon and Mandalay, where protesters have taken to the streets daily to demand the restoration of the Suu Kyi government, whose National League for Democracy party won an overwhelming victory in the November elections.
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, 85 miles northwest of Mandalay, used force against protesters after the two cities saw major demonstrations.
Social media published unconfirmed reports of a protester shot dead in Monywa. The reports could not be independently confirmed immediately. Monywa’s reports also said that dozens 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 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.
Download the NBC News app for complete coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
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.
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 in Saturday’s march in Mandalay, lending moral authority to the civil disobedience movement that is challenging military rulers.
The board said it took power because last year’s polls were marked by major irregularities. The electoral commission 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.