MANDALAY, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar security forces raided a neighborhood in the country’s largest city on Wednesday that houses state railroad workers who went on strike to protest last month’s military coup.
Police cordoned off the Mingalar Taung Nyunt neighborhood in Yangon, where the Ma Hlwa Kone train station and accommodation for railway workers are located. Photos and videos on social media showed police officers blocking the streets and what were said to be people fleeing.
At least three arrests were reported, but they could not be confirmed immediately. There was no apparent resistance to the operation, and local media reported that the authorities had expelled at least some residents from their homes.
Later on Wednesday, police fired warning shots, tear gas, stunning grenades and live shots in other areas of Yangon to disperse protesters. In North Okkalapa, press and social media reports said at least 200 people were arrested. About 400 youths who were detained in mass arrests a week ago are believed to still be behind bars.
In addition, the UN Security Council he unanimously called for the military coup to be reversed, strongly condemning violence against peaceful demonstrators and calling for “maximum restraint” by the military. The summons was made in a presidential statement, which is one step below a resolution, but becomes part of the official record of the most powerful UN body.
Diplomats said earlier drafts of the declaration were stronger, but they drew objections from members of the permanent council China and Russia, as well as from India, neighboring Myanmar, and Vietnam, which is part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations along with Myanmar. .
The operation against railway workers comes just days after several Myanmar unions, including the Myanmar Railway Workers Union Federation, make a joint appeal for a work stoppage across the country. They said the strike would be part of a broader effort to “close Myanmar’s economy for a prolonged period”.
Despite the increasingly violent tactics of the security forces, protests continued on Wednesday in cities and towns across the country, including Yangon, Mandalay, Monywa, Dawei, Myitkyina, Myitkyina, Bago, Kalaw and Myingyan. Some were received by the police force, while others were brief and non-violent.
The riot police in Dawei released tear gas, forcing protesters to disperse and hide. There have also been reports of the use of rubber bullets. No injuries were confirmed.
One of the main protest organizers in the small southern town was arrested on Wednesday morning, according to local news service Dawei Watch.
Dawei became a center for anti-coup protests and underwent severe police repression, with up to five deaths.
In Mandalay, the country’s second largest city, Buddhist monks joined around 1,000 protesters marching through the streets near their monastery. They carried a banner that said “Demonstrating peacefully”. The march ended before security forces could confront them.
Myanmar has been plagued by protests and other acts of civil disobedience since the February 1 coup that overthrew the government of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he began his second term. The coup reversed years of slow progress towards democracy in the Southeast Asian country, after five decades of military rule.
Security forces responded with mass arrests and sometimes lethal force. At least 60 protesters have been killed since the military takeover, according to the independent Association of Assistance for Political Prisoners.
The authorities also took steps to end independent journalism, both through arrests of journalists and the closure of the media.
State railway workers in Yangon and across the country were among the first organized supporters of the protest movement and their strike began shortly after the coup.
Police last month tried to intimidate rail workers in Mandalay by wandering around their residential area one night, shouting and randomly firing guns.
The board that now controls the country, formally called the State Administration Council, indirectly recognized the effectiveness of the railway strike.
State newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar on Tuesday quoted officials as saying that rail transport between Yangon and Mandalay would resume “in the near future”.
He also acknowledged that the banking sector was affected.
The dawn operation against railway workers on Wednesday followed another night of intimidation by the police marching through residential areas in several cities after the 8 pm curfew, firing guns and shock grenades and organizing selective attacks to arrest people .
The Democratic Voice of Burma news service and other media reported on Wednesday that the anti-military People’s Party said a protester detained in Insein prison, in northern Yangon, died and his body was not claimed. The prison has been known for decades to hold political prisoners, and many of the hundreds of people arrested in Yangon in recent weeks are inside.
On Tuesday, a school principal and supporter of the protest movement died of unknown causes after being taken into custody by security forces, according to media reports and an activist who knew him.
Days earlier, a local activist from the Suu Kyi National League for Democracy party also died in custody. Witnesses said his body had wounds consistent with torture, according to New York’s Human Rights Watch.
The Democratic Voice of Burma also reported that three NLD officials in Mandalay were arrested on Tuesday night.
According to the Association of Assistance to Political Prisoners, more than 1,930 people were arrested in connection with the coup. Dozens of journalists were arrested, including Thein Zaw of the Associated Press, who was charged under a public order law that carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.