Myanmar’s military government is increasingly using nighttime arrests, legal threats, curfews and bans on large rallies to tame protests against the week-long coup that have spread from cities to rural areas. Now, community groups are concerned that the military is preparing a new law that will further restrict online speech and restrict citizens’ privacy rights.
A telecommunications company, Telenor, said on Friday it was aware of the proposal and was reviewing it. A coalition of 158 civil society organizations signed a statement expressing concern that the possible new law would lead to the widespread arrest of government critics.
Myanmar already has strict laws restricting online speech, but military opponents say the proposed law is so broad that authorities can arrest anyone who criticizes the government online and imprison them for up to three years. Critics also said the proposed law would require telecommunications companies to cooperate with the government and provide information about their customers.
The military government declined to comment.
Concerns about the proposal stem from fears that the military could use more force if protests continue, as in the past. Two protesters have already been shot. But the proposal also suggests that the military may be looking for different ways to contain the demonstrations.
The military, which has ruled the country for most of the past 60 years, has a long history of using violence to quell protests, including the shooting of demonstrators for democracy in 1988 and 2007. The Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw , has never been shy about showing the depths of his cruelty, killing monks in the streets and launching a murderous calamity against the Rohingya, triggering an exodus of the Muslim minority in 2017.
But a violent response to largely peaceful protests that engulfed the country after the Feb. 1 coup could further isolate Myanmar at a time when military leaders want to maintain normal economic relations. Aside from a national televised address Tuesday night by the coup leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the generals behind the junta have been largely silent as the civil disobedience movement has grown.
On Thursday, General Min Aung Hlaing posted a statement on Facebook saying coronavirus vaccinations were underway and reiterating his call for “disciplined multiparty democracy”.
Since the seizure of power, the military has sometimes shut down the internet and blocked Facebook to disrupt communication between protesters.
In the past 10 days, a civil disobedience movement against military takeover has seeped into almost every aspect of society. Many bank employees, railway workers, government officials, doctors and nurses have refused to work, reducing the availability of medical care, slowing financial transactions and halting rail transport.
A strike by rail workers earlier this week led to the closure of the Myanmar railway, which served only a few thousand commuters under coronavirus restrictions near Yangon, the country’s largest city. There was no indication when it would reopen.
In Yangon, where hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets in protest earlier this week, the actions became more muted as smaller improvised demonstrations surfaced in several neighborhoods. On Friday, thousands of protesters organized demonstrations at foreign missions in the city, including the Chinese and Russian embassies.
Protesters have also become more creative since rally restrictions were announced on Tuesday. Some have paraded in horse carts or dressed in ball gowns. One group of animal lovers brought their dogs, the other their snakes and lizards. Musicians played in the streets, weightlifters bared their chests, and a few young women wore bikinis while holding anti-coup signs.
“It’s great to see all kinds of people protesting,” said U Wai Zin Thant, a private business manager in Mandalay who watched them online. “I never thought I would see a fashion show, a music concert and a historic protest against the military coup at the same time.”
The protests have even spread to calm Inle Lake in central Myanmar, where residents seem to live in a bygone era. They live in houses built on stilts, grow vegetables in floating gardens, and travel in long, narrow wooden boats. The fishermen are known for standing on one leg while rowing with the other.
But the community is not so remote that it has been bypassed by the protests. On Thursday, more than a thousand residents of Inle Lake gathered by boat in a floating protest, with anti-military slogans written on their wooden paddles and signs with words in English such as, “Get out dictators.”
“Maybe people think we live a peaceful life because we grow our vegetables for food and make our own boats for transportation,” said Ko Ngwe Toe, a resident of Inle. “But we cannot forget that the country’s democracy is being raped by the military.”
At several demonstrations earlier this week, police officers walked from the crowd to the protesters to loud cheers. In the town of Loikaw, Kayah State, at least 40 male and female officers joined in reciting “No Dictatorship” and “People’s Police” after switching sides.
But in the capital, Naypyidaw, two protesters were shot by police on Tuesday, apparently with live ammunition. One victim, Mya Thwate Thwate Khing, 19, was shot in the head. She is being kept alive by a ventilator, said Dr. Wai Yan Kyaw at Naypyidaw Thousand-Bed General Hospital, where she is being treated.
“Her injury says this shouldn’t be a rubber bullet,” said the doctor. “This must be a real bullet.”
A second patient, a man who was shot in the chest, has been released, he said.
The young woman’s sister, Mya Tha Toe Nwe, said they took cover at the protest to avoid the spray from a police water cannon and left when she was shot.
“Even with surgery, there is no hope,” she said. “I am deeply sad.” But she said she wouldn’t be deterred.
“We participated in the protest against the military coup because it is not just for one person or one party,” she said. “We have to eliminate the military dictatorship from our country, and I will keep fighting.”
Many protesters welcomed President Biden’s decision on Wednesday to impose sanctions on the generals behind the coup that would prevent them from accessing $ 1 billion in funds their government holds in the United States.
Mr Biden, who has demanded that the military release civilian leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest, said he would announce additional actions against the military leaders and their families. The United Nations Human Rights Council was scheduled to meet in a special session on Friday to consider taking action.
In recent days, the military has convened prominent leaders to join Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, during midnight raids, including the chief ministers of 14 states, the popular mayor of Mandalay and her Australian economic adviser .
Those arrested included the chairman and a member of the Union Election Commission, which oversaw the November election that won the National League for Democracy in a landslide. The military justified his coup by claiming electoral fraud. Authorities also raided the party’s headquarters in Yangon, seizing financial files, computers and data storage devices.
A doctor who was active in the moment of civil disobedience in the city of Ingapu in southern Myanmar was arrested Thursday afternoon and dragged away by plainclothes police officers while stitching up a patient, his family said. Since then nothing has been heard from him.
The military announced Friday that it would release more than 23,000 prisoners under amnesty in honor of Union Day, a national holiday commemorating a 1947 independence agreement. Such massive amnesty is not uncommon in Myanmar; the civilian government released nearly 25,000 prisoners in April.
But democracy advocates expressed concerns online that the junta could organize some prisoners into gangs to attack protesters, a tactic critics said they’ve used in the past.
Hannah Beech contributed to the reporting.