Mobile network data across the country was shut down for a second day Wednesday, Internet monitoring service Netblocks reported. With little information coming out, it is difficult for news organizations and human rights and advocacy groups to assess and verify the current situation.
Protesters and journalists have relied on their cell phones to live stream demonstrations and document police performances, and the suppression of information by the military has raised fears that it could lead to more human rights violations, murders and arbitrary arrests.
“With the internet shut down, people in areas closed off by the military and police have no access to the outside world,” said John Quinley, senior human rights specialist at Fortify Rights rights group. “The junta is trying to prevent information about the violence they are perpetrating from being released. The junta is trying to cause a total blackout.”
Security forces are reported to have opened fire at various locations in Yangon on Wednesday just after midnight and several injuries were reported. In the meantime, barricades made by residents of the city were also removed.
A 28-year-old man died of an apparent gunshot wound during a nighttime protest in Yangon, a local journalist and eyewitnesses in Myanmar said Wednesday. Local witnesses reported hearing a loud bang during a peaceful protest, after which the man immediately fell to the ground and began to bleed.
Protesters rushed the man to the hospital where he was treated, but later died of his injuries. Local media Myanmar Now said the incident took place in Mingalar Taung Nyunt municipality during a crackdown on a nighttime protest. CNN could not independently verify that security forces shot the man.
More than 200 people have been killed since the coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). According to the group, 74 people died on Sunday alone and 20 more on Monday. Mass funerals were held in Yangon on Tuesday for many of the dead.
Activists have highlighted the particular concern of those in the Yangon district of Hlaingthaya, a poor industrial district northwest of the city where many migrants and factory workers live. One of Yangon’s largest districts and a protest stronghold, it bore most of Sunday’s victims and several Chinese factories were set on fire there.
A labor organizer in Hlaingthaya told Reuters, “here is like a war zone, shooting everywhere,” adding that most residents were too scared to go outside.
Two doctors told Reuters there were injured people in the area who needed medical attention, but the military had closed the entrances.
Fortify Rights CEO Matthew Smith said on Twitter that more murders were reported in Hlaingthaya on Tuesday, but emergency vehicles were unable to enter the area due to roadblocks.
Martial law under the junta regime means that the military commander of the Yangon region will have “full administrative and judicial authority” in districts where martial law has been declared, local media outlet Myanmar Now reports.
In the past, such trials were usually held behind closed doors, out of public scrutiny or due process, and conviction was almost certain.
Min Aung Hlaing told Myanmar’s state boss Global New Light on Tuesday that martial law was enacted after protests “ turned into riots and violence. ”
“Violent acts, such as the burning down of public property and factories, took place in some areas. Security forces had to tackle the situation very hard. The protesters raided police stations and administrative offices and set factories on fire,” the report said.
Opposition to Myanmar’s junta continues to spread. According to Myanmar Now, the country’s most powerful religious body with a Buddhist majority said it will end support for the military by ceasing all of its activities.
An abbot told the news agency that the State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee (MaHaNa), a government-appointed group of high-ranking Buddhist monks that oversees the country’s monks, called on authorities to end the “ violent arrests, torture and murder of unarmed civilians. “and to” prevent the looting and destruction of public property. “
It comes as the junta charged the UN envoy representing Myanmar’s now-dissolved parliament with treason, a charge punishable by death.
In response, Dr. Sasa, who is out of the country, “is proud to have been charged with treason by the military junta,” in a statement posted to his Twitter account Tuesday.
“It is these generals who betray every day. They take what they want for themselves, deny the people their rights and oppress those who stand in their way,” he said.
The impact of the coup and civil disobedience movement, which has disrupted parts of the country’s economy, is starting to sting. On Tuesday, the UN World Food Program said rising food and fuel prices are undermining the ability of the country’s poorest to feed themselves and their families.
“These soaring food and fuel prices are exacerbated by the near-paralyzed banking sector, delays in money transfers and widespread restrictions on the availability of cash,” the WFP said.
CNN’s Angus Watson and Akanksha Sharma contributed to the reporting.