YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Nonviolent resistance to Myanmar’s military coup gained steam on Friday, with public protests stretching to several regions, including the tightly controlled capital, Naypyitaw.
The military has tried to destroy the opposition with selective arrests and by blocking Facebook access to prevent users from organizing protests. Facebook is the primary tool for most people to access information on the Internet, where traditional media is controlled by the state or intimidated by threats of legal action by the state.
The last politician to be detained is Win Htein, a senior member of the ousted ruling party, the National League for Democracy. He was picked up at his home in Yangon, the country’s largest city, and taken to Naypyitaw early Friday, party spokesman Kyi Toe announced.
The takeover of the army began Monday with the pre-trial detention of senior government officials and politicians, including the country’s leader, state adviser Aung San Suu Kyi. She is healthy and still under house arrest in her official residence in Naypyitaw, Kyi Toe said.
Win Htein, 79, is Suu Kyi’s longtime confidante and had publicly called for civil disobedience in opposition to Monday’s coup. He told British BBC radio during a telephone conversation early Friday that he was being arrested for sedition, which carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.
In Yangon, an estimated 200 teachers and professors on Friday held signs in support of civil disobedience and displayed a three-fingered greeting signifying resistance, a gesture they adopted from anti-government protesters in neighboring Thailand.
“We do not accept a government formed by themselves after they illegally seized power with guns from the government elected by the public,” said teacher Dr. New Thazin on the army. “We will never be with them. We want such a government to collapse as soon as possible. “
At the same time, a small number of employees of a university hospital in the area held their own demonstration. They held signs that read “Protect Democracy” and “Reject the Military Coup”.
Protesters for three consecutive nights have shown their anger by hitting pots and pans against each other in Yangon’s neighborhoods under cover of darkness. Unconfirmed social media reports said that some participants in Thursday’s noise protests had been detained by police.
There were also demonstrations on Friday in the capital, Naypyitaw, where medical personnel from the city’s largest hospital gathered behind a large banner condemning the coup. Medical personnel have been at the forefront of the civil disobedience campaign.
The city of Naypyitaw was purpose-built under a previous military government to be the administrative capital of Myanmar which was the largest city, Yangon, until 2005. The capital has been heavily militarized and lacks the tradition of political protest that Yangon has had for nearly a century.
Another protest was held in Myanmar’s southern Tanintharyi region, where about 50 singing people marched, online Dawei Watch news agency reported.
At least 133 officials or lawmakers and 14 civil society activists were detained by the military in connection with the takeover, according to Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, although some have already been released. The NLD has said Suu Kyi and deposed President Win Myint are being held on petty charges unrelated to their official duties, allowing their detention until at least mid-February.
The takeover has been criticized by President Joe Biden and others who have pushed internationally for the reinstatement of the elected government.
“The Burmese military must relinquish the power they have seized, release the lawyers, activists and officials who have held them, lift restrictions on telecommunications and refrain from violence,” Biden said at the US State Department in Washington on Thursday. using the former name of Myanmar.
The UN Security Council, in its first statement on this issue, stressed the need to uphold democratic institutions and processes, to refrain from violence and to fully respect human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law. While the US and others have described the military’s actions as a coup d’état, the Security Council’s unanimous statement did not.
The military seized power shortly before a new session of parliament was to be convened on Monday, stating that its actions were legal and constitutional because Suu Kyi’s government had refused to address irregularities in voting. The state election commission had refuted the allegations of irregularities and confirmed that Suu Kyi’s party won a landslide.
The military took over all state power, including legislative functions, during a year-long emergency. It has also formed a new election commission to investigate its allegations of erratic voting and said it will hold new elections at the end of the state of emergency and hand over power to the winner.
Myanmar was under military rule for five decades following a coup in 1962, and Suu Kyi’s five years as a leader had been the most democratic period, despite the continued use of colonial-era repressive laws.