YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Supporters of the Myanmar junta attacked people protesting the military government seizing power in a coup, using catapults, iron rods and knives to injure several protesters on Thursday.
The violence complicates an already stubborn stalemate between the military and a protest movement that organizes large daily rallies to demand that Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government be returned to power. She and other politicians were impeached and arrested on Feb. 1 in a takeover that shocked the international community and reversed years of slow progress towards democracy.
In response, several Western countries have imposed or threatened sanctions against the military. On Thursday, Britain announced further measures against members of the ruling junta for “monitoring human rights abuses since the coup”.
Amid the international outcry, Facebook also announced that it would ban all accounts linked to the military as well as advertisements from military-controlled companies.
On Thursday, tensions escalated in the streets between anti-coup protesters and supporters of the military. Photos and videos posted on social media showed groups attacking people in downtown Yangon while police assisted without intervention.
The number of injuries and their condition was not immediately clear.
According to accounts and photos posted to social media, hundreds of people marched in support of the coup on Thursday. They carried banners in English with the slogans “We Stand With Our Defense Services” and “We Stand With State Administration Council,” the official name of the junta.
When the protesters were laughed at by onlookers near the city’s Central Station, they responded by firing catapults and throwing stones at their critics. Some protesters broke loose to chase a man and then stabbed and kicked him.
Supporters of the army have previously rallied in the streets, especially in the days immediately before and after the coup, but had not used such overt violence.
Critics of the military charge that it pays people to engage in violence, allegations that are difficult to verify. They have been brought up during previous periods of unrest, including a failed anti-military uprising in 1988 and an ambush by Suu Kyi’s motorcade in a remote rural area in 2003, when she tried to rally her supporters against the military regime in power at the time.
Such confrontations could make it more difficult to resolve the crisis in Myanmar.
Later Thursday, police in Yangon’s Tarmwe district were found to be in force, trying to clear the streets of residents protesting the military’s appointment of a new administrator to one department. Several arrests were made when people were scattered in front of the riot police, who used flash grenades to disperse the crowd.
According to the independent Assistance Association of Political Prisoners, eight people have been killed in the junta’s crackdown so far and 728 people have been arrested, charged or convicted since the coup.
As part of its efforts to suppress the opposition, the ruling junta has sought to restrict access to the Internet, including by blocking Facebook – the gateway to the Internet for many people in Myanmar. Those efforts have proved largely ineffective.
But on Thursday, Facebook announced its own ban: on all military-linked accounts. The social media platform had already removed several military-linked accounts since the coup, including military-controlled Myawaddy TV and the state television broadcaster MRTV. The bans also apply to Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.
The company said in a statement that it considered the situation in Myanmar an “emergency” and stated that the ban was triggered by events since the coup, including “deadly violence.”
Facebook and other social media platforms came under massive criticism in 2017 when right-wing groups said they had not done enough to stop hate speech against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
The military launched a relentless counterinsurgency operation that year that led more than 700,000 Rohingya to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh, where they stay in refugee camps. Myanmar’s security forces have burned down villages, killed civilians and committed mass rape, and the International Court of Justice is investigating whether these actions constitute genocide.
The military says it has taken power because last November’s election was marked by widespread voting irregularities, a claim refuted by the state election commission, whose members have since been replaced.
The junta has said it will rule for a year and then hold new elections.