(Reuters) -People in Myanmar opposed to the military junta marched, observed strikes and scrambled to overcome a shutdown of the internet on Friday, undaunted by the generals’ bloody suppression of protests during the past two months.
Hundreds of people have been killed protesting since the Feb.1 coup, and opponents have used social media to publicise the security forces’ excesses and to organise resistance to military rule.
Following the imposition of new curbs on the internet, limiting Web access to fixed-line services only, anti-coup groups shared radio frequencies, offline internet resources and providers of text message news alerts to keep communications going.
The military did not announce or explain its order to providers to cut wireless broadband.
Cellular data has been blocked for weeks by authorities struggling to stifle an opposition that is demanding the restoration of civilian rule and release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other key figures in her government.
Security forces opened fire at a rally on Friday in the central Sagaing region near Mandalay, where four people were shot and wounded, two critically, according to three local media organisations.
One witness told Monywa Gazette that police were firing from a hill.
Adding to the chaos in the former British colony, previously called Burma, hostilities between the armed forces and ethnic minority insurgents have broken out in at least two regions.
Across the country, demonstrators held “flower strikes”, leaving bouquets, some with defiant slogans, at locations like bus stops, where activists killed by security forces had departed on their last journeys.
People held roses in the air while making three-finger salutes, a symbol of resistance. Entire benches were covered in flowers and anti-coup messages.
One arrangement of dandelions and red roses on a lakeside walkway read: “Myanmar is bleeding”.
“In the following days, there are street protests. Do as many guerrilla strikes as you can. Please join,” Khin Sadar, a protest leader, posted on Facebook in anticipation of the blackout.
“Let’s listen to the radio again. Let’s make phone calls to each other too.”
CHARGED UNDER OFFICIAL SECRETS ACT
The extent of the internet shutdown was not immediately clear, with pictures of marches, flower strikes and a funeral of a slain protester still being posted and shared on social media.
Detained leader Suu Kyi and four allies were hit by charges of violating the colonial-era official secrets act, her chief lawyer said on Thursday, the most serious against her so far. Violations are punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
Lawyer Min Min Soe attended Suu Kyi’s latest video hearing on Thursday and said she was unable to tell whether the ousted leader, the figurehead of Myanmar’s decades-long fight against military dictatorship, was aware of the situation in the country.
Some 543 people have been killed in the uprising, according to the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) advocacy group, which is tracking casualties and detentions. The military has repeatedly said those killed had instigated violence.
Protesters were in the streets in several urban centres day and night on Thursday, burning copies of the 2008 constitution after remnants of Suu Kyi’s administration declared that it had repealed the military-drafted charter.
‘WE WILL NOT SURRENDER’
A video shared widely on social media late on Thursday showed an unconscious man being kicked and beaten by a group of seven helmeted, uniformed men with rifles, who dragged him face down along a road before carrying him away.
Another image shared widely showed an overhead view of hundreds of lit candles on a road in darkness, forming the words “we will never surrender”.
Britain on Thursday sanctioned one of the military’s conglomerates, following similar measures from other Western countries. Fashion brand Next announced it had suspended orders from Myanmar’s factories.
British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said the military “has sunk to a new low with the wanton killing of innocent people, including children.”
Myanmar’s Asian neighbours, which it relies on for trade, have not imposed any embargoes, but some have adopted stronger language after security forces killed 141 people while the generals celebrated Armed Forces Day on Saturday.
Neighbour Thailand, which has had cordial relations with Myanmar’s military, on Thursday said it was “gravely troubled”.
Tougher rhetoric has come from the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, whose foreign ministers have been meeting separately this week with their counterpart from China, which is among the few countries able to influence Myanmar’s generals.
In an interview transcript made available late Thursday, Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said he was “alarmed and appalled” at the violence, and China also hoped for peace and dialogue.
Reporting by Reuters Staff; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Stephen Coates & Simon Cameron-Moore
