Myanmar’s military junta has issued arrest warrants for six celebrities for encouraging strikes that have paralyzed many government offices in protests against this month’s coup, with the total arrests since approaching 500.
Late on Wednesday, security forces opened fire in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, as they clashed with railway workers who had stopped running trains as part of the civil disobedience movement. One person was injured, residents said.
Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the Southeast Asian country on Wednesday in some of the largest protests against the February 1 coup and arrest of the elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Early Thursday morning, police ordered dozens of screaming protesters to disperse from a busy intersection near the main university in Yangon, the country’s largest city. The students were to meet later in a different part of the city.
The street marches have been more peaceful than the bloody-repressed demonstrations in the previous half-century of army rule, but they and the civil disobedience movement have had a chilling effect on many official affairs.
The military announced late Wednesday that six celebrities, including film directors, actors and a singer, were wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging public officials to join the protest.
The charges can carry a two-year prison term.
Some of those on the list were defiant.
“It is amazing to see the unity of our people. The power of the people must return to the people, ”actor Lu Min posted on his Facebook page.
Despite the board’s calls for civil servants to return to work and threats to take action if they do not, there have been no signs that the strikes have subsided.
Shots
Train services have been severely disrupted and in the evening security forces in Manadalay’s second-largest city clashed with striking rail workers, opened fire with rubber bullets and catapults and threw stones, residents said. .
A charity worker was wounded in the leg by a rubber bullet.
Neither the army nor the police made any immediate comment on the incident, but the army’s Facebook page said the forces were providing security across the country to “make sure people have peace of mind and sound sleep.”
The number of people known to have been detained since the coup halted a tentative transition to democracy had reached 495 on Wednesday, the Myanmar Political Prisoners Assistance Association said in a statement.
He said 460 were still in custody.
The army came to power after the electoral commission rejected its allegations of fraud in the November 8 elections swept by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) party, drawing the ire of Western countries and the local protests.
More demonstrations were planned for Thursday, including by groups of students and workers from different ethnic groups in the diverse country of more than 53 million people.
Opponents of the coup are deeply skeptical of the junta’s promises to hand over power after a new election for which a date has not yet been set.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi, detained since the coup, now faces a charge of violating a natural disaster management law as well as charges for illegally importing six walkie talkie radios. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 1.
Suu Kyi, 75, spent nearly 15 years under house arrest for her efforts to bring democracy.
The army says a policeman died from injuries sustained in a protest. A protester who was shot in the head during a protest in the capital Naypyitaw is being kept on life support, but doctors say she is not expected to survive.
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She is a freelance blogger, writer, and speaker, and writes for various entertainment magazines.