[Civil
society groups say a proposed measure to limit online expression and privacy
rights could lead to mass arrests of those who criticize the military
government.]
One
telecommunications company, Telenor, said Friday that it was aware of the
proposal and was reviewing it. A coalition of 158 civil society organizations
signed a statement raising concerns that the potential new law would lead to
the widespread arrest of government critics.
Myanmar
already has harsh laws restricting online speech, but opponents
of the military say the proposed law is so broad that it would allow
the authorities to arrest anyone who criticized the government online and
imprison them for up to three years. Critics also said the proposed law would
require telecommunications companies to cooperate with the government and
provide information on their customers.
The
military government declined to comment.
Concern
over the proposal comes amid fears that the military could use greater force if
the protests continue, as it has in the past. Two protesters have already been
shot. But the proposal also suggests that the military may be searching
for a variety of ways to rein in the demonstrations.
The
military, which has ruled the country for most of the last 60 years, has a long
history of using violence to suppress protests, including gunning down
pro-democracy demonstrators in 1988 and 2007. The Myanmar Army, or Tatmadaw,
has never been shy about
showing the depths of its brutality, killing monks in the street and
launching a murderous rampage against the Rohingya, leading to an exodus of the
Muslim minority in 2017.
But
a violent response to largely peaceful protests that have swept the country
after the Feb. 1 coup could further isolate Myanmar at a time when military
leaders want to maintain normal economic relations. Aside from a nationally
televised speech Tuesday evening by the coup leader, Senior
Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, the generals behind the junta have largely been
silent as the civil disobedience movement has grown.
On
Thursday, Gen. Min Aung Hlaing posted a statement on Facebook saying that
coronavirus vaccinations were proceeding and repeating his call for
“disciplined multiparty democracy.”
Since
seizing power, the military has shut down the internet at times and blocked
Facebook to disrupt communications among protesters.
Over
the last 10 days, a
civil disobedience movement against the military takeover has seeped
into nearly every aspect of society. Many bank employees, rail workers, civil
servants, doctors and nurses have refused to work, reducing the availability of
medical care, slowing financial transactions and halting rail transportation.
A
walkout by rail employees earlier this week prompted the closure of the Myanmar
Railway, which under coronavirus restrictions was serving only several thousand
commuters near Yangon, the country’s largest city. There was no indication of
when it would reopen.
In
Yangon, where hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets in protest
earlier this week, actions were more muted as smaller impromptu demonstrations
popped up in different neighborhoods. On Friday, thousands of protesters staged
demonstrations at foreign missions in the city, including the Chinese and
Russian embassies.
Demonstrators
also have become more creative since the restrictions on gatherings were
announced Tuesday. Some have paraded in horse-drawn carts or dressed in ball
gowns. One group of animal lovers brought their dogs, another their snakes and
lizards. Musicians played on the streets, weight lifters bared their chests,
and a few young women wore bikinis while holding anti-coup signs.
“It’s
wonderful to see all kinds of people joining in protest,” said U Wai Zin Thant,
a private company manager in Mandalay who watched them online. “I never thought
that I would see a fashion show, a music concert and a historical protest
against the military coup at the same time.”
The
protests have even come to the placid Inle Lake in central Myanmar, where the
inhabitants seem to live in a bygone era. They dwell in houses built on stilts,
grow vegetables in floating gardens and travel in long, narrow wooden boats.
The fishermen are renowned for standing on one leg while rowing with the other.
But
the community is not so remote that it has been bypassed by the protests. On
Thursday, more than a thousand Inle Lake residents gathered by boat in a
floating protest, with anti-military slogans written on their wooden paddles
and placards spelling out words in English such as, “Get out dictators.”
“Maybe
people think we live a peaceful life because we grow our vegetables for food
and make our own boats for transportation,” said Ko Ngwe Toe, an Inle resident.
“But we can’t neglect that the country’s democracy is being raped by the
military.”
At
several demonstrations earlier in the week, police officers crossed over to the
protesters’ side to large cheers from the crowd. In the city of Loikaw in Kayah
State, at least 40 male and female officers joined in chanting, “No
dictatorship” and “People’s police” after switching sides.
But
in the capital, Naypyidaw, two protesters were shot by the police on Tuesday,
apparently with live ammunition. One victim, Mya Thwate Thwate Khing, 19, was
shot in the head. She is being kept alive by a ventilator, said Dr. Wai Yan
Kyaw at Naypyidaw Thousand-Bed General Hospital, where she is being treated.
“According
to her injury, this must not be a rubber bullet,” the doctor said. “This must
be a real bullet.”
A
second patient, a man who was shot in the chest, has been released, he said.
The
young woman’s sister, Mya Tha Toe Nwe, said the two of them had taken cover at
the protest to avoid the spray from a police water cannon and were leaving when
she was shot.
“There
is no hope even with an operation,” she said. “I am deeply sad.” But she said
she would not be deterred.
“We
participated in the protest against the military coup because it’s not only for
one person or one party,” she said. “We need to eliminate the military
dictatorship from our country, and I will keep fighting.”
Many
protesters applauded the decision by President Biden on Wednesday to impose
sanctions on the generals behind the coup that would prevent them from
gaining access to $1 billion in funds that their government keeps in the United
States.
Mr.
Biden, who has demanded that the military release the civilian leader, Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi, from house arrest, said he would announce additional
actions against the military leaders and their families. The United Nations
Human Rights Council was scheduled to meet in a special session on Friday to
consider taking action.
In
recent days, the military has rounded up prominent leaders aligned with Ms.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National
League for Democracy, in midnight raids, including the chief ministers of
14 states, the popular mayor of Mandalay and her Australian economics adviser.
Among
those detained were the chairman and a member of the Union Election Commission,
which oversaw the November elections that the National
League for Democracy won in a landslide. The military justified its
coup by claiming
electoral fraud. The authorities also raided the party’s headquarters in
Yangon, seizing financial records, computers and data storage devices.
A
doctor active in the civil disobedience moment in the southern Myanmar township
of Ingapu was arrested and dragged away by plainclothes police officers
Thursday afternoon while he was in the middle of stitching up a patient, his
family said. He has not been heard from since.
The
military announced on Friday that it would release more than 23,000 prisoners
under an amnesty in honor of Union Day, a national holiday commemorating a 1947
independence agreement. Such mass amnesties are not unusual in Myanmar; the
civilian government released nearly 25,000 inmates in April.
But
democracy advocates expressed concern online that the junta could organize some
of the prisoners into mobs to attack protesters, a tactic that critics said it
has used in the pas