Don’t strike, Myanmar junta says
Opposition asking for a ‘revolution’ Monday
YANGON,MYANMAR— A call for a Monday general strike by demonstrators in Myanmar protesting the military’s Feb. 1 seizure of power has been met by the ruling junta with a thinly veiled threat to use lethal force, raising the possibility of major clashes.
The call for a strike was made Sunday by the Civil Disobedience Movement, a loosely organized group leading resistance to the army’s takeover. It asked people to gather for the Five Twos — referring to the digits in Monday’s date — to make a “Spring Revolution.”
State television broadcaster
MRTV late Sunday carried a public announcement from the junta, formally called the State Administration Council, warning against the strike.
“It is found that the protesters have raised their incitement towards riot and anarchy mob on the day of 22 February. Protesters are now inciting the people, especially emotional teenagers and youths, to a confrontation path where they will suffer the loss of life,” it said in an English language text shown onscreen.
Another part of the statement blamed protesters whose numbers allegedly included criminal gangs for violence at demonstrations, with
the result that “the security force members had to fire back.” Three protesters have been shot dead.
The protest movement has embraced nonviolence and only occasionally gotten into shoving matches with police and thrown bottles at them when provoked.
In Yangon, the country’s biggest city and commercial capital, trucks cruised the streets Sunday night blaring announcements that people should not attend protests Monday and must honor a ban on gathering of five or more people. The ban on
gathering was issued shortly after the coup but not enforced in Yangon. which for the past two weeks has been the scene of large daily demonstrations.
Many social media postings ahead of the scheduled nightly 1 a.m. cutoff of internet access service said security forces had set up roadblocks at strategic points in the city. Information on Twitter accounts that have proved reliable in the past said that the normal blocking of internet access from 1-9 a.m. would be extended to noon in Yangon.