Junta orders martial law in Yangon
Share with the IJ a short, short tale of your losses
Myanmar’s ruling junta has declared martial law in a wide area of the country’s largest city, as security forces killed dozens of protesters over the weekend in an increasingly lethal crackdown on resistance to last month’s military coup.
The United Nations said at least 138 peaceful protesters have been killed in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup, including at least 56 killed over the weekend.
The developments were the latest setback to hopes of resolving the crisis that started with the military’s seizure of power that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. A grassroots movement has sprung up across the country to challenge the takeover with almost daily protests that the army has tried to crush with increasingly deadly violence.
State broadcaster MRTV said Monday that the Yangon townships of North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa have been put under martial law. That was in addition to two others — Hlaing Thar Yar and neighboring Shwepyitha — announced late Sunday.
More violence was reported around the country on Monday, with at least eight protesters in four cities or towns killed, according to
the independent broadcaster and news service Democratic Voice of Burma.
Photos and videos posted on social media showed long convoys of trucks entering Yangon.
At least 38 people were killed Sunday, the majority in the Hlaing Thar Yar area of Yangon, and 18 were killed on Saturday, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said. The total includes women and children, according to the figures from the U.N. human rights office.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres “strongly condemns this ongoing violence against peaceful protesters and the continuing violation of the fundamental human rights of the people of Myanmar,” Dujarric said.
The U.N. chief renews his call on the international community, including regional countries, “to come together in solidarity with
the people of Myanmar and their democratic aspirations,” the spokesman said.
Earlier Monday, U.N. Special Envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener earlier condemned the “continuing bloodshed,” which has frustrated calls from the Security Council and other parties for restraint and dialogue.
“The ongoing brutality, including against medical personnel and destruction of public infrastructure, severely undermines any prospects for peace and stability,” she said.
Complicating efforts to organize new protests, as well as media coverage of the crisis, cellphone internet service has been cut, although access is still available through fixed broadband connections.
Mobile data service had been used to stream live video coverage of protests, often showing security forces attacking demonstrators. It previously had been turned off only from 1 a.m. to 9 a.m. for several weeks, with no official explanation.
The blockage of internet service forced postponement of a court hearing in the capital, Natpyitaw, for Myanmar’s detained leader Suu Kyi, who was supposed to take part via a video conference, said her lawyer Khin Maung Zaw. Suu Kyi and President Win Myint were detained during the coup, and have been charged with several criminal offenses that their supporters believe are politically motivated to keep them locked up.
Since the takeover, Myanmar has been under a nationwide state of emergency, with military leaders in charge of all government. But Sunday’s announcement was the first use of martial law since the coup and suggested more direct handling of security by the military instead of police.
Sunday’s announcement said the junta, formally called the State Administrative Council, acted to enhance security and restore law and order, and that the Yangon regional commander has been entrusted with administrative, judicial and military powers in the area under his command. The orders cover six of Yangon’s 33 townships, all of which suffered major violence in recent days.
As COVID-19 vaccines are bringing many of us hope, the country is still fast approaching 500,000 deaths due to the virus. The human loss is staggering.
But the pandemic has brought a lot of other types of losses, from the loss of seeing friends and loved ones, to celebrating milestones, to jobs, to schooling, to our mental health — basically the loss of life as we knew it.
For March, please share with the IJ a six-word story of what you’ve lost in your life; it does not have to be pandemic-related. Please make it a story with a beginning, middle and end, and not just six adjectives — make us laugh or cry or at the very least feel something.
If you want your story to run in the IJ, please:
• Write “Six-word story” in the subject line
• Send one story. Just one • Include your full name and
Marin town in the body of the email (not in the subject line)
• Write your short story in the body of the email (not in the subject line or in an attachment)
• Use proper punctuation (check the dictionary, please)
• Use correct spelling (check the dictionary, please)
• It does not need to rhyme and probably shouldn’t
Send your six-word story to lifestyles@marinij.com by March 19 with “Six-Word Story” in the subject line (this matters). Then look for your story in the March 30 lifestyles section and online.