Junta targets strikes

YANGON: Myanmar’s military junta has issued arrest warrants against six celebrities for encouraging strikes that have paralysed many government offices in protests against this month’s coup, with total arrests since then now nearing 500.

Yesterday, security forces opened fire in Myanmar’s secondbiggest city of Mandalay as they confronted railway workers who had stopped trains running as part of the civil disobedience movement. One person was wounded, residents said.

Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets across the Southeast Asian country in some of the biggest protests yet against the February 1 coup and detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The army announced yesterday that six celebrities, including film directors, actors and a singer, were wanted under an antiincitement law for encouraging civil servants to join in the protest. The charges can carry a twoyear jail term.

Some of those on the list were defiant.

‘‘It’s amazing to see the unity of our people. People’s power must return to the people,’’ actor Lu Min posted on his Facebook page.

Despite junta appeals for civil servants to return to work and threats of actions if they do not, there has been no sign of the strikes easing.

The number of people known to have been detained since the coup halted a tentative transition towards democracy had reached 495 by yesterday, Myanmar’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said in a statement.