Railway workers continue strike despite rampage

YANGON — State railway workers in Myanmar continued to strike Thursday despite a police rampage the previous night targeting them in a sign of the military junta’s concern over growing civil disobedience by public workers protesting the coup.

Three-quarters of the country’s civil servants are on strike, all private banks are closed and the protests have weakened the economy significantly, said Tom Andrews, the independent U.N. human rights expert on Myanmar.

Railway workers began their strike Sunday, joining a civil disobedience movement against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Truck drivers also have staged work stoppages.

The railway strike has received support from ordinary citizens who have placed themselves on railroad tracks to stop trains that the military has commandeered.