YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Supporters of the Myanmar junta attacked people protesting against the military government that took power in a coup, using handguns, iron rods and knives to injure several protesters.
The violence complicates an already intractable confrontation between the military and a protest movement that has held large daily rallies to demand that the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi be restored to power. She and other politicians were expelled and arrested on February 1 in a takeover that shocked the international community and reversed years of slow progress toward democracy.
In response, several Western countries have imposed or threatened sanctions on the military. On Thursday, Britain announced new measures against members of the governing board to “monitor human rights violations since the coup.”
Amid international outrage, Facebook also announced it would ban all army-related accounts as well as advertisements for military-controlled companies.
On Thursday, tensions rose on the streets between anti-coup protesters and army supporters. Photos and videos posted on social media showed groups attacking people in central Yangon while police were by their side without intervening.
The number of injured and their condition were not immediately clear.
According to accounts and photos posted on social media, hundreds of people marched in favor of the coup on Thursday. They carried banners in English with the slogans “We Stand With Our Defense Services” and “We Stand With State Administration Council,” which is the official name of the board.
When spectators were mocked by spectators near the city’s central railway station, they responded by firing handguns and throwing stones at their critics. Some protesters broke in to chase a man and then stabbed him and kicked him.
Army supporters have gathered in the streets before, especially in the days immediately before and after the coup, but had not used violence so openly.
Critics of the military charge pay people to engage in violence, accusations that are hard to verify. They have been raised during periods of previous unrest, including a failed anti-military uprising in 1988 and an ambush by Suu Kyi’s caravan in a remote rural area in 2003, when he sought to rally his supporters against the then-ruling military regime.
These clashes could make it difficult to resolve the Myanmar crisis.
Police on Thursday appeared in force in the Tarmwe district of Yangon, where they tried to clear the streets of residents protesting the military’s appointment of a new administrator for a ward. Several arrests were made as people dispersed in front of riot police lines, which used flash grenades to disperse the crowd.
To date, according to the Independent Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, eight people have been killed in connection with the board’s crackdown and 728 people have been arrested, charged or convicted since the coup.
As part of its efforts to stifle opposition, the governing board has tried to limit Internet access, including trying to block Facebook, the gateway to the network of many people in Myanmar. These efforts have proven ineffective.
But on Thursday, Facebook announced a ban of its own: on all accounts linked to the military. The social media platform had already deleted several army-linked accounts since the coup, including army-controlled Myawaddy TV, and state television station MRTV. Prohibitions also apply to Instagram, owned by Facebook.
The company said in a statement that it considered the situation in Myanmar an “emergency”, explaining that the ban was caused by events since the coup, including “deadly violence”.
Facebook and other social media platforms received huge criticism in 2017 when right-wing groups said they did not do enough to stop hate speech against Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority.
The army launched a brutal counterinsurgency operation that year that led more than 700,000 Rohingya to seek safety in neighboring Bangladesh, where they remain in refugee camps. Myanmar security forces burned villages, killed civilians and committed mass rapes, and the International Court of Justice is studying whether such actions constitute genocide.
The military says it took power because last November’s election was marked by widespread voting irregularities, a claim that was refuted by the state election commission, whose members have since been replaced.
The board has said it will govern for a year and then hold new elections.