Coup in Myanmar

At least 38 people died after security forces tried to put down anti-coup protests in Myanmar on Wednesday, UN special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener said.

According to multiple reports from several cities and towns, police and military used live ammunition, as well as tear gas and rubber bullets, to quell protests in the deadliest day since demonstrations against February's coup broke out.

"Today it was the blackest day since the coup happened on the first of February. Today, 38 people died," Schraner Burgener said.

She said videos showing violence against journalists and the shooting of a protester were "very disturbing."

Zaw’s is a little different from the other tales in this space, as it primarily involves a state authority, not oligopolistic tech firms. But it’s horrifying all the same, and holds some potent warnings for those who haven’t thought through the worst-case scenarios for Internet crackdowns.

[snip]

Within hours after seizing power, the new “emergency” government cut the Internet, stalling information flow while the organs of the state were taken over. This temporary measure soon became a regular feature, as the government soon began imposing regular nightly blackouts of the Internet. As reported in Al Jazeera yesterday:
[snip]

The new junta’s authoritarian script should sound familiar. It combines a declared political emergency with professed concern for stemming misinformation, hate speech, and incitement, providing the rationale for turbocharged surveillance authority.

Reported plans to form an official body that would arbitrate truth as part of efforts to prosecute and jail those guilty of spreading “false information” look to be an obvious Orwellian canard. It should strike American readers how similar the language used by dictatorial generals and Western advocates for increased speech control sounds. Calls for censorship always come in the context of a proclaimed political emergency, and are always framed as being in the interest of protecting the citizenry from falsehood, hate speech, or political violence — the only difference is, it’s more obviously a lie in some contexts, versus others.

Myanmar security forces killed at least 38 people Sunday in one of the deadliest days since the military seized power in a coup, and declared martial law in six areas after Chinese-funded factories were set on fire.

The heaviest casualties were in an industrial suburb of the largest city Yangon, where military and police opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing at least 22, according to the advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), which said Hlaingthaya district "became like a battlefield."

Security forces killed more than 90 people across Myanmar on Saturday in one of the bloodiest days of protests since a military coup last month, news reports and witnesses said.

The lethal crackdown came on Armed Forces Day. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, said during a parade in the capital Naypyitaw to mark the event that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy.

State television had said on Friday that protesters risked being shot “in the head and back”. Despite this, demonstrators against the Feb. 1 coup came out on the streets of Yangon, Mandalay and other towns.