Medical Personnel, Mining Workers And Government Employees Of Myanmar Carry Out Mass Strikes Against Military Coup

Unjuk rasa pendukung Aung San Suu Kyi. (Wikimedia Commons / Sara Sathorn branch)

JAKARTA - The calls to join rallies and support the campaign of civil disobedience have increasingly flowed in line with international condemnation of the Myanmar military coup on February 1.

Tens of thousands of protesters from various regions in Myanmar returned to protest on Monday 8 February, asking the military to restore civilian rule, releasing Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar President U Win Myint and other prisoners called the UN, reaching more than 160 people.

"We health workers are leading this campaign to urge all government staff to join the (civil disobedience movement)," said Aye Misan, a nurse at a government hospital at a protest in the largest city of Yangon, told Reuters.

"Our message to the public is that we aim to completely eliminate this military regime and we must fight for our destiny," he continued.

Apart from demonstrations, mass strike action was again voiced, after previously being carried out by doctors and a number of teachers. Now, other government employees are also being urged to go on strike.

"We ask government staff from all departments not to show up for work from Monday," said activist Min Ko Naing, a veteran of the 1988 demonstrations that first made Suu Kyi stand out.

Earlier last weekend hundreds of Myanmar workers at the Chinese-backed Kyisintaung copper mine in Sagaing Region had joined the civil disobedience movement against Myanmar's military coup.

About 300 of the 2,000 miners have stopped working at the Kyisintaung copper mine in Monywa District, which has become a joint venture between Myanma Economic Holding Public Co. Ltd. (MEHL) owned by the military and Myanmar Yang Tse Copper Limited, a subsidiary of Beijing-based Wanbao Mining Limited, since 2010.

Other miners have joined the red tape campaign to show their defiance of military rule, according to Ko Sithu Tun, a senior maintenance mechanic at the project.

“We will go on strike until the elected leaders receive their power back. As citizens, we are responsible and we have to join this movement, ”Ko Sithu Tun told The Irrawaddy.