Hundreds Of Citizens And Dozens Of Journalists Detained By Myanmar Military After Protests Until Saturday Night

Myanmar police use catapults to attack residents. (Twitter/@Aung67994712)

JAKARTA - The Myanmar military regime demonstrated repressive actions in the face of the February 1 anti-coup protest period. After 'attacking' the crowd with water cannons, tear gas, stun grenades, batons, and shots to disperse the demonstrators. Myanmar police and military made arrests.

Hundreds of protesters, including dozens of journalists were arrested and hundreds injured, after security forces took firm action to break up a demonstration on Saturday, February 27 yesterday.

State-run Myanmar radio and Television (MRTV) announced late in the evening that a total of 479 protesters against the country from across the country had been detained. It was the highest number of one-day arrests since the start of the week-long protests, accompanied by violence by security forces.

In Monywa, the largest city in Sagaing Region in northwest Myanmar, the crackdown was launched around 9 a.m. when people gathered at a Buddhist monastery in the city center for the day's protests. The situation turned violent when a police group came to disperse protesters and were surrounded by townspeople.

Residents said security forces detonated stun grenades, fired guns, and raided the monastery, injuring several people in the crowd, including a woman who was badly injured.

The Myanmar military is equipped with sniper rifles and hand grenades. (Twitter/@ThuZarM95645629)

Videos shot by local residents showed riot police, the Myanmar military and several plainclothes police using excessive force as they showered the unarmed civilians with their batons before taking them away. An editor of the local publication Monywa Gazette received the same treatment before he was kicked into a police car.

A public school teacher told The Irrawaddy that of the more than 150 people, including himself, who were trapped in the convent, about 100 students and civilian protesters were thrown into three police vans at around 2 p.m. He and 52 others were released on bail after the police found out that they were school teachers.

“Our phones were confiscated until we were released. They said, 'No signature, no release.' So, we had to sign a letter saying we would not join the protest again," he said. A total of 173 protesters were arrested in Monywa.

Riot police in Yangon turned more aggressive on Saturday than on Friday, with 166 people reportedly arrested. At one of the city's protest points, Hledan, retreating protesters with red eyes from tear gas are chased by security forces pointing sticks at the street.

Police did not limit themselves to targeting protesters. They indiscriminately intimidate and arrest bystanders in their path. The victims included a pregnant woman and volunteer medics, rickshaw drivers, and others hiding in an emergency clinic for the protesters.

The normally busy Bagaya Street in San Chaung Township, Yangon, looks like a war zone, with gunfire and stun grenades shrieking and barricades everywhere on Saturday afternoons.

In Myanmar's second-largest city, Mandalay, security forces have also returned to violence. They carried out random slingshot attacks in Maha Aung Myay Township after they could not find any protesters in the neighborhood. The primitive attack injured one of the monastery's staff members in the head, earning him several stitches in the hospital. MRTV said a total of nine people were arrested there.

The military-assisted Myanmar police crackdown on Saturday also focused on arresting journalists covering protests of the civil disobedience movement across the country. As of Saturday night, more than 10 local journalists from news outlets such as 7 Day News, Myanmar Now, Monywa Gazette, Hakha Times, and The Associated Press were detained by security forces in Yangon, Monywa, Chin State, and other areas.