DM Monitoring
Naypyitaw: People in Myanmar opposed to the military junta marched, observed strikes and scrambled to overcome a shutdown of the internet on Friday, undaunted by the generals’ bloody suppression of protests during the past two months.
Hundreds of people have been killed protesting since the Feb.1 coup, and opponents have used social media to publicise the security forces’ excesses and to organise resistance to military rule.
Following the imposition of new curbs on the internet, limiting Web access to fixed-line services only, anti-coup groups shared radio frequencies, offline internet resources and providers of text message news alerts to keep communications going.
The military did not announce or explain its order to providers to cut wireless broadband.
Cellular data has been blocked for weeks by authorities struggling to stifle an opposition that is demanding the restoration of civilian rule and release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other key figures in her government.
Security forces opened fire at a rally on Friday in the central Sagaing region near Mandalay, where four people were shot and wounded, two critically, according to three local media organisations.
One witness told Monywa Gazette that police were firing from a hill.
