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Myanmar residents on night patrol as coup tensions deepen
YANGON, Feb 15, 2021 (BSS/AFP) – Myanmar’s sleepless residents are
patrolling their neighbourhoods at night to guard against arrest raids and
troublemaking prisoners released by the military junta.
Since the army detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted her
government on February 1, the new regime has detained hundreds of people to
quell a burgeoning civil disobedience campaign against the coup.
In response, communities across Myanmar have formed neighbourhood watch
brigades to prevent night-time arrests.
“Of course we are scared because they are armed… but we will continue
our watch every night,” Myo Ko Ko, who has been helping guard streets in
Yangon, told AFP.
“We can’t let anyone be taken.”
Many are also on edge over rumours proliferating on social media that
claim recently freed prisoners are being sent into the community to sow
havoc.
Myanmar’s junta last week released more than 23,000 inmates. While mass
amnesties to empty the country’s overcrowded prison system are common on
significant local dates, some rights groups suspect this release was to free
up space for opponents of the military.
Pushing fears into overdrive are images of armoured vehicles around major
Myanmar cities, as well as another internet shutdown in the early hours of
Monday.
For the last few nights, Myo Ko Ko has helped barricade roads leading into
his community, where neighbours announce the arrival of strangers by banging
pots and pans.
The practice was initially a staple of nightly protests that began in the
days after the coup and it traditionally symbolises the driving out of evil
spirits — but now signals a call to protect the streets.
“We chased after a suspicious guy and caught him, but when we questioned
him we got nothing concrete except that he came out of a prison,” the 39-
year-old Myo Ko Ko said, adding the man in question was later handed over to
police.
– Fear and rumours –
Rumours of evening disturbances in urban centres have spread on social
media, along with anger at what some believe is a deliberate campaign of fear
orchestrated by the generals.
A crowd of people, some brandishing clubs, sprinted through one part of
Yangon in the dark on Saturday while hunting for suspected hoodlums.
Reports have so far been difficult to verify, but more neighbourhoods are
mobilising to guard against intruders.
“We’ve heard many rumours and followed the news here and there,” said Ko
Ko Naing, a shop owner in the city’s west, where residents met on the weekend
to form a volunteer security team, bypassing officials from closed municipal
offices.
The 45-year-old said his neighbours had also taken to the streets at the
weekend to search for suspected vandals.
But tensions have surged in the days since, and the din of banging
cookware has meant restless nights for some.
“I couldn’t sleep well last night because of the many rumours around my
neighbourhood,” said taxi driver Tun Tun, before adding that he supported the
watch groups.
“We want things to stay peaceful,” he said. “But we have no choice. We
have to stand for the good side.”
BSS/AFP/BZC/1920HRS