Mass Protest: Mass protests happened across the country in cities, suburbs and also in rural settings in the aftermath of the coup, i.e. from early February to late March. On 5th February, what may be considered as the first mass protest was initiated by factory workers from their factory compounds and the next day they were joined by additional groups on the streets of Yangon and Mandalay. A variety of groups based on interest, identity, affiliation, and/or profession, took to the streets of many cities across the country to demand restoration of democracy and the release of their elected leaders from arrest. Before the crackdowns and shooting with real bullets by military forces of the mid and late March, people had been able to peacefully protest in their townships;
Civil Disobedience Movement: The Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) has been a mass protest movement since the February 1, 2021 coup. Very soon after the coup, government officers and servants refused to work and assume their responsibilities under the new military administration. The movement was then amplified by employees from the private sector who also claimed to be CDMers. CDMers from the government sector have been particularly targeted by military and police forces as the new military administration wants to project the image of a functioning administration;
Flash Mob: After the military forces’ brutal crackdowns on street protesters and the many arrests of people at their homes, mass protests on the streets stopped. However different groups of activists have remained mobilised and strongly determined to demonstrate on the streets to show how strong resistance against the coup and desire for democracy, especially among youths, remains. These flash mobs take the form of a sudden assembly in the public space performed for a brief time before quickly dispersing. It has been an on-going form of protest in different public areas and it seems that flash mob protesters remain committed to conducting them until victory of the democracy movement;
Labour Union/Organisation Campaign: Campaigns by labour union organisations have been held so as to stop money flows to the junta and persuade foreign investors to stop any investment in the country, and also to lobby for a ban on new orders at garment companies from large western cloth companies;
Home protests consist of the three following actions: one is the pot-banging, the other digital protest, and the last one silent strike. For the pot-banging, starting from February 2, every night at 8 o’clock, people in their residence banged pots and pans from their kitchen to show solidarity with their arrested leaders and unity against the coup. This is an adaptation of a traditional practice of driving out evil spirits usually performed after sunset and on the first day of the new year in the Myanmar calendar once sermons from monks are over on that first new year’s day. However, banging of pots as home protests gradually decreased starting from late May following soldiers’ constant raids in the neighbourhoods and also due to soldiers’ warning that if banging of pots continued, soldiers would throw stones into peoples’ homes and arrests would be conducted. Banging of pots eventually stopped as a type of home protest. Following the brutal crackdowns by military forces on the streets, people turned to another type of home protests, that is digital protest. Pictures of candles, flowers, flowers used as women’s hairpins, peoples’ homes in the dark, signs showing resistance against slave education, or blue shirts worn by people on symbolic days were posted on Facebook posts and other social media and symbolically represented a collective protest. These digital protests have covered a whole range of symbolic acts of resistance from various communities across the country and also across communities. Lastly, silent protests are performed by the public at large, government servants, and any person when the population decides to remain home from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, leaving the impression that cities and their public space have been deserted by people in a show of people power. These protests have generally followed the military forces’ brutal crackdown of groups of street protesters. In Hlaing Thayar, the silent protests were even more prominent because of the martial law imposed on the township residents and the restrictions on their mobility;
Non-Human Protest: These acts of resistance consist in showing placards, sticking posters, dolls or toys holding placards, or any materials on which messages criticising the coup are painted or written. Pictures are taken of these items with no presence of human beings around and very often on sites where protests occurred previously and then posted on social media;
Boycott of military administration and its affiliated entities: This boycott takes the form of three actions: (1) no collaboration with military-linked businesses and government administration (including refusal to bring kids to school); (2) no payments to military administration’s utilities (electricity, IRD, etc...) and purchases of goods linked to military-owned businesses; (3) no money flow sustaining the military activities (especially through banks);
Memorial for fallen protesters: Usually held with surrounding banners featuring words of commitment to resistance against the coup, memorials consist of tree-planting ceremonies commemorating fallen protesters (especially those from the March 14 crackdown in Hlaing Thar Yar). Tree-planting ceremonies are performed at locations chosen for their convenience that may not necessarily relate to the place where protesters fell.
Announcements and statements
Announcement and statements made by SAC, including announcements or notice about declaring groups as ‘terrorist organizations’, death penalty, prison sentence, martial law, clearance of squatters’settlements, ban on motorbikes, etc…;
Announcements and statements by CRPH/ NUG, PDF, LDF, EAOs;
Statements by Students and Labour Union Organisations;
Statements by the United Nations, ASEAN, Foreign Embassies, and INGOs.
Coercion and Abuse of Power
Coercion and abuse of power have been a constant trait of former administrations in Myanmar; however, since the February 1 coup, they have been exerted by SAC with an even more acute intensity. They manifest themselves in peoples’ lives in many different ways:
Pressure by SAC on squatters and residents who had built their homes during Thein Sein’s government to destroy their homes and pressure to pay bribe money to renew guest lists;
Pressure by SAC on the population to pay utility bills on a monthly basis after months of refusing to do so as an act of protest against the coup (bills for electricity, bills for YCDC, etc,...); In some cases, military forces together with ward administrators threatened residents to cut electricity supply at their homes if not paying the due bills. In other cases, electricity lines were cut without prior notice;
Systematic and intrusive verification of personal data and belongings without personal consent: Civilians have been forced to submit overnight guest lists to ward authorities. They have had their mobile phone checked, houses inspected, cars inspected, bags inspected at any time of the day when not at home;
Corvee labour by SAC: Civilians could randomly be forced by military forces to remove barricades built by protesters so as to resume car traffic and make it easier for military vehicles to move around;
Restrictions by military authorities: Access to basic health care, health care equipment, and supply of oxygen has been restricted. Myanmar’s land border checkpoints with China and Thailand were shut during the Covid-19 third wave in July 2021 when the death toll was at its highest due to lack of basic health care and equipment and the military ban on access to the relevant equipment;
Ban on motorbike riding and tricycle and restrictions on motorbike-sharing with one passenger on a backseat, and restrictions on certain types of cloth wearing (like black shirts, etc…);
Crackdown on freedom of opinion and expression and restrictions on access to food assistance and medicines as seen with the white and yellow flag campaigns during the Covid-19 third wave;
Restrictions imposed by SAC on the imports of healthcare equipment which led to a surge of mortality among communities who lacked access to healthcare.
Resistance
Confrontation by protestors: This resistance by protestors took the form of an urban guerilla when barricades were built and makeshift shields (some retrofitted cooking pans, etc….), slingshots, molotov cocktail, air-guns were used by protesters to defend themselves against military forces;
Counter attack by urban guerilla protesters and ambush against soldiers, police forces and informers for which responsibility has been claimed by PDFs;
Donations made to local PDFs and collective donations to Hlaing Thar Yar squatters;
Community support during pandemic.
Violence
Crackdown by military and police forces on freedom of peaceful assembly and association;
Crackdown by military and police forces on journalists and citizen journalists during street reporting;
Use of lethal force by military forces;
Murders or violent actions on individuals by unidentified or anonymous perpetrators;
Abduction, detention, imprisonment;
Torture;
Enforced disappearance of persons;
Forced eviction: The military administration forcibly evicted communities living in official housing estates or informal makeshift homes against their will. This was done without legal procedures and protections for the evicted communities. In Hlaing Thayar, especially after March 14, some evicted residents had to flee back to their hometowns;
Seizure of properties (land and real estate) from people allegedly linked to entities like PDFs, NUG, NLD…