Myanmar gripped by general strike amid massive anti-coup protests

dpa Phnom Penh Campaigners against the military coup in Myanmar called a general strike on Monday as enormous crowds flooded towns and cities across the c...

dpa Phnom PenhCampaigners against the military coup in Myanmar called a general strike on Monday as enormous crowds flooded towns and cities across the country despite threats of violence from the new regime.  The latest efforts by the military to stop the protests have led to warnings of sanctions from the European Union, as the bloc’s foreign ministers were meeting to discuss the issue on Monday.Businesses in Myanmar shuttered following a call to close everything except essential services to bolster a growing civil disobedience movement aimed at toppling Min Aung Hlaing, the military chief who seized power on February 1.According to local media reports, the protests were the largest seen since the coup, with images posted on social media showing the streets of Mandalay in the north and Yangon, the country’s largest city, flooded with people.More than a dozen people were detained in the capital Naypyidaw, according to news portal Myanmar Now.Many thousands of civil servants, factory workers, medics, engineers, teachers and bank staff, among others, have already said they will not work under a military government and demanded power be returned to the party of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.  “Ordinary [people] across #Myanmar are joining in an extraordinary act of showing their defiance against the brutal #myanmarmilitarycoup in face of killings, violence and intimidations by security forces,” the activist group Justice for Myanmar wrote on Twitter.Protesters dubbed the action the 22222 general strike, a reference to Monday’s date, 22.2.2021. A similar movement that peaked in August 1988 is still referred to as the 8888 uprising.Some protesters are demanding that a 2008 military-drafted constitution be scrapped and that the country move to a federal system.