Myanmar’s military junta has blocked Facebook in the country on Thursday following growing protests and opposition to the coup that grabbed power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and allied politicians.
The Southeast Asian country’s military has begun disrupting access to Facebook as the coup led by General Min Aung Hlaing moves to eradicate opposition and dissent in many parts of the country.
General Min Aung Hlaing has earlier announced they will hold power for at least six months after a one-year state of emergency lapsed in order to hold free elections.
Aside from arresting Suu Kyi, the country’s police charged democratic leader Suu Kyi in violation of an obscure import-export law that could send the 75-year-old Nobel laureate to prison for at least three years.
Several of Myanmar’s protesters since the coup broke out have been posting images of noise barrages, boycotts, and small rallies in many parts of the country but these are immediately taken down by the military while mobile phone signals have been disconnected to quell dissent.
Thursday’s effort to block Facebook access to millions of people in Myanmar has been condemned by the international community as the social media application has been known as the country’s biggest source of news and information.
“Telecom providers in Myanmar have been ordered to temporarily block Facebook,” a spokeswoman for Facebook Inc. said Thursday. “We urge authorities to restore connectivity so that people in Myanmar can communicate with family and friends and access important information.”
Telenor Myanmar, part of Norway’s Telenor Group, said it had complied with a government directive to block Facebook and that it was seeking to restore access to the service as soon as possible, according to a report from the Wall Street Journal.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged the world community to make sure Monday’s coup in Myanmar fails.
“We will do everything we can to mobilize all the key actors and international community to put enough pressure on Myanmar to make sure that this coup fails,” Guterres said.
UN Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener relayed to the UN Security Council a message of condemnation after recent steps taken by Myanmar’s military calling on UN member countries “ to collectively send a clear signal in support of democracy in Myanmar.”
The crisis in Myanmar stems from elections held in November, marking the second democratic elections in the country since the end of military rule a decade ago.
Ms. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), scored a landslide victory which the military and some political parties claimed to be fraudulent.
“We had earlier encouraged all electoral disputes should be resolved through established legal mechanisms”, Ms. Schraner Burgener said in a statement. “There appeared to be a commitment on the part of the military to safeguard the rule of law. So, the turn of events was surprising and shocking.”
The UN envoy underlined the NLD’s victory at the polls. The party won more than 82 per cent of seats, which “provided a strong renewed mandate to the NLD, reflecting the clear will of the people of Myanmar to continue on the hard-won path of democratic reform.”
She called for the state of emergency to be repealed and for the detained leaders to be released, while the post-electoral litigation process should resume “with full commitment from both sides”.
The military’s proposal to hold elections again should be discouraged, she added.
“It is important that we join our efforts in helping ensure the military respects the will of the people of Myanmar and adheres to democratic norms.”
Myanmar’s Supreme Court was scheduled to pronounce this month on its jurisdiction over complaints of alleged election-related violations.
The President of the UN General Assembly, Volkan Bozkir, has also called for the immediate release of the detained political leaders in Myanmar, adding that attempts to undermine democracy and rule of law are unacceptable.
“The President said this morning that he is deeply concerned that the military coup in Myanmar could further exacerbate the problems of the most vulnerable, including Rohingya Muslims,” his Spokesman, Brenden Varma, told journalists on Tuesday.
He also condemned the coup once again and called for unrestricted humanitarian access to Rakhine State and other parts of the country.
Mr. Bozkir is also looking to schedule a briefing by the Special Envoy for all UN Member States, in line with a General Assembly resolution on the human rights of Rohingya Muslims and other minorities in Myanmar.
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