Government employees joined tens of thousands of anti-coup protesters and marched in Mawlamyine, in the morning of February 15th.
Demonstrators marched along Science Road from Pabedan Ward, Mawlamyine to the main road, and then continued to Dai Ward. Protesters carried posters, many with messages like, “We Don’t Accept MILITARY COUP”, “END THE DICTATORSHIP IN MYANMAR”, “RESPECT Human Rights”, “STOP VIOLENCE”, “GET OUT DICTATOR”, “GIVE BACK DEMOCRACY”, “JOIN IN CDM, “Do not go to work”.
A protest leader said, “If government staff participate in the CDM, the military government will not be able to function. I want to urge them to step up their efforts.”
Workers from Myanmar Railways, in addition to staff from various government departments like Education and Health, as well as workers from private banks have joined the CDM. Most banks in Mawlamyine were closed on February 15.
Soldiers and tanks were deployed near the Myanmar Economic Bank Branch 1 on the Strand Road, and some Mawlamyine residents staged a sit-in protest in front of the bank in the morning, demanding that Myanmar Economic Bank employees go on strike.
A local reporter noted that in front of the Ye Office of the General Administration Department and the Myanmar Economic Bank, protesters gathered shouting “Don’t go to the office and get out”, “The military training given by the general is not to kill civilians.”
In Ye township, about 2,000 local people, including many government workers marched to protest the military dictatorship.
Protests continue in the townships of Thanbyuzayat, Kyaikkhami, Bilin, Thaton.
In some wards in Mawlamyine township, people are conducting safety patrols and erecting makeshift fences to counter the intimidating search and seizure operations the military has enabled by invoking Section 144 of the Myanmar Penal Code.
This military directive has been imposed for the Mon State townships, Mawlamyin, Belin, Thanbyuzayat, and Ye and imposes a a nightly curfew, and prohibits five or more people from gathering. Military vehicles are known to be patrolling the city at night and authorities are able to enter, search and seize residents from their homes, without a judicial warrant.
