Case Study
Soldiers pretended as civilians and rammed into the protesters on 7th July Memorial Day on 7th July, 2022.
Initially after the coup, the terrorist military used various ways to crack down, strike and murder
people for their participation in anti-junta public campaigns. Later, they continued to commit further acts of violence including firing guns at and ramming military vehicles or private cars into the
flash mobs.
“Ramming cars into protests at an unexpected time has become more common. Second, it (the
junta) has arrested the activists by tracking the vehicle license plates. These present us with a challenge. Many youths have been arrested while many other youths have fallen. Many youths sacrificed”, a young participant of flash mobs in Yangon’s various townships recalled the hurdles they
encountered in organising mob flashes.
In Monywa township, Sagaing Region, military forces in a car rammed into the protests of “222222
Busy Strike” on the morning of 22 February 2022, arresting five youths and forcing a pregnant protester to miscarry. The military used a private car to ram into a marching strike near Chan Thar Ya
pagoda, Chanayethazan township, Mandalay city on 11 September 2022 morning as well, arresting
two protesters and killing another one. In addition to car ramming into the flash mobs, the junta
forces also raid civilian houses and check “guest registrations” at night after they have tracked the
license plate numbers of the cars or vehicles used by the protesters from their sources, CCTV records, or the respective traffic police officers. During the raids and guest registrations at night, they
also arrest and torture civilians within the community as well as destroy shops, markets or civilian
quarters near the protest area without cause.26
“It has been more than a year since April 2021. The number of flash mobs has not decreased over
time. There have been a variety of crackdowns carried out by the enemies during this period. They
fire guns when it is convenient for them to do so. Sometimes, they ram a car into the protests. There
are a variety of methods they use to crack down,” said another strike committee member.
From the interview.
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