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Myanmar police have arrested a well-known actor wanted for opposing the military coup as Facebook deleted the military’s main page, saying it breached its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence.
Lu Min was one of six celebrities who the army said on Wednesday were wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join in the protest. The charges can carry a two-year prison sentence.
His wife, Khin Sabai Oo, said in a video posted on his Facebook page that police had come to their home in Yangon and taken him away. The actor, who has appeared in 1000 movies and won numerous awards in his home country, had taken part in several protests.
“They forced open the door and took him away and didn’t tell me where they were taking him. I couldn’t stop them. They didn’t tell me.”
It follows the death of two protesters in Mandalay on Saturday, when police and soldiers fired at demonstrators.
The violence in the country’s second city was the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations across Myanmar demanding an end to the 1 February military coup and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and disruptions show no sign of dying down, with opponents of the military sceptical of an army promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner.
In Mandalay on Sunday medical students gathered to voice their opposition to the coup.
The country’s internet was turned off for the seventh night in a row, a measure imposed by the junta after neighbourhoods mobilised watch groups to guard against evening arrests.
Facebook on Sunday deleted the main page of the military, known as the Tatmadaw, under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence, the company said, as protesters again began to gather.
“In line with our global policies, we’ve removed the Tatmadaw True News Information Team Page from Facebook for repeated violations of our Community Standards prohibiting incitement of violence and coordinating harm,” Facebook said in a statement.
The military spokesperson did not respond to a Reuters phone call seeking comment.
Facebook in recent years has engaged with civil rights activists and democratic political parties in Myanmar and pushed back against the military after coming under heavy international criticism for failing to contain online hate campaigns.
In 2018, it banned coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and 19 other senior officers and organisations, and took down hundreds of pages and accounts run by military members.
Ahead of last November’s elections, Facebook announced it had taken down a network of 70 fake accounts and pages operated by members of the military that had posted either positive content about the army or criticism of Aung San Suu Kyi and her party.
An activist group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, said on Saturday that 569 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in connection with the coup.
The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule, which ended in 2011.
Members of ethnic minorities, poets, rappers and transport workers marched on Saturday in various places, but tension escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted striking shipyard workers.
Some of the demonstrators fired catapults at police, who responded with teargas and gunfire, witnesses said.
Video clips posed on social media also showed members of the security forces firing and witnesses said they found the cartridges of live rounds and rubber bullets.
Two people were shot and killed and 20 were wounded, said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service.
Police were not available for comment. State-run MRTV television made no mention of the protests or casualties in its news programme.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.
A young female protester died on Friday after being shot in the head last week in the capital, Naypyidaw, the first death among anti-coup demonstrators. Her funeral is expected in the city on Sunday.
The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.
UN secretary general Antonio Guterres condemned the deadly violence. “The use of lethal force, intimidation and harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable,” he said on Twitter.
I condemn the use of deadly violence in Myanmar.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) February 21, 2021
The use of lethal force, intimidation & harassment against peaceful demonstrators is unacceptable.
Everyone has a right to peaceful assembly. I call on all parties to respect election results and return to civilian rule.
US state department spokesperson Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned” by reports that security forces had fired on protesters and continued to detain and harass demonstrators and others.
France, Singapore and the UK also condemned the violence, with British foreign minister Dominic Raab saying the shooting of peaceful protesters was “beyond the pale”.
The US, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced limited sanctions since the coup, with a focus on military leaders.
European Union foreign ministers will meet Monday to discuss their own measures against the regime.
The army seized back power after alleging fraud in November elections that Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy swept, detaining her and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces a charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Law as well as illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. Her next court appearance is on 1 March.
Reuters contributed to this report