Mass demonstrations against Myanmar’s military overthrow of the civilian government resumed again Thursday, hours after security forces confronted striking railway workers.   
 
Late Wednesday, security forces marched through a Mandalay neighborhood where state railway workers are housed. Witnesses say the forces fired on the striking workers with rubber bullets, slingshots and rocks.  
 
The railway workers are among the scores of private and public sector employees and civil servants who joined the mass demonstrations against the coup by walking off their jobs, despite a military order to return to work and threats of action against them.  
 
The junta issued arrest warrants Wednesday against a handful of celebrities, including actors and film directors, who are accused of violating a law prohibiting anyone from purposely trying to keep civilian employees or members of the military from their jobs.   
 
The celebrities are accused of encouraging civil servants to take part in the protests.  
 
They followed similar mass protests held earlier Wednesday in Yangon in response to the ouster of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of the civilian government on February 1.” Reports say the Yangon protests were the largest in that city since the coup.
 
There were no reports of significant violence, but protesters continued the practice of blocking major thoroughfares with vehicles parked in the streets with their hoods raised while using engine trouble as an excuse.  
 
The government briefly shut down internet services Wednesday for a fourth consecutive night.  
 
The military has cited widespread fraud in last November’s general elections, won by Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy in a landslide, as justification for the takeover. Those claims were rejected by Myanmar’s electoral commission. The junta has declared a one-year state of emergency and promised to hold a new round of elections.    
 
Suu Kyi has been under house arrest at her official residence in Naypyitaw since the coup. Authorities initially charged her with illegally possessing imported walkie-talkie radios without a license, a crime punishable by a maximum of three years in prison. A second charge was filed against her Tuesday for violating the country’s COVID-19 containment restrictions, an apparent legal maneuver that could keep her detained indefinitely.    
     
President U Win Myint has also been under house arrest since the coup.    
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