Myanmar coup latest: Police order people to take down barricades in Yangon
Several thousand people march in birthplace town of Aung San
YANGON/BANGKOK -- On Feb. 1, Myanmar's military detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint in the country's first coup since 1988, bringing an end to a decade of civilian rule.
The Suu Kyi-led National League for Democracy had won a landslide in a general election in November. But the military has claimed the election was marred by fraud.
12:30 p.m. Several thousand people marched in the small town of Natmauk, the Democratic Voice of Burma reports. The central town is the birthplace of Aung San, the leader of Myanmar's drive for independence from colonial power Britain and Suu Kyi's father. There were no reports of violence.
10:00 a.m. According to witnesses, police and the army are stopping pedestrians and drivers on the streets, ordering them to dismantle barricades set up by protesters in Yangon. A state newspaper reports, on the other hand, that residents doing so voluntarily.
9:00 a.m. The number of demonstrations overnight is dwindling as the crackdown has intensified over the past few days.
2:15 a.m. A United Nations-backed team of investigators urges people in Myanmar who receive orders to commit acts against international law to come forward with evidence that can be use to prosecute leaders.
"The persons most responsible for the most serious international crimes are usually those in high leadership positions," says Nicholas Koumjian, head of the Independent Investigative Mechanism for Myanmar, in a statement.
"They are not the ones who physically perpetrate the crimes and often are not even present at the locations where the crimes are committed," says Koumjian, who handled cases including senior Khmer Rouge leaders. "To prove their responsibility requires evidence of reports received, orders given and how policies were set."
The investigators urge whistleblowers who provide evidence "do so safely and with an abundance of caution," according to the statement.
The independent team says it "collecting evidence regarding arbitrary arrests, torture, enforced disappearances and the use of force, including lethal force, against those peacefully opposing the coup."
1:00 a.m. Five privately run newspapers in Myanmar are now out of print, the result of a combination of tighter government controls on the flow of information and concerns about the safety of delivery workers.
They include The Standard Time Daily, which halted publication on Tuesday, saying it would resume once transportation conditions improved. Its decision comes after martial law was imposed in some areas of Yangon.
These newspapers, which also include 7Day News and The Myanmar Times, became a symbol of the country's experiment with democracy in the decade before the Feb. 1 coup.
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