Anarchy rules on the mean streets of Myanmar in the wake of the military coup.
This has been demonstrated again and again in the cities of Yangon and Mandalay.
Take Mandalay. A young couple were taking time out at Thingazar stream near Mandalay city’s Lake Road on 26 May evening. Out of the blue, they were held up and robbed by three men armed with knives. The woman survived, but the man was stabbed and died of his wounds at a hospital.
On the same day, at the corner of Theik Pan Road and 69th Road, east of Mandalay city, three young adults on a motorbike were robbed at knife-point, according to the Maha Aungmye social relief team. Their phones and motorbike were stolen by the robbers, leaving the victims injured.
These incidents demonstrate that security is breaking down for the Myanmar public as the economic crisis gets worse and robberies – now often committed in broad daylight - spiral out of control. What is apparent is that the police and security forces are not showing interest in protecting the public. On the contrary, they themselves may pose a threat to the public.
All this contrasts with the situation prior to the coup. Under the previous civilian government under Aung San Suu Kyi, there was a general feeling that it was safe to go out.
Now fear stalks the streets as incidents rise, particularly in the commercial cities.
On 28 May in Mandalay, a man, who lived in Chanmyathazi Township, was driving back home with a 10-year-old son and was stopped by a group of people, including two men in traffic police uniform and another two who were armed while wearing plain clothes on a street corner. The group found a piece of polished jade worth about Kyat 1 billion (about US$538,000) in the car and ran away with it. The victim has filed a case at a local police station.
According to the residents of Mandalay City, after the coup, there have been deadly robberies in Mandalay.
Moreover, in populated Yangon, there have been incidents of armed robbery by men wielding swords, prompting many people to worry about going out.
At Yangon’s crowded Kamaryut Township on 24 May, a woman going to work was approached by two men asking for her phone to investigate the use of a VPN (a virtual private network). Junta authorities and officials usually check the phones of passersby in the name of security. After that, she was dragged into a nearby car and threatened with a sword.
Currently, civilians are warning one another on social media of the danger of kidnapping during daylight.
In one case, a kidnapped woman was forced to lie asking for money from home. When the robbers got the money, she was released.
Similar to those incidents, robberies are happening daily in Yangon.
In another case, shared on Facebook, an 18-year-old girl was kidnapped near Botataung Pagoda in Yangon around 11:30 a.m. The kidnappers used the girl’s phone to contact her parents asking for Kyat 3,500,000 (about $1,880). The robbers said they needed money to go to Mandalay for work. As the girl’s parents are poor, the amount was negotiated and they paid 400,000 (about US$215).
The payment was done through a mobile payment app “Wave Pay”. The girl was released around 9 p.m. on the same day.
Given the uptick in violent crime in the cities, and the general insecurity under the military junta authorities, it is understandable why people fear to go out.
