Burma
A screenshot from a viral video shows a woman being interrogated by regime troops prior to her arrest for holding a flower in Yangon on Monday.
Three employees of a beauty salon in Yangon have been arrested over a video clip showing regime troops arresting women who were holding flowers on Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday.
The arrests followed a nationwide flower strike on Monday, the 78th birthday of detained civilian leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.
About 100 people, the majority of them women, were arrested on Monday for selling, buying, wearing or holding flowers.
On Tuesday, the three beauty salon employees were charged with violating Section 505(a), of the Penal Code, which carries an up to three year prison term for spreading “false news.”
The video clip they allegedly made shows armed regime troops accosting and inspecting women near a shopping mall in Yangon’s Kamayut Township and arresting two who were holding flowers.
It went viral when it was uploaded on Myanmar social media on Monday.
The next day, regime troops arrested 19 staff from “Yes Beauty & Salon” in Time City Shopping Mall for allegedly recording the video.
Sixteen of them were released on Tuesday, but two men and one woman were charged with violating Section 505(A), according to a resident of Kamayut Township.
An employee of the beauty salon declined to comment when contacted about the arrests by The Irrawaddy on Wednesday.
The resident of Kamayut Township said that most people arrested there on Monday were flower vendors, or women who wore or held flowers.
“They wait and arrest in crowded places,” a resident told The Irrawaddy.
The regime also arrested 10 people for posting photos on social media of people wearing flowers after the junta’s enthusiasts on Telegram urged it to arrest them.
The six women, including actress Poe Kyar Phyu Khin, and four are men are from Yangon, Sagaing, Naypyitaw, and Nattalin Township in Bago Region.
Although Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s birthday is over, the junta’s enthusiasts on Telegram continue posting Facebook accounts of the people they allege were involved in the flower strike and urging the junta to arrest them.
