Myanmar’s National Unity Government (NUG) has blacklisted 49 government officials in Yangon Region—including former military personnel transferred to the civil service, deputy director generals, and directors of the Yangon City Development Committee—for collaborating with the junta to persecute striking civil servants.
The 49 personnel are not only continuing to serve the “illegal” military junta, they are also persecuting civil servants who joined the civil disobedience movement (CDM), an announcement released on Thursday by the office of NUG Prime Minister Mahn Winn Khaing Than said.
The 49 personnel on the blacklist have threatened striking civil servants, filed lawsuits against them or dismissed them from their posts, the announcement said, adding that they had also implemented all junta plans they were told to execute in Yangon Region.
The 49 blacklisted personnel have been dismissed effective immediately, the announcement said.
The 49 blacklisted staff worked in the Committee Office, Administration Department, Engineering Department, City Planning and Land Administration Department, Playgrounds, Parks and Gardens Department, Market Department, and the Budget and Accounts Department among others.
Twenty-eight former military personnel are among those on the blacklist.
Civil servants have been repeatedly invited not to continue working for the junta and to stand instead on the side of those participating in the CDM, the announcement said.
Following the invitations, the NUG has made records of those who have not joined the CDM participants, but have instead bullied and threatened CDM participants. These records will be used for adjudication purposes after the military dictatorship is abolished and those who directly intimidated striking civil servants will be blacklisted, the announcement said.
The PM’s office added it had also provided social welfare and safety measures for striking civil servants.
Following after the February 2021 coup, government employees—including doctors, nurses, teachers, railway workers, engineers, municipal staff, garbage collectors, electricity workers, administrative staff, bankers, and employees of government ministries—joined the CDM. In a widespread protest movement against the regime, they refused to work under the military in an effort to make it impossible for the junta to govern the country.
More than 400,000 civil servants refused to work for the regime and joined the CDM following the coup, according to the NUG.
Infuriated by the collective resistance, the regime has attempted to intimidate striking workers by torturing and arresting them, filing criminal charges against them, dismissing or suspending them from their posts, and evicting them from government housing.
