The military government is pressuring lower-ranking staff from Hahka University who joined the Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) to go back to work.

The university has two-hundred and sixty staff and everyone took part in the CDM. But after facing pressure from authorities, ten have resumed their positions.

While authorities have exerted pressure on lower-ranking employees to return to campus, the university’s professors and lecturers haven’t been bothered.

After health workers across the country launched the CDM on February 3, several days after the Tatmadaw staged a coup, many government workers joined. In some departments, the senior staff has threatened junior employees with lawsuits for failing to attend to their duties.

Employees from the General Administration Department (GAD) in Thangtlang Township, who joined the protest movement, received several letters of an impending investigation from their senior GAD officer. The first notice was sent on February 15 and the second letter came two days later. None of the employees have returned to the office to take part in the investigation. It is the only GAD office in Chin State to order an investigation against its employees.

The Burma Army took over the country on February 1, arresting State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi and Burma’s president, Win Myint. The military’s vice-president appointee, Myint Swe, was handed temporary presidential power. He declared a state of emergency, transferring legislative, executive and judicial power to Commander-in-Chief Snr-Gen Min Aung Hlaing.