Top Asian News 2:38 p.m. GMT

Myanmar protests focus on junta's economic support

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) — State railway workers in Myanmar continued to strike Thursday despite a police rampage the previous night targeting them in a sign of the military junta's concern over growing civil disobedience by public workers protesting the coup. Three-quarters of the country’s civil servants are on strike, all private banks are closed and the protests have weakened the economy significantly, said Tom Andrews, the independent U.N. human rights expert on Myanmar. Andrews said in an interview from Virginia, where he lives, that the protesters have weakened the economy significantly and are looking for the international community to act. The most important thing the international community can do now “is focused, targeted, tough economic sanctions and diplomatic pressure,” he said.

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