A communications blackout, the detention of Aung San Suu Kyi without word, wild rumours fed by a paucity of information.

All recalled the darkest days of a succession of military juntas that ruled Myanmar during half a century of ruinous isolation - driving many people to mass protests in fear that such times could return.

That included a Generation Z who grew up with somewhat greater freedom and prosperity in what nonetheless remains one of Southeast Asia’s poorest and most restrictive countries...