Myanmar police halt protests after bloodiest day since coup
Police opened fire to break up a protest in the town of Pathein, to the west of Yangon, early on Thursday, reports said, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
On Wednesday, police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds with little warning in several cities and towns, reports said, a day after neighbouring countries had called on the junta to show restraint.
Regardless of the danger, activists said they refused to live under military rule and were determined to press for the release of elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her victory in the election in November.
“We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta,” activist Maung Saungkha said.
In some parts of Yangon, protesters hung sheets and sarongs on lines across the street to spoil the view of police aiming their guns. They also uncoiled barbed wire to reinforce barricades.
Five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over the second city of Mandalay early on Thursday, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military might.
Christine Schraner Burgener, U.N. special envoy on Myanmar, said in New York that Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the Feb. 1 coup with 38 deaths, bringing the total toll to more than 50 as the military tries to cement its power.
A rights group and some media have given different numbers of wounded and killed in Wednesday’s violence. The dead included four children with hundreds of protesters arrested, reports said.
Few friends
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said that flags would fly at half mast at its offices to commemorate the dead.
Schraner Burgener said she warned Soe Win, Myanmar deputy military chief that the military was likely to face strong measures from some countries and isolation in retaliation for the coup.
“The answer was: ‘We are used to sanctions, and we survived’,” she said. “When I also warned they will go (into) isolation, the answer was: ‘We have to learn to walk with only few friends’.”
The U.N. Security Council is due to discuss the situation on Friday in a closed meeting, diplomats said.
Tom Andrews, U.N. Special Rapporteur said the “systematic brutality” of the military was again on display.
“I urge members of the U.N. Security Council to view the photos/videos of the shocking violence,” he said.
Ned Price, U.S. State Department spokesman said the United States was “appalled” by the violence and was evaluating how to respond.
The United States has told China it expects it to play a constructive role, he said. China has declined to condemn the coup, with Chinese state media calling it a “major cabinet reshuffle”.
The European Union said the shootings of unarmed civilians and medical workers were clear breaches of international law. It also said the military was stepping up repression of the media, with a growing number of journalists arrested.
In Yangon, reports said at least eight people were killed on Wednesday, while six were killed in the central town of Monywa.
Other reports said four children were killed including a 14-year-old boy who was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of military trucks. The soldiers loaded his body onto a truck and left, reports said.
Security forces in Yangon detained about 300 protesters, reports said.
Police in Yangon ordered three medics out of an ambulance and beat them with gun butts and batons, reports said.
The military justified the coup by saying its complaints of voter fraud in the Nov. 8 vote were ignored. Suu Kyi’s party won by a landslide, earning a second term.
The election commission said the vote was fair.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, Junta leader has pledged to hold new elections but given no time frame.
Suu Kyi, 75, has been held incommunicado since the coup but appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing this week and looked in good health, a lawyer said.
Olusola Akintonde/Reuters
