Protesters yesterday returned to the streets of Myanmar after the most violent day yet in demonstrations against a coup that halted a tentative transition to democracy under elected Burmese State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi.
The US and UN condemned the use of force against protesters, who demand the reversal of the coup and the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, other detained leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and democracy advocates.
“We cannot stay quiet,” youth leader Esther Ze Naw told reporters. “If there is bloodshed during our peaceful protests, then there will be more if we let them take over the country.”
Photo: AP
Thousands of people joined demonstrations in the main city, Yangon. In the capital, Naypyitaw, hundreds of government workers marched in support of a growing civil disobedience campaign, which was started by health workers.
A doctor said one protester was expected to die from a gunshot wound to the head in Tuesday’s protests.
She was wounded when police fired guns, mostly in the air, to clear protesters in Naypyitaw.
Three other people were being treated for wounds from suspected rubber bullets, doctors said.
Protesters were also hurt in Mandalay and other cities, where security forces used water cannon and arrested dozens. State media reported injuries to police during their attempts to disperse protesters, who were accused of throwing stones and bricks.
The military has imposed restrictions on gatherings and a night curfew in the country’s biggest cities.
The US Department of State said it was reviewing assistance to Myanmar to ensure those responsible for the coup face “significant consequences.”
“We repeat our calls for the military to relinquish power, restore democratically elected government, release those detained and lift all telecommunication restrictions and to refrain from violence,” department spokesman Ned Price said in Washington.
The UN called on Myanmar’s security forces to respect people’s right to protest peacefully.
“The use of disproportionate force against demonstrators is unacceptable,” UN Resident Coordinator in Myanmar Ola Almgren said.
The protests are the largest in Myanmar in more than a decade, reviving memories of almost a half-century of direct army rule and spasms of bloody uprisings until the military began relinquishing some power in 2011.
A doctor in Naypyitaw said the woman who was shot in the head with a live bullet remained in a critical condition, but was not expected to survive.
Social media video verified by Reuters showed her with other protesters some distance from a row of riot police as a water cannon sprayed and several shots could be heard.
The woman, wearing a motorcycle helmet, suddenly collapsed. Pictures of her helmet showed what appeared to be a bullet hole.
Myanmar’s army took power citing allegations of fraud in an election on November last year that Aung San Suu Kyi’s NLD party won by a landslide.
The electoral commission dismissed the army’s complaints.
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