Thousands of anti-coup demonstrators yesterday hit the streets in Myanmar as the junta regime continued its crackdown, amid overnight raids in parts of Yangon that targeted officials from civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party.
Myanmar has been in chaos since the Feb. 1 coup which ousted Aung San Suu Kyi from power and triggered a mass uprising opposing the military junta regime.
The UN rights office said that it has verified at least 54 deaths since the coup and more than 1,700 people have been detained.
Photo: AP
The only reports of serious injuries yesterday were a 19-year-old man shot in the jaw and a woman hit by rubber bullets in Bagan, the UNESCO World Heritage Site famed for its ancient Buddhist temples.
“One woman was shot with a rubber bullet in her left leg,” a rescue team member said, requesting anonymity.
Security forces opened fire near the ancient city at around 9am.
Photo: EPA-EFE
“There was one [19-year-old] man who was shot through the jaw and neck in Bagan,” said Ko Ko, a member of the Bagan rescue team.
There was protest activity in at least seven townships across Yangon and in five other cities and regional towns, Facebook live feeds showed.
There was a big turnout in Mandalay — Myanmar’s second-biggest city — as demonstrators chanted: “Don’t serve the military, get out, get out,” while sitting under umbrellas with signs reading: “Free our elected leaders.”
That city lost another life on Saturday, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which reported that 21-year-old Ko Naing Min Ko had died after being shot in the leg and beaten by security forces the previous day.
The monitoring group also said that people connected to the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party were responsible for two deaths on Saturday morning in the Magway region — a 17-year-old and a National League for Democracy (NLD) party official.
The NLD said that some officials were arrested in overnight police operations.
“It’s true that in some townships NLD officials were arrested, but we do not know exactly how many persons were taken or arrested,” party official Soe Win said.
NLD Legislator Sithu Maung wrore on Facebook that security forces last night were searching for the party’s information officer, U Maung Maung, but could not find him.
“U Maung Maung’s brother was beaten by police and soldiers, and his body was held in an upside-down position while he was tortured because there was no one to arrest,” Sithu Maung said.
State-run media yesterday told ousted lawmakers involved in a group called the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw — which is claiming to be the legitimate elected government — that they are committing “high treason” and could be sentenced to death or 22 years in jail.
The junta has declared group members persona non grata and says those who communicate with them could face seven years prison.
Meanwhile, 85 Burmese citizens are at the border with India waiting to join 48 others who have already crossed the frontier to flee the country’s coup turmoil, Indian officials said on Saturday.
Indian media reports said those who have crossed the border include local officials and eight police who refused to follow military orders.
Myanmar has sent a letter, seen by Agence France-Presse, asking for the police to be quickly sent back.
Burmese authorities on Saturday said that they had exhumed the body of 19-year-old Kyal Sin, who has become an icon of the protest movement after she was shot in Mandalay on Wednesday wearing a T-shirt that read “Everything will be OK.”
State-run MRTV said a surgical investigation showed she could not have been killed by police because the wrong sort of projectile was found in her head and she had been shot from behind, whereas police were in front.
Photographs on the day showed her head turned away from security forces moments before she was killed. Opponents of the coup accused authorities of an attempted cover-up.
Additional reporting by Reuters
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