Myanmar’s coup soldiers are showing their murderous faces. Two protesters were killed and more than three dozen injured in Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city, on Saturday.
It was the most violent and bloody scene in Myanmar since the Feb. 1 military coup that detained government leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Anti-coup demonstrations have continued unabated since the coup in Burma. On Saturday, hundreds of armed police officers were deployed around the Mandalay shipyard site. There are fears that a crackdown will begin on demonstrators at the shipyard who are opposed to the military coup. Demonstrators tried to prevent police from summoning them, and some began throwing rocks at them, which prompted police to fire back.
Rescue workers said two demonstrators, one of them a minor, were killed by police. In video footage broadcast on Facebook, the minor who was shot was lying on the ground with blood streaming from his head, and a passerby put his hand on his chest to check for signs of Life. Rescuers said police used live fire, aiming at half the crowd. Other demonstrators were injured by rubber bullets or stone-throwing objects.
Doctors who attended the scene confirmed that police used live ammunition, and asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals from authorities. Another live video broadcast by an eyewitness on Facebook showed the sound of police firing.
Local media reported that dozens of people were taken into police custody. One female resident told AFP in tears, “They violently beat my husband and other demonstrators and then shot them.” Reporters later asked local police about this, who would not comment.
This escalation of violence came the day after the death of a woman who worked at a grocery store. The female protester, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, was reportedly shot in the head while participating in a march in Myanmar’s capital Naypyitaw on Feb. 9 and had been in critical condition since then, eventually being pronounced dead at a hospital in Naypyitaw at 11 a.m. local Time Friday. Her funeral will be held on Sunday.
Tens of thousands of protesters, including representatives of ethnic minorities in national costumes, took to the streets of Yangon again on Monday despite continued pressure from the coup-defeated military regime on protesters demanding the restoration of democratic rule.
They demanded the restoration of the civilian government, the immediate release of detainees and the abolition of a constitution that is highly favorable to the military. Almost three weeks after the coup that toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s government and ended nearly a decade of democratic transition, new sanctions failed to deter the coup generals despite unanimous international condemnation.
Locally, the Internet began to be restored Saturday morning after being cut off for six straight days.
According to an NGO that helps political prisoners, coup authorities have arrested 550 political leaders, striking civil servants, monks and protesters. Only 40 or so have been released.
The two weeks of demonstrations have brought together countless crowds across the country in a fierce confrontation not seen since the country’s “saffron revolution” in 2007. Injuries are being reported daily. One policeman was killed early in the week, according to the military side of the coup.
Despite the public’s fear of the military’s repressive tactics, doctors, teachers, airline dispatchers and train workers have continued to strike in response to calls for civil disobedience, amid demonstrations and protests that are still fresh in the minds of Burmese people, who have been under military rule for more than half a century since 1948.
What is the international community doing in the face of an increasingly dire situation? Foreign ministers of EU member states will meet on Monday to discuss measures to sanction the Burmese military. On Saturday, EU diplomatic leader Borrelli issued a statement condemning the atrocities committed by the Burmese military, saying that the EU would take appropriate measures in response.
However, the NGO Burma Campaign UK argued that Burmese military leaders are unlikely to have assets that could be frozen in the EU and that a travel visa ban would do nothing for them.
The U.S. has only announced sanctions against some Burmese military chiefs, although it has harshly condemned the “repression of the Burmese people. British Foreign Secretary George Raab tweeted Saturday that it was unacceptable to shoot at peaceful protesters and that Britain would join its allies in taking further action against the Burmese military authorities.
Meanwhile, China and Russia, traditional friends of Myanmar’s military regime, see it as an “internal matter” for the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, is currently being held in an undisclosed location and is being charged by the coup makers with non-political charges for illegally importing a wireless dialogue machine and violating a law on the aftermath of natural disasters.
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