A scene of protesters holding homemade shields in Yangon on March 3. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Witnesses said security forces used live fire in several towns and cities across the country with little warning as the junta appeared more determined to crush protests against the military’s coup, Reuters reported.
The military captured democratically elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders in the Feb. 1 coup.
“It’s horrible, it’s a massacre. There are no words to describe the situation and how we feel.” Thinzar Shunlei Yi, a youth activist, told Reuters via an SMS App.
Scenes from a protest in Yangon on March 3. (STR/AFP via Getty Images)
Protesters killed in many parts of Myanmar
A teenage boy was killed in the central town of Myingyan. Protest leader Si Thu Maung told Reuters that police initially fired tear gas and shock grenades (stun grenades, also known as stun bombs), but soon opened fire.
“They didn’t use water cannons to evict us, they didn’t warn us to disperse, they opened fire,” He said.
“Ko Thit Sar, editor of the Monywa Gazette, said the worst casualties were in Monywa, another central town, where five people, including four men and one woman, were killed.
“We have confirmed with Family members and doctors that five people have lost their lives,” he told Reuters.
“At least 30 people were injured and some are still in a coma.” He said.
An eyewitness revealed that two people died in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city. Witnesses also said at least three people died when police opened fire in Yangon (Rangoon). Another two protesters were killed in the northern mining town of Hpakant.
At least 35 people have been killed since anti-military coup protests broke out in Myanmar in February.
Archbishop of Yangon: Many places in Myanmar are like a repeat of Tiananmen Square
Archbishop Charles Maung Bo of Yangon tweeted, “Most major cities in this country are like Tiananmen Square (back in the day).” He was referring to the Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989.
Security forces also detained about 300 protesters in Yangon as they broke up the protests, according to the news agency Myanmar Now.
A 19-year-old woman, one of two people killed in the Mandalay protest, is shown wearing a T-shirt that reads, “Everything will be fine.
Video broadcast by Radio Free Asia showed police in Yangon ordering three paramedics out of an ambulance and shooting at the windshield before beating workers with rifle butts and batons. Reuters was unable to independently verify the video.
Democracy activist Esther Ze Naw told Reuters that those who lost their lives would not have made the sacrifice in vain.
“We will continue this struggle and win. We will overcome this and prevail.” She said.
On Tuesday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to make a breakthrough at a video foreign ministers’ meeting on Myanmar. Only four members called for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and other detainees, despite unanimous calls for restraint.
“We express ASEAN’s willingness to assist Myanmar in a positive, peaceful and constructive manner,” the ASEAN chair Brunei said in a statement.
Myanmar state media said military-appointed Foreign Minister Wunna Maung Lwin attended the videoconference, where she “briefed on voting irregularities in (last) November’s general election.”
In the Nov. 8, 2020, election, which Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) won by a landslide, the Burmese military claimed that the election was fraudulent and led to a coup. Myanmar’s election commission, on the other hand, said the election was fair.
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