Matthew Tostevin, Southeast Asia news editor for Reuters, said on March 14 that state television in Myanmar said on Sunday that martial law had been imposed in Yangon’s Ledaia township. Other local media reported that at least 14 protesters were killed by junta security forces earlier in the day.
Protesters carrying handmade shields and wearing helmets confronted junta security forces in Yangon’s Lae Daya township, according to online video. At one point, black smoke rose over the area. According to sources at a nearby hospital and a rescue worker, junta security forces killed at least 11 people and wounded 20 others in the crackdown in Ledaya township Sunday afternoon.
Chinese official media reported that more than a dozen factories in several industrial zones in Yangon were hit by arson and vandalism from Sunday afternoon until late afternoon local Time, involving mostly Chinese-owned enterprises or Sino-Myanmar joint ventures, mainly garment processing factories, garment accessories factories and ancillary equipment factories. Most of the arsonists rode motorcycles with iron bars, axes and gasoline barrels and stormed into the factories after first vandalizing and intimidating the factory staff on duty, and then started setting fires. The identity of the arsonists could not be determined yet.
The Chinese Embassy in Myanmar later said in a statement, “The nature of this smash-and-grab incident is very bad. China calls on the Myanmar side to take further effective measures to stop all acts of violence, investigate and punish the perpetrators in accordance with the law, and ensure the safety of the lives and property of Chinese enterprises and personnel in Myanmar. We call on the Myanmar people to express their demands legally and not to be incited and used to undermine the friendship and cooperation between China and Myanmar.” Earlier, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying denied at a regular press conference on Feb. 18 that “China is behind the military coup in Myanmar” that has been circulating on the country’s internet since the country’s military staged the coup, and dismissed it as a “rumor.” She said the intention was to sow discord between China and Myanmar.
As of Saturday, more than 80 people had been killed and more than 2,100 arrested across Myanmar during widespread protests against the Feb. 1 military coup, according to the independent advocacy group Aid Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Mahn Win Khaing Than, the acting leader of Burma’s parallel civilian government elected by deposed members of the Union Parliament following the military coup, spoke to the public for the first time in hiding on Saturday, vowing a “revolutionary” overthrow of the junta. He said, “This is the darkest moment of the country and the moment when the dawn is coming.” Witnesses and Myanmar’s domestic media said at least 13 people were killed that day, the bloodiest day since the coup.
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