Burmese protesters build a defensive line against the military crackdown.
The Burmese military has warned protesters that they could be “shot in the back of the head” if they take to the streets, but the intimidation has not deterred people from fighting against the military coup, with large numbers of people still taking to the streets in towns like Yangon and Mandalay, Burma’s largest cities.
Myanmar’s independent English-language media “Myanmar Now” (Myanmar Now) reported that the military has shot and killed at least 64 people around the country. The Burmese military opened fire on a residential area in Mandalay, killing four people in the area, including a 13-year-old girl who was shot and killed by state security forces inside her house. Reuters reported that a 5-year-old boy was also killed in the area. In addition, a 1-year-old baby was shot with a rubber bullet in the eye. Some Burmese people told Reuters, “The military is killing people like birds and chickens, even in our homes.” In the face of the military’s bloody crackdown, people said they would continue to fight until the fall of the military government.
The spokesman for the Committee of Representatives of the Union Parliament of Burma (CRPH), a group of deposed parliamentarians, said at an online forum that the military government’s celebration of Military Day was a killing spree.
The Burmese military held a military parade in the capital Nay Pyi Taw to celebrate Military Day, and Defense Force chief Min Aung Hlaing said he would reopen the general election, but there was no timetable. In a live broadcast on state-run television, Min Aung Hlaing said “the military wants to join hands with the nation to maintain democracy” and that the military government would “protect the people and restore peace in the country. Min Aung Hlaing said it would be inappropriate to use force to fight for demands that would affect the country’s stability and security.
The U.S. and the European Union earlier imposed a new round of sanctions on the Burmese junta, and Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin participated in a military parade in Burma, which Min Aung Hlaing described as a “real friend” of Russia, with only Russian officials attending.
Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and as long as either country vetoes the resolution, the UN sanctions against Burma will not pass.
Burma’s Military Day commemorates the resistance to Japanese occupation led by General Aung San Suu Kyi’s father, who was interned in Burma in 1945.
The American Cultural Center in Rangoon was also shot at, but no one was injured.
Myanmar historian U Than Myint (Thant Myint-U) wrote in a Twitter post that Myanmar has been reduced to a “failed state” that will attract the intervention of powerful powers including the United States, China, India, Russia and Japan, and that the situation could trigger a serious international crisis. U Than Myint continued, saying that the involvement of multiple countries would also lead to a huge disaster for Myanmar itself.
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