News from Burma said that Burmese security forces shot and killed at least 64 people again on Saturday (March 27), including a boy. This serious bloodshed is in sharp contrast to the junta leaders’ talk of protecting the people and restoring democracy.
Saturday was Armed Forces Day in Burma, and the commander-in-chief of the Burmese Defense Force, General Min Aung Hlaing, delivered a televised address. In his speech, he did not directly mention the protests taking place across the country, but only emphasized that “terrorism is endangering the peace and stability of the country. He said the situation is unacceptable.
Protests against the military coup have been held in Yangon, Mandalay and many other cities across the country. Security forces forcibly evicted them as usual. The army shot and killed dozens of people on Saturday morning, according to unconfirmed information published in the news agency media.
A spokesman for an anti-military group called CRPH said in an online forum that “today is a shameful day for the armed forces. Myanmar media outlet The Myanmar Now said that 64 people had been shot and killed across the country as of 2:30 p.m. local Time Saturday.
If that number is confirmed, Saturday’s bloodshed would be the deadliest since the Feb. 1 military coup. So far, nearly 400 civilians have been killed by military personnel.
Burmese media said the young boy who was killed, aged five, died in Mandalay, Burma’s second-largest city. A total of 13 people were killed there Saturday.
A resident of Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon’s Insein district, said three men participating in protests in the district were killed, one of them a local soccer player, Reuters said.
At least two people were killed in the central Burmese city of Minjian. A resident of Mingyan City said, “They shoot us like they kill birds and chickens, and even beat people to death right in our homes.” “We will continue to protest no matter what…we must fight until the military group falls.”
Myanmar’s military staged a military coup on Feb. 1 this year, arresting Aung San Suu Kyi, the main political leader of Myanmar’s democratically elected government, among others. The military said it took the categorical step of dissolving the government and preparing for a new election after fraud was committed in last year’s general election in Burma and the election commission was unable to address the fraud. The National League for Democracy, led by Aung San Suu Kyi, won more than 80 percent of the vote in that election, a landslide victory.
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