Burmese security forces opened fire on protesters against military rule on March 3, killing at least 38 people, according to Burmese media reports and eyewitness accounts. Photo: Twitter
Since the coup in Myanmar early last month, people have been staging demonstrations against the military government, but the authorities have also launched a bloody crackdown. According to local media reports and eyewitness accounts, Burmese security forces opened fire on protesters against the military rule yesterday (3), killing at least 38 people. Burmese Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, known as “the most powerful Catholic high priest in Asia,” tweeted that “most of our big cities are like Tiananmen Square,” citing China’s He cited the June Fourth Incident in Beijing, which brutally suppressed student protests at Tianmen Square in 1989, to describe the bloody scenes of Myanmar’s military and police crackdown on protesters.
The military’s determination to quash anti-coup protests appears to have increased since the Feb. 1 coup that toppled the democratically elected government led by Ung San Suu Kyi, with eyewitnesses complaining that security forces fired live ammunition at people in several towns with little warning. The worst casualties were in the central town of Monywa, where the editor-in-chief of the local media Monywa Gazette alleged that four men and one woman were shot dead. He said, “We have confirmed with families and doctors that five people were killed and at least 30 were injured, some of whom are still unconscious.” In Yangon, a large city in Myanmar, witnesses reported that at least three people were killed when security forces fired automatic rifles in the evening.
According to media reports and eyewitnesses, two people were killed in Mandalay, the second largest city, two in the jade-rich town of Hpakant in the north, and one in Myingyan in central Myanmar. In total, at least 50 people have been killed since the coup broke out, with witnesses telling the media in horror: “It’s horrible, it’s a massacre, it’s hard to describe the current tragedy and how we feel.” According to Myanmar Now, an independent English-language Burmese media outlet, some 300 protesters have been arrested by security forces in Yangon for cracking down on the protests. A video was widely circulated on social media showing groups of youths with their heads in their hands as they paraded onto military vehicles under high security from the military police.
In response, UN Special Envoy to Burma Sheleana Burkina said at a press conference in New York, “Today is the bloodiest day since the coup that broke out on Feb. 1. Today, 38 people have died today alone and there are now more than 50 dead and many injured.” She also mentioned that she had spoken to Burma’s deputy chief of defense, Soe Win, and warned him that the military could face strong measures from certain countries and retaliatory isolation for the coup, but “the answer was, ‘We are used to being sanctioned and surviving from sanctions…we have to adapt to having only a few friends along for the ride.'” Schreiner Berkina continued, “I think Member States have to take very strong and robust measures.”
State Department spokesman Price said he was “shocked and strongly disgusted” by reports and images of the crackdown on protesters in Burma, and called on the military to release the arrested journalists. He said, “We are gravely concerned about the increasing number of attacks and arrests of journalists. We call on the military to immediately release the arrested journalists and to stop the intimidation and harassment of the media and others who have been unfairly arrested for their work.” Price emphasized that the U.S. has imposed sanctions on the Burmese military leadership and some businesses held by the junta, and is currently considering further policy measures to hold the military accountable.
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