As of 10:00 a.m. on March 4, at least 50 civilians have been confirmed to have been killed by the military during the military coup in Burma, and 1,498 political prisoners of all kinds have been arrested and convicted, including Ung San Suu Kyi. Photo / Reuters
“The Burmese military government opened fire in major cities on March 3, killing at least 38 protesters with live ammunition in the bloodiest day since the coup…” Although the international community, including neighboring countries of the Eastern Bloc, has called on the Burmese military to release Ung San Suu Kyi as soon as possible and to peacefully conduct a national reconciliation dialogue, the military, which has been confronted by the nationwide demonstrations and dissident movements, is determined to intensify its bloody crackdown – on the one hand through On the one hand, it said through the official media that it was “releasing political prisoners”; however, the military and police, led by Yangon, the country’s largest city, expanded the “live-fire crackdown” on March 3, with gunmen shooting peaceful protesters with live ammunition, but also directly targeting the vital parts of the head “At least 38 people are known to have died in just a few hours, and hundreds more have been seriously injured or arrested by the military and are unaccounted for.
According to the Burmese media and the UN Special Envoy for Burma, as of 10:00 a.m. on March 4, at least 50 civilians have been confirmed to have been shot and killed by the military during the military coup, and 1,498 political prisoners have been arrested and convicted, including Ung San Suu Kyi. In addition to threatening to expand the intensity of the crackdown, the military junta has also spoken out against the United Nations and the Western world, stressing that Burma has long been accustomed to decades of international isolation, and that “even if we are blockaded and sanctioned by the international community, the resilient Burmese soldiers will always be able to hold out! “
The situation of forceful repression in Myanmar has become more bloody and unrestrained day by day since the shooting crackdown in Mandalay on February 20. Although the Burmese military government and high-ranking generals have publicly vouched for “avoiding the use of lethal force as much as possible,” the military and police forces on the front lines of urban demonstrations have instead received absurd instructions to “kill without mercy. -The original tear gas, water cannon trucks and rubber bullets were replaced by live ammunition, and the front lines of the demonstrations, led by the old capital Yangon, were repeatedly subjected to “indiscriminate firing”.
In the face of international pressure and the rising anger of the people, the Burmese military government has become more assertive. The picture shows the scene of the protest in Yangon. Photo / Reuters
Photo shows the scene of the protests in Yangon. Photo / AFP
The military’s will to suppress seems to have entered a “state of mobilization” since March 3. In addition to several army light infantry divisions taking control of the Ayutthaya area, the North Okkalapa district on the northern outskirts of Yangon also saw the Myanmar Air Force’s J-7 fighter jets (a Chinese-made export aircraft) in Yangon on Wednesday morning. It is not known whether they deliberately created sonic booms to intimidate protesters on the ground, or whether they dropped “unidentified explosives” in the city, as rumored.
The presence of warplanes in the North Okkalapa area did not seem like a “normal exercise”. After that, the same “air force warplanes flying low over the city center” were repeatedly seen during the daytime demonstrations in Mandalay, Naypyidaw and Yangon. The move was seen as a “crackdown” by the Burmese military in an attempt to deter unarmed anti-coup protesters with heavy equipment and weapons, but who continue to gather with uncooperative movements.
Photo／European News Agency
In addition to aerial intimidation, there has also been a marked increase in killings on the streets. In Yangon, for example, military and police forces “expanded their killing” campaign on the 3rd, in addition to the live-fire crackdown in various districts throughout the city.
“The army is firing live ammunition directly on the streets… When they see people on the street, they just shoot them!”
According to eyewitnesses and Burmese journalists, the shooting instructions of the Burmese military and police clearly had the intention of “killing without mercy”, as most of the dead who continued to fall in the streets were shot in the head, chest and abdomen, and other vital points; even the “neutral medical emergency team” dressed in brightly colored reflective clothing Even the “neutral medical emergency team” in brightly colored reflective clothing, in the process of rescuing the dead and wounded, were also fired upon by the troops, the madness was simply for the sake of killing, without any intention of dispersing the warning, or following the shooting norms.
“I don’t know how to describe the reality on the streets… The army is simply shooting indiscriminately everywhere, and there are dead people lying all over the streets of the demonstrations.” Several protesters agitatedly told The Guardian
“But even if the army were to massacre and suppress, I’d still be on the front lines of the protest tomorrow and the day after tomorrow – if I’m going to be shot by the army, then so be it! I can’t stand this tyranny anymore.”
Ma Kyal Sin, 19, wearing a shirt with the words “Everything Will Be Ok,” was shot and killed during the March 3 protest. Photo: AFP
According to statistics and confirmation, the March 3 military crackdown is known to have killed at least 38 civilians, many of them children and teenagers under the age of 15, in just a few hours. But because the Burmese military is blocked from monitoring internet communications, indiscriminate fire and army shootings are not only happening in Yangon, but also presenting a state of cross-city terror that “kills everywhere”, so how big is the exact scale of the crackdown? The number of dead and wounded is not really only 38 people currently known? The difficulty of communication statistics also affects the dissemination of the “truth” about the tragedy and the volume of sound.
“The Burmese army raided the funeral Home and funeral volunteer headquarters in Yangon on the evening of the 3rd, violently destroying documents and computer equipment and forcibly arresting volunteer workers who were helping the dead protesters arrange their funerals for free.”
Wa Lone, a Burmese journalist for Reuters, who has reported on the “village massacre” of the Rohingya by the Burmese army and has received solidarity and a Pulitzer Prize from journalists around the world, also confirmed the announcement early on the morning of the 4th.
Since funeral arrangements and funeral offices are the key units for confirming the number of deaths and killings in crackdowns, in violent crackdowns in various countries, crackdown forces will deliberately harass or block funeral information – this can control the “official count of the dead “On the other hand, the control over the bodies of the dead can also be used to coerce surviving families to confirm that “the cause of death is not suspicious” or to prevent funeral services from being held, becoming a new area of protest to rally people’s anger.
The tragic death of Ma Kyal Sin, a 19-year-old protester in Myanmar, who was shot by the military police, has sparked a great deal of anger in Myanmar public opinion. The picture shows the funeral ceremony of Ma Kyal Sin. Photo: Associated Press
While Myanmar was caught up in the bloody crackdown, the foreign ministers of ASEAN and the United Nations also held their own emergency meetings on the “political turmoil in Myanmar”.
At the ASEAN meeting, the loud representatives, led by Singapore, Malaysia, and India, spoke out against the “use of lethal force” by the Burmese military and stressed that the ASEAN countries do not recognize the legitimacy of the “coup d’état interim junta” and called on that the Burmese military should cooperate with the Eastern Partnership-UN Special Envoy’s mediation plan.
“… First release Ung San Suu Kyi and Win Myint… and other arrested political leaders, and then use the UN envoy as a bridge to start a nationwide reconciliation dialogue to resolve the series of electoral and political disputes.”
The foreign ministers of the Eastern Association countries only continued to express their views, and although only the foreign minister of Laos publicly endorsed the “legitimate representative status of the military government”, the other countries did not respond to the issue. The other countries have not reached any concrete and enforceable political consensus on solidarity with the protesters, reconciliation or sanctions.
Photo: AFP
Meanwhile, the UN’s special envoy to Burma, Christine Schertner, has not reached any concrete political consensus on solidarity with the protesters, reconciliation or sanctions. Meanwhile, Christine Schraner Burgener, the UN’s special envoy to Burma, also confirmed, after consolidating evidence from the front, that at least 38 protesters were indeed killed by the military on March 3.
Schraner Burgener Burgener said she had approached the Burmese military’s deputy chief of staff, Vice Admiral Soe Win, on behalf of the UN, stressing that the UN totally rejects the “violent crackdown” by the Burmese military and police. He warned that if the Burmese military did not stop and release Ung San Suu Kyi as soon as possible, the international community would launch more severe isolation and sanctions against the Burmese military government.
“But General Soe Win responded with disdain: ‘Burma is used to being sanctioned, we have survived all these years… It doesn’t matter if we have a few less international friends, as long as Burma has a few ‘good partners’ to support.”
The “few good friends” that Soe Win refers to are China and Russia, which continue to negatively delay the Security Council’s Myanmar agenda, and India (which has a longstanding friendship with the Tatmadaw and sees it as a strategic counterweight to China’s southward advance) and Thailand (whose junta leader Min Aung Hlaing), who are also implicitly favorable to Myanmar’s military government. (who has a longstanding friendship with the Burmese military and sees it as a strategic counterweight to China’s southern advance) and Thailand (Burma’s junta leader Min Aung Hlaing, who is also a military dictator.
Photo: AFP
According to Myanmar’s Irrawaddy newspaper, apart from the U.S., which has strongly expressed its sanctions stance, China, the East Asian Association and other Asian countries are all taking a “wait-and-see” approach to the Myanmar issue – with Singapore and Japan being the most responsive. Both countries are currently using diplomatic channels to try to convince the Burmese military to give in and avoid a “head-on showdown” with Europe and the United States.
Although Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong stressed in an interview with the BBC that Singapore’s trade with Burma is “small” and that “even economic sanctions would not be significant, I’m afraid. But the fact is that Singapore is the number one investor in the Burmese economy, and the military government and various public institutions have used “Singapore’s international accounts” as a possible export for blocking sanctions, so can this be used as a bargaining chip to expand pressure on Burmese soldiers to give in? It has also become a diplomatic argument for Singapore to mediate with Western countries.
A similar situation has occurred in Japan – in addition to its historical ties with the Burmese military, the two countries have continued to cultivate “aid diplomacy” since World War II, and the international aid allocated by The Japanese government to date is still the number one source of development investment in Burma. The Japanese government’s international aid is still the number one source of development investment in Burma. Therefore, the Japanese government, which is highly concerned about the political situation in Burma but is reluctant to condemn sanctions, is now hoping that the president of the Nippon Foundation, a public interest organization with which Min Aung Hlaing has personal ties, will be able to provide a link to the chaotic political violence and bring about a peaceful end to it.
The UN Security Council is now expected to convene an “emergency session on Myanmar” on Friday at the request of the British permanent members – but given the current Chinese and Russian winds, will the Council be able to adopt a specific resolution to address the coup in Myanmar? Aside from the expectation of a standstill, outside judgments are pessimistic.
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