The U.S. State Department has ordered all non-essential staff and their families to leave Burma as the military’s bloody crackdown on anti-coup demonstrations continues.
In a written statement, the State Department said, “The Burmese military has detained and removed elected government officials from their positions. Protests and demonstrations against military rule have occurred and are expected to continue.”
The order is an update to a bulletin issued just last month that allowed for the evacuation of non-emergency U.S. government personnel who wished to leave Burma.
Burma’s security forces have killed at least 512 civilians since the Feb. 1 coup, including more than 100 who died Saturday, the Association for Assistance to Burmese Political Prisoners (AAPP) said. Authorities celebrate Burma’s Soldiers’ Day on the day. Soldiers’ Day commemorates the day the Burmese army began resisting Japanese occupation during World War II. Saturday’s death toll was 141, according to the Political Prisoners Assistance Association.
U.N. Secretary-General Guterres said Monday, “What happened on National Soldiers’ Day (in Burma) was appalling.”
Two people were killed Tuesday when thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to the streets again. Burma’s civil disobedience movement employed a different tactic as residents of Yangon piled garbage on intersections across the city.
Meanwhile, three ethnic armed rebel groups in Myanmar threatened Tuesday to retaliate if the junta did not stop killing protesters.
“If they (the army) do not stop and continue killing people, we will cooperate with the protesters and fight back,” the Daw Aung National Liberation Army, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Rakhine Army said in a joint statement. .
The Burmese military has expanded its strikes against Karen insurgents in eastern Burma with airstrikes in response to the latter’s recent attacks on military and police stations. The airstrikes have caused thousands of people to flee through the jungle and across the border to neighboring Thailand.
Thailand has denied allegations by humanitarian aid agencies that Thai soldiers forced refugees to return to Burma.
The U.N. Security Council is holding a closed-door meeting Wednesday on the situation in Myanmar. “What we would like to see is a very strong and unified message from the members of the council to the Burmese military: review the actions that have taken place, stop the violence, release the political prisoners, return the country to the Burmese people and push for our special envoy to go to Burma,” U.N. Secretary-General’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Voice of America correspondent Bechir.
The National League for Democracy (NLD), led by Myanmar’s former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has led Myanmar since its first open democratic elections in 2015, but the Burmese military has challenged the results of last November’s elections, claiming widespread election fraud, though largely without providing evidence.
On Feb. 1, the Burmese military staged a coup and detained Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint. Martial law has been imposed in towns and cities across Myanmar.
Aung San Suu Kyi appeared to be in good health during a recent video call, her lawyer told Reuters on Wednesday.
Aung San Suu Kyi faces multiple charges from the junta, including illegally importing six radio walkie-talkies, violating New Crown vaccination measures and accepting bribes.
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