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YANGON: The deaths of two anti-coup protesters in Myanmar sparked a new UN condemnation of the country’s new military regime today as mourners prepared for the funeral of a young woman who became a national symbol of resistance to the junta.
The authorities have gradually intensified their tactics against a massive and largely peaceful civil disobedience campaign demanding the return of the overthrown civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Yesterday marked the deadliest day so far in more than two weeks of street demonstrations across the country when security forces fired on a demonstration in Mandalay, causing crowds to flee in fear.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres condemned the use of “deadly violence” in the riot, which emergency workers said had killed one teenager and wounded dozens more.
“The use of deadly force, intimidation and harassment against peaceful protesters is unacceptable,” Guterres wrote today.
The clash began when security forces in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city and cultural capital, attempted to storm a shipyard and detain striking port personnel to protest the army’s takeover of power.
Medical responders said troops used live rounds, rubber bullets and tear gas against a crowd of people who had started throwing stones in an effort to stop the arrests.
“Two people died,” said Hlaing Min Oo, head of a Mandalay-based volunteer emergency rescue team.
Another emergency worker at the scene, who asked not to be identified for fear of retaliation, confirmed the death toll.
A graphic video circulated on Facebook showing an adolescent victim, lying on the ground and bleeding from the head as a passerby placed a hand on her chest to feel her heartbeat.
Hlaing Min Oo said another 30 were injured, with half of those injured by live bullets.
Local media reported that more than a dozen people were arrested after the clash.
“They beat and shot my husband and other people,” a resident told AFP. “He was standing to the side and watching the protest, but the soldiers took him away.”
Myanmar today emerged from its seventh consecutive overnight internet blackout, a move imposed by the board after neighborhoods mobilized watchdog groups to prevent overnight arrests.
A funeral was to be held in the capital, Naypyidaw, for a young protester who died on Friday after being shot in the head during a demonstration last week.
Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, who turned 20 last Thursday while lying unconscious in a hospital bed, has since become a powerful symbol of the campaign against military rule.
Protesters hoisted their photos in the street marches and displayed a huge banner with artwork from a bridge in Yangon depicting the moment he was shot.
Vigils for the grocery store worker were held throughout the mall yesterday, with protesters lighting candles and placing roses next to a banner bearing her photo.
Hundreds arrested
Much of Myanmar has been in an uproar since troops detained Suu Kyi on February 1, with massive street demonstrations in major cities and isolated villages across the country.
So far, the new junta has remained unmoved by relentless international condemnation, and the United States, Britain and Canada have unveiled sanctions against the country’s top generals.
The foreign ministers of the European Union will meet tomorrow to discuss their own measures against the regime.
The bloc’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, yesterday urged the security forces to “immediately stop the violence against the civilian population” after the violence in Mandalay.
Almost 570 people have been detained since the coup, according to the monitoring group of the Association for the Assistance to Political Prisoners.
Among those affected are railway workers, civil servants and banking personnel, who left their jobs as part of the anti-coup campaign.
Authorities have maintained that their methods of dispersing protesters are legal.
A military spokesman said this week that a police officer had died in Mandalay after another confrontation there.
Suu Kyi, who has not been seen since she was detained in a dawn raid, has been charged with two counts by the board, one of them for possessing unregistered walkie-talkies.
His hearing is expected on March 1. – AFP
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