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Rescuers carry an injured man after protests against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar, on February 20, 2021. REUTERS / Stringer
Two people were killed in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second city, on Saturday when police and soldiers fired to disperse protests against a February 1 military coup, emergency workers said, the bloodiest day in more than two weeks. demonstrations.
Protesters took to the streets in cities and towns in Myanmar with members of ethnic minorities, poets, rappers and transport workers among those who demanded an end to the military rule and the release of the arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
Tensions rose rapidly in Mandalay, where police and soldiers clashed with striking shipyard workers and other protesters.
Some of the protesters fired catapults at the police as they played cat and mouse through the riverside streets. Police responded with tear gas and gunfire, and witnesses said they found the cartridges of real bullets and rubber bullets on the ground.
“Twenty people were injured and two died,” said Ko Aung, leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service.
One man died of a head injury, said media workers, including Lin Khaing, assistant editor of the Voice of Myanmar news outlet in the city, and a volunteer doctor.
Ko Aung and the doctor said that a second man was shot in the chest and later died of the wound. His relatives identified him as Thet Naing Win, a 36-year-old carpenter.
“The body was taken to the morgue. I can’t bring him back home. Even though my husband died, I still have my son, ”his wife, Thidar Hnin, told Reuters by phone. “I haven’t been involved in this movement yet, but now I’m going to … I’m not scared now.”
Several other injured protesters were carried on stretchers by volunteer doctors, their clothes soaked in blood.
Police were not available for comment.
A young protester, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, died on Friday after being shot in the head last week when police dispersed a crowd in the capital Naypyitaw, the first death among anti-coup protesters.
The army says a policeman died from injuries sustained in a protest.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned” by reports that security forces had fired on protesters and continued to detain and harass protesters and others.
“We support the people of Burma,” Price wrote on Twitter. Myanmar is also known as Burma.
Britain said it would consider taking additional action against those involved in violence against protesters, and the French Foreign Ministry called the violence “unacceptable.”
“The shooting against peaceful protesters in Myanmar is beyond pale,” British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab said in a tweet. “We will consider further action, with our international partners, against those who crush democracy and stifle dissent.”
The United States, Britain, Canada and New Zealand have announced limited sanctions since the coup, with a focus on military leaders.
The state television MRTV evening news program did not mention the protests or the victims.
In the main city of Yangon, residents again hit pots and pans in a nightly ritual in defiance of the coup. In front of the US embassy in the city, dozens of protesters, mostly women, gathered at dusk for a candlelight vigil, singing songs against the coup.
CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE
More than fifteen days of demonstrations and a campaign of civil disobedience of strikes and riots show no signs of abating. Opponents of the coup are skeptical of the army’s promise to hold new elections and hand over power to the winner.
The protesters demand the restoration of the elected government and the release of Suu Kyi and others. They have also called for the removal of a 2008 constitution that has ensured the military a major role in politics since nearly 50 years of direct military rule ended in 2011.
The army regained power after denouncing a fraud in the November 8 elections that swept through Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, detaining her and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the allegations of fraud.
However, the army says its action is within the constitution and has the support of the majority of the people. The army has blamed the protesters for instigating the violence.
Crowds also gathered on Saturday in the northern city of Myitkyina, the former capital of Bagan, and in Pathein in the Irrawaddy River Delta, pictures showed on social media.
Even before the coup, the leader of the junta, Min Aung Hlaing, was already under sanctions from Western countries following the crackdown on the Rohingya. There is little history of Myanmar generals, with closer ties to China and Russia, giving in to Western pressure.
Suu Kyi faces one charge of violating a Natural Disaster Management Act and illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. His next court appearance is March 1.
The Myanmar Political Prisoners Assistance Association said 546 people had been detained and 46 released as of Friday.
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