10 killed when Myanmar security forces shoot protesters

YANGON: At least 10 people were killed when Myanmar security forces fired at protesters on Wednesday (March 3) when multiple demonstrations across the country turned into violence.

Myanmar has been in an uproar since February 1 when the military launched a coup and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ending the nation’s decade-long experiment with democracy and sparking daily mass protests.

The country has been in chaos since February 1, when the military launched a coup and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ending Myanmar’s decade-long experiment with democracy and sparking daily mass protests.

International pressure is mounting – Western powers have repeatedly hit generals with sanctions – and Britain has called for a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Friday.

READ: Myanmar’s junta indicts 6 journalists, including an AP photographer

But the junta has ignored the global condemnation, responding to the uprising with increasing force, and security forces used deadly force against protesters again on Wednesday.

This comes after the board beat half a dozen detained journalists, including an Associated Press photographer, on criminal charges that could put them in jail for up to three years if convicted.

Three cities in central Myanmar saw bloody crackdowns on protesters by security forces on Wednesday, and Monywa in the Sagaing region recorded the highest death toll with at least seven.

“What we can confirm is that seven people have died,” said an ER doctor, who declined to give his name.

Several doctors also said they saw two other people being dragged away by security forces, although they could not get close enough to confirm whether they had died.

In neighboring Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, two protesters were killed, a doctor confirmed to AFP, adding that one of the victims was 19 years old and was shot in the head.

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A protest in the central city of Myingyan also turned violent, as security forces confronted protesters in helmets crouched behind homemade red shields with the three-finger salute, a symbol of resistance for the anti-coup movement.

“They fired tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition,” a volunteer doctor who was at the scene told AFP, adding that at least 10 people were injured.

Several doctors confirmed that a young man was shot.

“Zin Ko Ko Zaw, a 20-year-old young man, was shot and killed on the spot,” a member of the rescue team told AFP, adding that his team had treated 17 people from the protest.

Two members of the rescue team in northwest Monywa said they saw security forces taking two people away.

“DEMOCRACY IS OUR CAUSE”

Local media in the northern state of Kachin also reported similar scenes of violence, publishing images of the police attacking protesters in Hpakant.

“Some were hit with rubber bullets and others were suffocated by tear gas,” a doctor told AFP, who said his private hospital treated 10 wounded.

Two seriously injured people, one in the chest and the other in the neck, had to be transferred to the hospital in the state capital about four hours away.

Parts of Yangon’s commercial center were transformed, and protesters used makeshift tires and barbed wire barricades to block main roads.

Near the famous Sule Pagoda intersection, protesters pasted prints of the face of the junta leader, Min Aung Hlaing, on the ground, a tactic aimed at restraining security forces from stopping at the portraits.

In San Chaung Township, which has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days, clouds of tear gas and fire extinguishers filled the streets as riot police clashed with protesters.

READ: Southeast Asian nations urge to stop violence in Myanmar

There were also chaotic scenes in northern Okkalapa: a civil society health clinic confirmed that 19 injured people had arrived for medical treatment.

“Some received rubber bullets, others fell and others were beaten. We had to transfer a man to the hospital for surgery because a rubber bullet hit him in the head. We have no surgeon here,” an official told AFP .

Sunday was the bloodiest day since the military seizure of power, and the UN said at least 18 protesters were killed across the country.

In Dawei on Wednesday, one of the four shooting victims on Sunday was cremated.

Mourners held wreaths and portraits of 33-year-old Lwin Lwin Oo, while the coffin bearers were flanked by hundreds shouting: “We are united, yes we are … achieving democracy is our cause.”

Wednesday’s violence came after the foreign ministers of Southeast Asian nations, including Myanmar’s board representative Wunna Maung Lwin, discussed the crisis in a virtual meeting.

After the talks, Retno Marsudi from Indonesia expressed frustration at the board’s lack of cooperation.

Singapore, which is Myanmar’s largest investor, condemned the use of deadly force by the authorities, and Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong told the BBC it was “unacceptable”.

READ: ASEAN must reiterate guiding principles when it comes to the situation in Myanmar: Vivian Balakrishnan

READ: Use of deadly force by Myanmar military is ‘disastrous’, but common sense may still prevail: PM Lee

JOURNALISTS LOADED

AP photographer Thein Zaw, 32, was arrested on Saturday while covering a demonstration in Myanmar’s commercial center, Yangon, his lawyer told AFP on Wednesday.

Thein Zw and five other Myanmar journalists had been charged under a law with “causing fear, spreading false news or directly or indirectly agitating a government employee,” according to lawyer Tin Zar Oo.

The board amended the law last month to increase the maximum sentence from two to three years in jail.

“Ko Thein Zaw was simply reporting according to the freedom of the press law, he was not protesting, he was just doing his job,” said lawyer Tin Zar Oo, adding that all six were being held at Insein Prison in Yangon.

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The other five journalists are from Myanmar Now, Myanmar Photo Agency, 7Day News, Zee Kwet Online News and a freelancer, according to AP.

AP Vice President of International News Ian Philips called for Thein Zaw’s immediate release.

“Independent journalists must be allowed to report the news freely and safely without fear of retaliation,” he said.

According to the monitoring group of the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), more than 1,200 people have been detained since the coup, and some 900 remain behind bars or facing charges.

But the true figure is probably much higher: State media reported that more than 1,300 people were arrested on Sunday alone.

The AAPP says 34 journalists are among those detained, with 15 released so far.

The most recent confirmed arrest came on Monday, when a Myanmar journalist with the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) broadcasting service broadcast a nightly raid on his home live.

The images, posted on DVB’s Facebook page, appeared to show heavy blows outside his apartment building as he pleaded with authorities not to shoot.