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YANGON: Myanmar security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters in the commercial capital of Yangon on Sunday (March 14), killing at least three people, national media and witnesses said.
Video taken at the scene showed protesters holding handmade shields and wearing helmets as they confronted security forces in the city’s Hlaing Tharyar district. Columns of black smoke rose over the area.
Chinese state broadcaster CGTN said two Chinese-funded clothing factories in the district were set on fire by people arriving on motorcycles, armed with iron bars, axes and gasoline.
Anti-coup protesters squat with shields behind black smoke from burning debris on the road at Hlaing Thar Yartownship in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 14, 2021.
A private hospital doctor treating the wounded confirmed the use of live bullets and rubber bullets.
Another doctor on the ground told AFP that at least three had died, corroborating local media The Irrawaddy, but said the death toll is expected to rise.
“Three died in front of me while I was giving treatment. I will send another two to the hospital. That is all I can say at the moment,” he told AFP, while ordering his assistants to inject drugs.
“I can’t speak much, the wounded keep coming,” he said before hanging up.
Throughout the day, residents hiding in their homes heard gunshots continuously, while military trucks were seen driving through the streets of Hlaing Tharyar.
Two more people died in other parts of the country a day after the acting leader of the parallel civilian government said it will seek to give people the legal right to defend themselves.
A young man was shot and killed in the city of Bago, near Yangon, witnesses and national media said.
The Kachin Wave media outlet said another protester was killed in the town of Hpakant, in the jade mining area in the northeast. “Kyaw Lin Hteik died when he arrived at the hospital … he was shot in the right side of his chest and lost too much blood,” said a local doctor who did not want to be named.
He added that three other people were hit by rubber bullets and had to be transferred to the state capital, Myitkyina, where hospitals are better equipped.
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Anti-coup protesters surround an injured man at Hlaing Thar Yartownship in Yangon, Myanmar on Sunday March 14, 2021. Several people were shot dead during protests in Myanmar’s largest city on Sunday, as security forces continued their violent repression against dissent. military coup of the month. (AP Photo)
Despite the rising death toll, protesters continued to take to the streets on Sunday, from officials defiantly raising the Aung San Suu Kyi sign in a march through the central city of Monywa to a sit-in in the Yangon shopping center.
“May the fallen heroes who gave their lives in this spring revolution rest in peace!” protesters wearing helmets shouted in Yangon’s Thaketa Township.
Hundreds of thousands of people have continued to protest almost daily throughout Myanmar, despite police repression AFP / STR
More than 80 people had been killed as of Saturday in widespread protests against the military’s seizure of power last month, the advocacy group of the Association for Assistance for Political Prisoners said. More than 2,100 people have been arrested, he said.
Mahn Win Khaing Than, the interim leader of Myanmar’s parallel civilian government, addressed the public via Facebook on Saturday, saying: “This is the darkest time in the nation and the time when dawn is near.”
He is on the run along with most of the top officials of the ruling National League for Democracy Party. He said the civilian government “will try to legislate the laws required so that people have the right to defend themselves” against military repression.
Monywa Municipality stated that it had formed its own local government and police force.
In Yangon, hundreds of people demonstrated in different parts of the city after erecting barricades of barbed wire and sandbags to block the advance of the security forces.
In one area, people organized a protest sit-in under canvas sheets mounted to protect them from the harsh midday sun. “We need justice,” they chanted.
At least 13 people died on Saturday, one of the bloodiest days since the Feb. 1 coup, witnesses and national media said.
“They are acting like they are in a war zone, with unarmed people,” said an activist in Mandalay city, Myat Thu.
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A spokesperson for the board did not respond to Reuters phone calls seeking comment. The board-run MRTV evening newscast labeled the protesters “criminals,” but did not elaborate.
