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Across Myanmar, opponents of the ruling junta on Sunday (March 28) mourned the deaths of at least 114 people at the hands of security forces on the bloodiest day since the February 1 military coup, but vowed to continue protesting. to end the rule of the army.
Children were among those killed on Saturday, Myanmar Armed Forces Day, according to press reports and witnesses, in an offensive that drew renewed Western criticism. The UN investigator said the army was carrying out “mass killings”.
“We salute our heroes who sacrificed lives during this revolution and we must win this REVOLUTION,” posted on Facebook one of the main protest groups, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN).
Saturday also brought some of the heaviest fighting since the coup between the army and armed ethnic groups that control swaths of the country.
Military planes had killed at least three people in a raid on a village controlled by an armed Karen minority group, a civil society group said on Sunday, after the Karen National Union faction earlier said it had invaded an army post near the Thai border. , killing 10 people. The airstrikes sent the villagers fleeing into the jungle.
LEE: The US embassy in Myanmar criticizes the junta for ‘murdering unarmed civilians’
A spokesman for the board did not respond to calls seeking comment on the killings or the fighting.
Major General Min Aung Hlaing, leader of the junta, had said during a parade to mark Armed Forces Day that the military would protect the people and fight for democracy.
The Myanmar Now news portal said 114 people were killed across the country in suppressing the protests.
The body of a man killed in a protest against the coup is taken to a hospital in Latha Township, Yangon, Myanmar, on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (AP Photo)
Among the dead were 40 people, one of them a 13-year-old girl, in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city. At least 27 people were killed in the Yangon Mall, Myanmar Now said. Another 13-year-old boy was among those killed in the central Sagaing region.
Deaths were recorded from the Kachin region in the mountainous north to Taninthartharyi at the southern tip of the Andaman Sea, bringing the total number of civilians killed since the coup to more than 440.
“THIS BLOOD IS HORRIFYING”
US Ambassador Thomas Vajda said on social media: “This bloodshed is appalling,” adding that “the people of Myanmar have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under a military regime.”
The EU delegation in Myanmar said Saturday “would forever be etched as a day of terror and disgrace.”
READ: Myanmar’s Armed Ethnic Factions Will Not Stand By If More Protesters Kill, Group Says
The senior US military officer and nearly a dozen of his counterparts joined in condemning the killings by the Myanmar military.
His statement said that a professional army must follow international standards of conduct “and is responsible for protecting, not harming, the people it serves.”
UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said it was time for the world to act, if not through the UN Security Council, but through an emergency international summit. He said the board should be cut off from funding, such as oil and gas revenues, and access to weapons.
“Words of condemnation or concern are frankly hollow to the people of Myanmar as the military junta commits mass killings against them,” he said in a statement.
“The people of Myanmar need the support of the world. Words are not enough. It is time for strong and coordinated action.”
An anti-coup protester throws a smoke bomb against police repression in Thaketa Township, Yangon, Myanmar, on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (AP Photo)
Despite Western condemnation, the Myanmar junta has friends elsewhere.
READ: Myanmar junta warns protesters that they risk being shot in the head: state television
Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin attended Saturday’s military parade in Naypyidaw, meeting with senior junta leaders a day earlier.
Diplomats said eight countries – Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand – sent representatives, but Russia was the only one to send a minister to the Armed Forces Day parade, which marks the start of the resistance to Japanese Occupation in 1945.
Anti-coup protesters put out fires during a protest in Thaketa Township, Yangon, Myanmar, on Saturday, March 27, 2021. (AP Photo)
Support from Russia and China, which it has also refrained from criticizing, is important to the board, as those two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and may block possible UN actions.
The army has said it seized power because the November elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, a claim dismissed by the country’s electoral commission. Suu Kyi is being held at an undisclosed location and many other figures from her group are also in custody.
Myanmar’s embassy in London, which is controlled by opponents of the junta, said on Facebook that the ambassador met there with Suu Kyi’s son on Thursday. Kim Aris had asked if the embassy could arrange a call with her mother, she said.
“Kim asked about his mother’s situation and her health. He is obviously extremely concerned,” he said, adding that the ambassador had already sent three requests to the Myanmar capital and would send another reminder.
