Garbage piles up on Yangon’s streets as Myanmar protesters launch ‘garbage strike’

YANGON: Garbage piled up on the streets of Myanmar’s main city on Tuesday (March 30) after activists launched a “garbage strike” to oppose the military government, as the number of pro-government protesters Democracy killed by security forces since the February 1 coup has risen to more than 500.

Of the 14 civilians killed on Monday, the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP) said at least eight were in the South Dagon district of the largest city, Yangon.

Security forces in the area fired a larger-than-usual caliber weapon Monday at protesters crouching behind a sandbag barricade, witnesses said. It was not immediately clear what weapon it was, but it was believed to be some kind of grenade launcher.

State television said security forces used “riot control weapons” to disperse a crowd of “violent terrorists” who were destroying a pavement and a man was injured.

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A South Dagon resident said Tuesday that security forces had been cracking down on the area overnight, raising concerns for more casualties.

“There were shootings all night,” said the resident who did not want to be named.

Residents found a badly burned body on a street in the morning, the resident said, adding that it was not known what had happened to the person and the body was taken away by the military.

Police and a spokesperson for the board did not respond to calls seeking comment.

Thousands of protesters came out in several other cities in the country, according to the media and photos on social networks. There were no immediate reports of violence.

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UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar generals to stop the killings and crackdown on the demonstrations.

A civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the military government has paralyzed much of the economy and, in a new tactic, protesters sought to intensify the campaign by asking residents to leave trash at the intersections of main roads.

“This garbage strike is a strike to oppose the junta,” read a poster on social media. “Everyone can join.”

Images posted on social media showed piles of garbage piling up in Yangon.

The campaign challenges calls made through loudspeakers in some Yangon neighborhoods on Monday to urge residents to dispose of their trash properly.

“UNACCEPTABLE”

At least 510 civilians had died in nearly two months of opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and the return of military rule after a decade of tentative steps toward democracy, according to a tally by the Defense group of the AAPP.

The death toll on Saturday, the bloodiest day of the protests, had risen to 141, their figures showed.

One of the main groups behind the protests, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, called on Monday in an open letter to ethnic minority forces to help those who face “unjust oppression” by the military.

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In a sign that the call may be gaining more traction, three groups, the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, the Arakan Army (AA) and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, called for in a joint statement Tuesday that the military stop killing the protesters. and solve political problems.

If not, they said they would cooperate with all ethnic groups “joining Myanmar’s spring revolution” to defend themselves.

“This type of brutal killing of innocent civilians is unacceptable,” AA spokesman Khine Thu Kha told Reuters in an audio message.

Insurgents from different ethnic groups have fought the central government for decades for greater autonomy. Although many groups have agreed to cease fire, clashes have erupted between the army and forces in both the east and north in recent days.

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Heavy clashes broke out near the Thai border over the weekend between the army and fighters from Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority force, the Karen National Union (KNU), which has also denounced the coup.

Some 3,000 villagers fled to Thailand when military planes bombed an area of ​​KNU.

Thailand has denied accounts by activist groups that refugees were being forced to return. His Foreign Ministry said there is no policy to turn away refugees fleeing the conflict and that they will be accepted on humanitarian grounds.

More than a dozen people were allowed to cross into Thailand on Tuesday for medical treatment in a border village, Reuters witnesses said.

Myanmar’s military has for decades justified its grip on power by saying that it is the only institution capable of preserving national unity. He took power saying that the November elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, a claim dismissed by the electoral commission.

But foreign criticism and Western sanctions have failed to sway the generals and Aung San Suu Kyi is being held at an undisclosed location and many other figures from her party are also in custody.