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YANGON: A National League for Democracy (NLD) official of deposed Burmese leader Aung San Suu Kyi died in custody after being arrested early Tuesday (March 9), a former member of parliament said.
Ba Myo Thein, a disbanded upper house deputy, told Reuters that party official Zaw Myat Linn was arrested around 1.30 am. He is the second NLD official to die in custody.
“Now, the relatives are trying to recover the body at the Military Hospital,” he said.
Myanmar’s security forces quickly quelled sporadic protests against the junta on Tuesday, after hundreds of young activists who had been trapped overnight in a Yangon neighborhood were able to get out.
Western powers and the United Nations had asked Myanmar’s military rulers to allow the youths to leave after fears for their safety as troops entered.
The army’s seizure of power and the arrest of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1 has paralyzed the Southeast Asian nation. Daily protests are organized across the country and security forces are cracking down.
READ: Myanmar protesters were able to leave Yangon district after being caught by security forces
More than 60 protesters have been killed and more than 1,800 arrested, an advocacy group said.
Scattered protests took place in Yangon and other cities in Myanmar on Tuesday, but the security forces quickly broke them up with tear gas and stun grenades.
At least two people were injured, one from a gunshot, in the northern city of Mohnyin, local media said.
READ: 3 protesters killed in Myanmar; shops and factories closed when workers go on strike
Thousands of people defied the night curfew on Monday to take to the streets of Yangon in support of young people in the Sanchaung district, where they had been holding a daily protest against the coup.
Protesters raise the three-finger salute in the Sittaung River during a demonstration against the military coup in Naypyidaw on March 9, 2021 (Photo: AFP / STR).
Police, who were firing guns and using stun grenades, announced Monday they would search homes for people outside the district and said they would punish anyone caught hiding them.
By dusk, security forces had sealed off a block of streets in Yangon with around 200 protesters still inside, according to the UN rights office, prompting alarm from diplomatic missions and calls for their safe release.
Loud explosions were heard coming from the area, although it was unclear if the sounds were caused by gunshots or stun grenades.
Security forces began searching for apartments after a nightly internet shutdown covered the country at 1 a.m.
One resident said his home, which had no protesters hiding inside, was searched.
“They searched all the buildings on Kyun Taw Road; they destroyed the locks on the apartment buildings if they were locked on the ground floor,” said the resident.
Youth activist Shar Ya Mone said that she had been in a building with about 15 or 20 other people, but now she has been able to go home.
“There were a lot of free car rides and people welcomed the protesters,” Shar Ya Mone said by phone.
He said that he would continue to demonstrate “until the dictatorship ends.”
Another protester posted on social media that they had been able to leave the area around 5 a.m. after security forces withdrew.
People look at a police vehicle after the Sanchaung district was searched on March 8, 2021 (Photo: Reuters / Stringer).
READ: Myanmar police shoot protesters in former capital Bagan
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had called for “maximum restraint” and the safe release of all protesters without violence or arrests, a call echoed by the US and British embassies in Myanmar.
A rights group said that some 50 people had been arrested in Sanchaung after police searched the houses.
Sanchaung, a bustling township known for its cafes, bars and restaurants, has been transformed since the protests began, with makeshift bamboo barricades, sandbags, tables and barbed wire erected by protesters in an effort to stem the forces. of security.
Tuesday morning saw strong sales from street food vendors.
“We need to finish selling our products before 9 in the morning. There will be a new repression in the streets,” said one.
A spokesperson for the board did not respond to calls seeking comment.
State television MRTV previously said: “The government’s patience has run out and while trying to minimize casualties to stop the unrest, most of the people are seeking complete stability (and) are calling for more effective measures against the unrest.
AMBASSADOR IN LONDON SUPPORTS PROTESTS
The United States criticized the board after an announcement Monday that five independent media companies had been stripped of their licenses. All five, Mizzima, Myanmar Now, 7-Day, DVB and Khit Thit Media, have been active in covering the protests against the coup.
“We have very strongly condemned the junta for the, in many cases, violent repressions against those who take the streets peacefully and against those who are simply doing their job, including independent journalists who have been swept away,” said the State Department spokesman Ned Price. .
READ: Receiving praise, Myanmar’s ambassador to the UK calls for Aung San Suu Kyi’s release
LEE: Unions call for a total strike in Myanmar; NLD party official dies in custody
Myanmar’s military has ignored the condemnation of its actions, as it has in past periods of army rule, when outbreaks of protests were bloodily suppressed.
This time he is also under pressure from a civil disobedience movement that has paralyzed government business and from strikes at banks, factories and shops that have closed much of Yangon this week.
In a diplomatic blow to the junta, Myanmar’s ambassador to Britain followed his UN representative in calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday, which received praise from British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab.
Britain, the United States, and some other Western countries have imposed limited sanctions on the board.
The European Union is preparing to expand its sanctions to target companies run by the military, according to diplomats and two internal documents seen by Reuters.
