Crowds face fierce crackdown
Cops in Myanmar fire warning shots to disperse anti-military protesters, deploy water cannons, use rubber bullets
Police cracked down on demonstrators opposing Myanmar’s military coup, firing warning shots and shooting water cannons to disperse crowds that took to the streets again on Tuesday in defiance of rules making protests illegal.
Water cannons were used in Mandalay, Myanmar’s secondbiggest city, where witnesses said at least two warning shots were fired to try to break up the crowd. Reports on social media said police arrested more than two dozen people there. Police also used water cannons in the capital, Natpyitaw, for a second day and fired shots into the air.
Rubber bullets fired at crowd in Naypyitaw
Police were reported to have also shot rubber bullets at the crowd in Naypyitaw, wounding several people. Photos on social media showed an alleged shooter - an officer with a short-barrelled gun - and several injured people.
Unconfirmed social media reports circulated of shootings with live rounds and deaths among the protesters, with the potential of sparking violent retaliation against the authorities, an outcome proponents of the country’s civil disobedience movement have warned against. AP was unable to immediately confirm the reports.
The protesters are demanding that power be restored to the deposed civilian government and are seeking freedom for the nation’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other ruling party members detained since the military took over and blocked the new session of parliament from convening on February 1.
The growing defiance is striking in a country where past demonstrations have been met with deadly force and are a reminder of previous movements in the southeast Asian country’s long struggle for democracy. The military used deadly force to quash a massive 1988 uprising against military dictatorship and a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks.
The decrees issued on Monday night for some areas of Yangon and Mandalay banned rallies and gatherings of more than five people, while imposing an 8pm-4am curfew. It was not clear if regulations have been imposed for other areas.
Violators of night-time curfew face jail, fines
Violation of the orders, issued under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code, is punishable by up to six months in prison or a fine.
Demonstrations were also held in other cities, including
Bago - where city elders negotiated with police to avoid a violent confrontation - and Dawei, and in northern Shan state.
In Magwe in central Myanmar, where water cannons were also used, unconfirmed reports on social media claimed several police officers had crossed over to join the protesters’ ranks.
Crowds also gathered in Yangon, the country’s biggest city where thousands of people have been demonstrating since Saturday, despite a heightened security presence. No violence was reported. Soldiers do not appear to have been deployed to stop the demonstrations, a small indicator of restraint by the military government.
State media for the first time on Monday referred to the protests, claiming they were endangering the country’s stability. “Democracy can be destroyed if there is no discipline,” declared a statement from the information ministry, read on state television station MRTV. “We will have to take legal actions to prevent acts that are violating state stability, public safety and the rule of law.”
The UN’s Human Rights Council, the 47-member-state body based in Geneva, is to hold a special session on Friday to consider “the human rights implications of the crisis in Myanmar”.
New Zealand has suspended all military and high-level political contact with Myanmar, its foreign minister Nanaia Mahuta announced in Wellington.