Myanmar protesters gather again after worst day of violence
● Two shot dead by security forces at weekend
Tens of thousands of opponents of Myanmar’s February 1 military coup gathered yesterday in towns from north to south, undeterred by the bloodiest episode of their campaign the previous day when security forces opened fire on protesters, killing two.
Early yesterday, police arrested a well-known actor wanted for supporting opposition to the coup, his wife said, while Facebook deleted the military’s main page under its standards prohibiting the incitement of violence.
The military has been unable to quell the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of a new election and warnings against dissent.
In the main city of Yangon, several thousand young people gathered at two sites to chant slogans, while thousands massed peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, where Saturday’s killings took place, video from a media outlet showed.
In the town of Myitkyina in the north, which has seen confrontations in recent days, people laid flowers for the dead protesters while young people with banners drove around on motorbikes.
Crowds marched in the central towns of Monywa and Bagan and in Dawei and Myeik in the south, pictures showed.
“They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They aimed at our future,” a young protester in Mandalay told the crowd.
Military spokesperson Zaw Min Tun, who is also the spokesperson for the new military council, has not responded to attempts by Reuters to contact him by telephone for comment.
He told a news conference on Tuesday the army’s actions were within the constitution and supported by most people, and he blamed protesters for instigating violence.
The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule to 2011.
Members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers marched peacefully earlier on Saturday in various places but tension escalated in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted striking shipyard workers.
Some demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse. Police responded with teargas and gunfire at the protesters, witnesses said.
Video clips on social media showed members of the security forces firing and witnesses said they found the spent cartridges of live rounds and rubber bullets.
Two people were shot and killed, one a teenaged boy, and 20 were wounded, an emergency service said.
UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar Tom Andrews said he was horrified.
“From water cannons to rubber bullets to teargas and now hardened troops firing point blank at peaceful protesters. This madness must end,” he said on Twitter.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the strikers sabotaged vessels and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults.
Eight policemen and several soldiers were injured, it said.
The newspaper did not mention the deaths but said: “Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured due to the security measures conducted by the security force.” A young woman protester became the first death among anti-coup demonstrators on Friday.
She was shot in the head on February 9 in the capital, Naypyitaw. The army says one policeman has died of injuries sustained in a protest.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.
The army seized power after alleging fraud in the November 8 elections that the NLD swept, detaining Suu Kyi and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.
Facebook said it deleted the military’s main page, Tatmadaw True News Information, for repeated violations of its standards “prohibiting incitement of violence and co-ordinating harm”.
Police arrested actor Lu Min in the early hours, his wife, Khin Sabai Oo, said on Facebook.
Lu Min has been a prominent figure in Yangon protests and was one of six celebrities wanted under an anti-incitement law for encouraging civil servants to join the protest.
Western countries which had earlier condemned the coup decried the violence, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter lethal force was unacceptable.