Military ‘killing protesters with battle weapons’

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL has accused Myanmar’s military government of using battlefield weapons against peaceful protesters and conducting systematic, deliberate killings.

The country has been rocked by protests since a February 1 military coup toppled the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, inset.

The overthrow reversed years of slow progress towards democracy in the south-east Asian nation, formerly known as Burma.

Now the military “is using increasingly lethal tactics and weapons normally seen on the battlefield against peaceful protesters across the country”, Amnesty International said.

“By verifying more than 50 videos, Amnesty International can confirm security forces appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies including the ramped-up use of lethal force.

“Many of the killings amount to extrajudicial executions.”

Security forces have used live ammunition against protesters, causing the deaths of about 60 people.

There were new but unconfirmed accounts of additional deaths this week as police attempted to break up anti-coup protests in cities and towns using tear gas and other weapons. As widespread protests against the takeover continue, the junta is facing a new challenge from the country’s ethnic guerrilla forces, which until recently had limited themselves to verbal denunciations of last month’s coup.

Reports from Kachin, the northernmost state, said guerrilla forces from the Kachin ethnic minority attacked a government base yesterday and were in turn attacked. The armed wing of the Kachin political movement is the Kachin Independence Army.

A Facebook page said it had overrun the government outpost and seized ammunition. It warned the government against using lethal force to break up anti-coup protests in the Kachin capital, Myitkyina, where two demonstrators were killed this week.

Myanmar has more than a dozen ethnic guerrilla armies, mostly in border areas, a legacy of decades-old struggles for greater autonomy from central government. Many have formal or informal ceasefire agreements with the government but armed encounters still occur.

The UN Security Council on Wednesday unanimously called for a reversal of the military coup that ousted Ms Suu Kyi.