Burma protest deaths put at 320
Rights group says toll ‘likely much higher’ in wake of coup
RANGOON, Burma — The toll of protesters confirmed killed in Burma since last month’s military takeover has reached 320, a group that verifies details of deaths and arrests announced Friday.
Burma’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said its tally includes only documented cases, with the actual number of casualties “likely much higher.” It said 11 people were killed Thursday, when it also managed to verify 23 deaths that occurred previously.
Burma news agencies, including the Democratic Voice of Burma and Mizzima, reported that three more people had been shot dead by security forces in the city of Myeik in southern Burma. Video posted on Mizzima TV’s YouTube channel showed protesters risking getting hit by gunfire to carry the bloody body of one young man who the report said had later died.
Social media posts, many including photos of bodies, indicated that as many as seven people may have been killed in various cities by nightfall Friday. Those reports could not immediately be confirmed.
The Assistance Association described a typical deadly confrontation Thursday in Taunggyi, in Shan state in eastern Burma, when “the junta used live ammunition, trying to create a combat zone of residential areas, resulting in four civilians shot and killed, one dead body was dragged away, some other civilians were injured.
“Moreover, junta forces raided houses and violently arrested youths and civilians, thereafter destroying motorcycles, cars and barricades. They stormed streets unprovoked, shouted obscenities and vandalized property.”
State television MRTV on Friday night showed an announcement urging young people — who have been at the forefront of the protests and prominent among the casualties — to learn a lesson from those killed already about the danger of being shot in the head or back.
The warning was taken as an explicit threat because a great number of the fatalities among the protesters have come from being shot in the head, suggesting they have been targeted for death. The announcement suggested that some young people were taking part in protesting as if it was a game, and urged their parents and friends to talk them out of participating.
The association said as of Thursday, 2,981 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in the crackdown since the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Most, including Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, remain detained.
MRTV reported that 322 detainees were released Friday from Insein Prison, describing them as being accused of breaking a public order law by having “demonstrated violently.” On Wednesday, more than 600 others were freed from the same prison, also without being formally charged by a court.
The army’s seizure of power halted the Southeast Asian nation’s move toward democracy that began when Suu Kyi’s party took office in 2016 for its first term, after more than five decades of military rule.
About 4 a.m. Friday, unidentified people tossed firebombs at the headquarters of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party in Rangoon, but nearby residents managed to put out the fire before it could cause any major damage.
The movement against the junta and its takeover received a major boost Thursday when the United States and Britain announced tough sanctions against two military-owned conglomerates with vast holdings in many sectors.
The U.S. Treasury Department said its action against Myanma Economic Holdings Public Company Limited and Myanmar Economic Corporation Limited targets the army’s control of large parts of the country’s economy, “which is a vital financial lifeline for the military junta.”
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that military authorities adopted in 1989. Some nations, such as the United States and Britain, have refused to adopt the name change.
The sanctions against the two companies and their holdings block access to any property they control in the United States and effectively bars any U.S. person or company from conducting any sort of business with them, including supplying them with funds or providing goods or services.
Burma’s homegrown Civil Disobedience Movement against military rule is targeting the economy in order to make it difficult for the junta to govern. It has advocated work stoppages by state enterprise workers, bank closures and disinvestment by foreign companies.