Reports: Myanmar anti-coup protesters killed by riot police
MANDALAY, Myanmar — Two anti-coup protesters were shot dead by riot police who fired live rounds Saturday in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, local media reported.
One of the victims was shot in the head and died at the scene, according to Frontier Myanmar, a news and business magazine based in Yangon, the country’s largest city. Another was shot in the chest and died en route to the hospital.
Several other serious injuries were also reported. The shootings occurred near Mandalay’s Yadanabon dock, where tear gas and rubber bullets were used on protesters earlier in the day.
The Irrawaddy news website also confirmed the deaths on social media.
Security forces had been increasing their pressure against anti-coup protesters earlier Saturday, using water cannons, tear gas, slingshots and rubber bullets against demonstrators and striking dock workers in Mandalay.
At least five people were injured by rubber bullets and had to be carried away in ambulances, according to an Associated Press journalist who witnessed the violence.
Some 500 police and soldiers descended on the area near Yadanabon dock after dock workers joined the national civil disobedience movement, refusing to work until the military junta that seized power in a Feb. 1 coup reinstates the democratically elected government.
Protesters and residents were forced to flee the neighborhood amid the violence, as security forces chased after them.
Earlier in the week in Mandalay, security forces cracked down on state railway workers in a similar fashion after they joined the civil disobedience movement.
Less than an hour after the 8 p.m. curfew started on Wednesday, gunshots were heard as more than two dozen police officers with shields and helmets marched past railway workers’ housing. Numerous videos posted on social media showed muzzle flashes as shots were heard, and some police shot slingshots and threw rocks at the buildings.
Also Saturday, anti-coup protesters in Myanmar’s two largest cities paid tribute to a young woman who died a day earlier after being shot by police during a rally against the military takeover.
An impromptu memorial created under an elevated roadway in Yangon attracted around 1,000 protesters. A wreath of yellow flowers was hung beneath a photograph of Mya Thwet Thwet Khine, who was shot in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Feb. 9, two days before her 20th birthday.
Her death on Friday, announced by her family, was the first confirmed fatality among thousands of protesters who have faced off against security forces since top military commander Min Aung Hlaing took power in the coup.
U.S. State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Friday reiterated calls on the military to refrain from violence against peaceful protesters.
MOSCOW — A Moscow court on Saturday rejected Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s appeal of his prison sentence, even as the country faced an order from a top European rights court to free the Kremlin’s most prominent foe.
A few hours later, a judge in a separate case ordered Navalny to pay a fine for defaming a World War II veteran.
During the first court hearing, Navalny urged Russians to stand up to the Kremlin in a fiery speech mixing references to the Bible and “Harry Potter.”
Navalny, 44, an anti-corruption crusader and President Vladimir Putin’s most vocal critic, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve-agent poisoning that he blames on the Kremlin. Russian authorities have rejected the accusation.
Earlier this month, Navalny was sentenced to 32 months in prison for violating terms of his probation while convalescing in Germany. He appealed the sentence and asked to be released. A Moscow City Court judge instead reduced the prison sentence, deducting a monthand-a-half that Navalny spent under house arrest in early 2015.
The sentence stems from a 2014 embezzlement conviction that Navalny has rejected as fabricated and the European Court of Human Rights has ruled to be unlawful.
Navalny has been held in Moscow’s Matrosskaya Tishina prison, but Russian news reports said that after losing his appeal, he would likely be sent to a prison in western Russia within the next few days to serve out his sentence.
His arrest and imprisonment have fueled a huge wave of protests across Russia. Authorities responded with a sweeping crackdown, detaining about 11,000 people, many of whom were fined or given jail terms ranging from seven to 15 days.
In his speech at the hearing, Navalny referenced the Bible as well as “Harry Potter” as he urged Russians to resist pressure from authorities and challenge the Kremlin to build a fairer and more prosperous country.
“The government’s task is to scare you and then persuade you that you are alone,” he said. “Our Voldemort in his palace also wants me to feel cut off,” he added, in a reference to Putin.
Asked about the impact of Navalny’s prison sentence on Russia’s politics, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that the country’s “rich and multifaceted” political scene will develop regardless of the verdict.
Russia has rejected Western criticism of Navalny’s arrest and the crackdown on demonstrations as meddling in its internal affairs.
In a ruling Tuesday, the European Court of Human
Rights ordered the Russian government to release Navalny, citing “the nature and extent of risk to the applicant’s life.” The Strasbourg-based court noted that Navalny has contested Russian authorities’ argument that they had taken sufficient measures to safeguard his life and well-being in custody following the nerve-agent attack.
The Russian government has rebuffed the demand, describing the ruling as unlawful and “inadmissible” meddling in Russia’s affairs. Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported that the Russian Justice Ministry on Saturday sent a letter to the court asking it to revise its order.
After losing his appeal, Navalny had a second court hearing on charges of slandering a World War II veteran and was ordered to pay a fine of 850,000 rubles or about $11,500.
Navalny labeled the 94-year-old veteran and other people in a pro-Kremlin video last year as “corrupt stooges,” “people without conscience” and “traitors.” He rejected the charges.