U.N.: MYANMAR FORCES KILL 38 PROTESTERS
At least 38 people were killed in Myanmar on Wednesday, the biggest oneday toll in a worsening repression of anti-coup protests, the United Nations special representative for the country said.
The representative, Christine Schraner Burgener, reported the deaths as news emerged that the junta’s own choice for U.N. envoy had abruptly resigned.
Wednesday’s developments came as the United States, which is president of the U.N. Security Council for March, scheduled a meeting Friday to deal with the crisis in Myanmar, diplomats said.
Myanmar has been thrown into turmoil since a military junta seized control Feb. 1 and arrested the civilian leaders whose party, the National League for Democracy, had won an overwhelming victory in national elections. Security forces have used increasingly brutal means to crush the anticoup protests.
Burgener, a Swiss diplomat appointed by Secretary-General António Guterres three years ago to monitor Myanmar, told reporters at a news conference that junta leaders had rejected her requests to visit the country.
When she warned them of the consequences of becoming an international pariah, Burgener said that they responded: “‘We are used to sanctions,’” and “‘We must learn to walk with only a few friends.’”
Burgener also said she had received many messages from Myanmar citizens inside the country pleading for international action that would end the repression and lead to the release of the arrested civilian leadership headed by Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate.
“Today was the bloodiest day since the coup happened,” she said. “Only today, 38 people died.”
Burgener did not specify the sources of her information or elaborate on where in Myanmar the deaths had occurred. But other news accounts and social media postings from Myanmar reported similar figures from clashes in several cities. The number of deaths, if confirmed, would be roughly double the previous one-day record of 18 killed Sunday.