TWO KILLED AS MYANMAR ARMY FIRES AT PROTESTERS
Forces use gunfire, tear gas on protesters in Mandalay city to disperse crowds, say emergency workers
MANDALAY: Two people were killed in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay on Saturday when police and soldiers fired to disperse protests against a February 1 military coup, emergency workers said, making it the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations.
Protesters took to the streets in cities and towns across Myanmar with members of ethnic minorities, poets, rappers and transport workers among those demanding an end to military rule and the release from detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
Tensions escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted shipyard workers and other protesters.
MANDALAY: Two people were killed in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay on Saturday when police and soldiers fired to disperse protests against a February 1 military coup, emergency workers said, making it the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations.
Protesters took to the streets in cities and towns across Myanmar with members of ethnic minorities, poets, rappers and transport workers among those demanding an end to military rule and the release from detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
Tensions escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers confronted shipyard workers and other protesters. Some of the demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse through riverside streets.
Police responded with tear gas and gunfire, and witnesses said they found the cartridges of both live rounds and rubber bullets on the ground.
“Twenty people were injured and two are dead,” said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service.
One man died from a head wound, media workers including Lin Khaing, an assistant editor with the Voice of Myanmar media outlet in the city, and a volunteer doctor said.
Ko Aung and the doctor said a second man was shot in the chest and died later of his wound. He was identified by relatives as Thet Naing Win, a 36-year-old carpenter.
“They took away the body to the morgue. I cannot bring him back home. Although my husband died, I still have my son,” his wife, Thidar Hnin, told Reuters by phone.
Police were not available for comment. State television MRTV’S evening news broadcast made no mention of casualties.
Also, people in Yangon laid flowers at a memorial ceremony for Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, the 20-year-old protester who died on Friday after she was recently fired at during a rally.