Myanmar set for silent strike and anti-coup protests as violence claims youngest victim
Myanmar activists planned more anti-coup protests yesterday, including a silent strike, after a girl, 7, was killed in her home when security forces opened fire in Mandalay.
Pro-democracy protesters held more candlelit vigils overnight, including in the commercial capital Yangon and Thahton in Mon state.
Staff at a funeral service in Mandalay said on Tuesday that the girl died of bullet wounds – the youngest victim so far in a crackdown on opposition to the February 1 coup.
Soldiers shot at her father, but hit the child who was sitting on his lap, her sister told the Myanmar Now media outlet. Two men were also killed in the district, it said.
The military had no comment.
In what has now often become a deadly game of cat-andmouse with security forces during street protests, pro-democracy activists switched tactics and planned to hold a silent strike yesterday.
“No going out, no shops, no working. All shut. Just for one day,” Nobel Aung, an illustrator and activist said.
Social media posts and media indicated businesses from ride hailers to pharmacies planned to close.
The junta has faced international condemnation for staging the coup that halted Myanmar’s slow transition to democracy and for its lethal suppression of the protests that followed.
It has tried to justify the takeover by saying a November 8 election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy was fraudulent – an accusation the electoral commission has rejected.
Military leaders promised a new election, but have not set a date, and declared a state of emergency.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said on Tuesday that 164 protesters had been killed and expressed sadness at the deaths, a day after the EU and US imposed more sanctions on groups or persons linked to the coup.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group said at least 275 people have been killed by security forces.
Zaw Min Tun blamed the bloodshed on the protesters and said nine members of the security forces had been killed.
He said strikes and hospitals not fully operating had caused deaths, including from the coronavirus, calling them “undutiful and unethical”.
Opponents of military rule have regularly called for strikes and also a civil disobedience campaign, including among civil servants, that has paralysed parts of the economy.
The junta spokesman also accused the media of reporting fake news and fanning unrest and said reporters could be prosecuted if they were in contact with the Committee Representing the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, as the remnants of Ms Suu Kyi’s government is known.
The military has declared the CRPH an illegal organisation and said membership was punishable by death.
He also gave details that he said showed how the NLD had created hundreds or thousands of extra ballots by inventing voters, including in Ms Suu Kyi’s own constituency.
The NLD has denied making any attempt to rig the election.
Also shown at the junta news conference was a video in which former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein says he visited Ms Suu Kyi several times and gave her money “whenever needed”.