Boy, 14, shot dead as Myanmar security forces in crackdown on protesters

POLICE in Myanmar have again used tear gas and rubber bullets to violently disperse protesters against last month’s military takeover.

Multiple reports from several cities and towns claimed officers also used live ammunition, causing at least one death – a boy aged 14.

Myanmar’s new military rulers escalated their use of deadly force and mass arrests over the weekend to try to quash protests against the February 1 coup that ousted the elected government led by Aung

San Suu Kyi.

The UN Human Rights Office said it believed at least 18 people were killed on Sunday.

The escalation of violence has led to increased diplomatic efforts to resolve Myanmar’s political crisis.

The UN Security Council is expected to hold a closed meeting on the situation tomorrow, diplomats said, at the request of the UK.

But any kind of co-ordinated action at the United Nations would be difficult since two permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it.

In yesterday’s incidents, it was reported that in the central city of Monywa, which has seen huge crowds turn out to protest about the military takeover, three people were shot, including one in the head.

In Myingyan, in the same central region, multiple social media posts reported the fatal shooting of a 14-year-old boy. Photographs showed what was said to be his body, with his head and chest soaked with blood, being carried away by fellow protesters.

In Magwe, also in central Myanmar, a student was reportedly seriously injured after a shooting.

In the town of Hpakant in the northern state of Kachin, four people were reported to have been shot with live ammunition.

Myanmar’s ethnic Kachin minority has historically had tense relations with the central government and fields a guerrilla force of its own.

One person was reported shot in Pyinoolwin, a town in central Myanmar, better known to many by its British colonial name, Maymyo.

The usual daily protests in Yangon and Mandalay, the country’s biggest cities, were again attacked by police. In Mandalay, riot police backed by soldiers broke up an rally, chasing about 1,000 teachers and students from a street with tear gas and what seemed to be warning shots.