At least 10 people were killed yesterday when Burmese security forces fired on protesters of a military coup as multiple rallies across the nation descended into chaos.
Myanmar has been in an uproar since Feb. 1 when the military launched a coup and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, ending the nation’s decade-long experiment with democracy and sparking daily mass protests.
International pressure is mounting — Western powers have repeatedly hit the generals with sanctions — and the UK has called for a UN Security Council meeting tomorrow.
Photo: Reuters
However, the junta has ignored the global condemnation, responding to the uprising with escalating strength, and security services used lethal force on demonstrators again yesterday.
Three cities in central Myanmar saw bloody crackdowns on protesters by security forces, with Monywa in the Sagaing region registering the highest number of deaths with at least seven.
“What we can confirm is seven people have died,” said an emergency doctor, who declined to provide his name.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Multiple medics also said they saw two other people being dragged away by security forces, although they could not get close enough to confirm if they had died.
In Mandalay, the second largest city in Myanmar, two demonstrators were killed, a doctor said, adding that one of the victims was 19 years old and was shot in the head.
A protest in Myingyan also turned deadly when security forces deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds against protesters carrying red home-made shields emblazoned with the three-finger salute — a symbol of resistance for the anti-coup movement.
Several medics confirmed a young man was gunned down.
“Zin Ko Ko Zaw, a 20-year-old, was shot dead on the spot,” a rescue team member said, adding that his team had treated 17 people from the protest.
Local media in Kachin state reported similar scenes of violence, publishing images of police bearing down on protesters in Hpakant.
“Some were hit with rubber bullets and some were suffocating because of tear gas,” a doctor said, adding that his private hospital treated 10 injured people.
Two critically wounded people — one struck in the chest, the other in the neck — had to be driven to the state capital’s hospital about four hours away.
Parts of commercial hub Yangon were transformed, with protesters using makeshift tires and barbed wire barricades to block major roads.
Near the famed Sule pagoda intersection, protesters pasted printouts of Burmese Army Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s face on the ground — a tactic aimed at slowing security forces, who will avoid standing on the portraits.
In San Chaung township, which has been the site of intense clashes in recent days, tear gas and fire extinguisher clouds filled the streets as riot police confronted protesters, while a clash in Yangon’s outskirts left at least 19 people injured.
Right-wing political scientist Laura Fernandez on Sunday won Costa Rica’s presidential election by a landslide, after promising to crack down on rising violence linked to the cocaine trade. Fernandez’s nearest rival, economist Alvaro Ramos, conceded defeat as results showed the ruling party far exceeding the threshold of 40 percent needed to avoid a runoff. With 94 percent of polling stations counted, the political heir of outgoing Costa Rican President Rodrigo Chaves had captured 48.3 percent of the vote compared with Ramos’ 33.4 percent, the Supreme Electoral Tribunal said. As soon as the first results were announced, members of Fernandez’s Sovereign People’s Party
EMERGING FIELDS: The Chinese president said that the two countries would explore cooperation in green technology, the digital economy and artificial intelligence Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday called for an “equal and orderly multipolar world” in the face of “unilateral bullying,” in an apparent jab at the US. Xi was speaking during talks in Beijing with Uruguayan President Yamandu Orsi, the first South American leader to visit China since US special forces captured then-Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro last month — an operation that Beijing condemned as a violation of sovereignty. Orsi follows a slew of leaders to have visited China seeking to boost ties with the world’s second-largest economy to hedge against US President Donald Trump’s increasingly unpredictable administration. “The international situation is fraught
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to make advanced 3-nanometer chips in Japan, stepping up its semiconductor manufacturing roadmap in the country in a triumph for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s technology ambitions. TSMC is to adopt cutting-edge technology for its second wafer fab in Kumamoto, company chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. That is an upgrade from an original blueprint to produce 7-nanometer chips by late next year, people familiar with the matter said. TSMC began mass production at its first plant in Japan’s Kumamoto in late 2024. Its second fab, which is still under construction, was originally focused on
GROWING AMBITIONS: The scale and tempo of the operations show that the Strait has become the core theater for China to expand its security interests, the report said Chinese military aircraft incursions around Taiwan have surged nearly 15-fold over the past five years, according to a report released yesterday by the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs. Sorties in the Taiwan Strait were previously irregular, totaling 380 in 2020, but have since evolved into routine operations, the report showed. “This demonstrates that the Taiwan Strait has become both the starting point and testing ground for Beijing’s expansionist ambitions,” it said. Driven by military expansionism, China is systematically pursuing actions aimed at altering the regional “status quo,” the department said, adding that Taiwan represents the most critical link in China’s
RSS