Opponents of the coup in Myanmar yesterday protested again as international pressure on the military junta to halt its repression of democracy supporters increased, with neighbors joining Western countries in condemning lethal force.
Two people were killed when soldiers opened fire overnight in the northern ruby-mining town of Mogok, the Myanmar Now news portal reported. That took the death toll since the Feb. 1 coup to 237, according to a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
The bloodshed has not quelled the anger over the ouster of the elected government and the detention of its leader, Burmese State Counselor Aung Sang Suu Kyi, although some protest organizers said they have had to adapt their tactics.
Photo: AP
“We protest where there are no police or military, then when we hear they’re coming, we disperse quickly,” Kyaw Min Htike, a democracy campaigner, told reporters from Dawei in the south before he and others staged a brief rally outside the town center. “I don’t want to lose a single one of my comrades, but we’ll protest any way we can until our revolution prevails.”
Dozens of protesters gathered in Mandalay, pictures from the Voice of Myanmar news portal showed. A similar number in the northeastern town of Kyaukme held up signs calling for outside intervention to end the violence.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday condemned what he denounced as the military’s continuing brutal violence. A “firm, unified international response” was urgently needed, a UN spokesman quoted him as saying.
The US House of Representatives approved legislation condemning the coup, and lawmakers decried the increasingly harsh tactics against the demonstrators.
Burmese authorities have tightened restrictions on Internet services, making information increasingly difficult to verify.
Myanmar’s neighbors have also been speaking out to urge an end to the violence.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo, in some of the strongest comments yet by a regional leader, said he would ask Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah, who is ASEAN chairman, to call an urgent meeting.
“Indonesia urges that the use of violence in Myanmar be stopped immediately so that there are no more victims,” Widodo said in a virtual address.
Backing Indonesia’s call for a meeting, Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said he was appalled by the persistent use of lethal violence against unarmed civilians.
“We in Malaysia, and the larger ASEAN community, cannot afford to see our brotherly nation of Myanmar become so destabilized at the hands of a selected few, who seek to promote their own vested interests,” he said.
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