YANGON: Hundreds of mourners gathered in Myanmar on Thursday (Mar 4) for the funeral of a 19-year-old protester shot and killed at a demonstration against military rule.
Angel, also known as Kyal Sin, was shot in the head and killed in the city of Mandalay on Wednesday while wearing a shirt bearing the message "Everything will be OK".
Mourners, many of them young like her, filed past her open coffin and sang protest songs, raised a three-fingered salute of defiance and chanted slogans against the Feb 1 military coup that has plunged the country into turmoil.
Angel was one of 38 people killed on Wednesday, according to a United Nations tally. A spokesman for the junta did not respond to a request for comment on the killings.
Protesters lie on the ground after police opened fire to disperse an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, Mar 3, 2021. Among them, Angel (bottom left), also known as Kyal Sin, took cover before she was shot in the head. (Photo: Reuters)
Sai Tun, 32, who attended the funeral, said he could not come to terms with what had happened to her.
"We feel so angry about their inhuman behaviour and really sad at the same time," he told Reuters by telephone.
"We'll fight dictatorship until the end. We must prevail."
Despite the slogan on her shirt, Angel was aware of the risk as she headed out to the protest, posting details of her blood group, a contact number and a request to donate her body in the event of her death.
Thousands turned out for Kyal Sin's funeral in Mandalay, many carrying the slogan: "Everything will be ok." (Photo: AFP)
The phrase on the shirt quickly went viral on social media among opponents of the coup.
More than 50 people have now been killed as the military struggles to impose its authority, in particular on a generation that has grown up in recent years under a government led by democracy champion Aung San Suu Kyi.
The military, which ruled for nearly 50 years until it began stepping back from politics a decade ago, said an election Aung San Suu Kyi won in a landslide in November was marred by fraud. The election commission dismissed the complaint of fraud.
Funeral procession for, also known as Kyal Sin in Mandalay, Myanmar on Mar 4, 2021. (Photo: Reuters/Mizzima Daily)
In the central town of Monywa, family and friends mourned the death of young poet TZ Win, who was also killed on Wednesday.
The day before he was killed he posted a poem on Facebook with the line: "The louder the song of the youth, The more the whole world will be cleansed."
GENEVA: At least 54 people have been killed and more than 1,700 detained since Myanmar's Feb 1 coup, the UN rights chief said on Thursday (Mar 4), demanding that the military "stop murdering" protesters.
The comments come after the deadliest day of protests in Myanmar, with at least 38 dead Wednesday in rallies where security forces were seen firing into crowds.
UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet urged security forces to "halt their vicious crackdown on peaceful protesters".
"Myanmar's military must stop murdering and jailing protesters," she said in a statement.
"It is utterly abhorrent that security forces are firing live ammunition against peaceful protesters across the country," she added.
Bachelet added that she was "also appalled at the documented attacks against emergency medical staff and ambulances attempting to provide care to those who have been injured".
Dozens of people were killed in the deadliest day of the crackdown by Myanmar's military against anti-coup protesters. (Photo: AFP)
The UN rights office said it had corroborated information that at least 54 people had been killed by police and military officers since Feb 1.
"The actual death toll, however, could be much higher as these are the figures the office has been able to verify," it stressed.
The killings have escalated sharply in recent days.
The rights office had verified 30 of the 38 deaths reported by other UN entities on Wednesday, saying the killings by security forces had taken place in Yangon, Mandalay, Sagaing, Magway and Mon.
Another person was documented killed on Tuesday and 18 people on Sunday, with five prior to that.
It said it was difficult to document injuries, but that "at a minimum, hundreds have been wounded during protests".
Anti-coup protesters run as one of them discharges a fire extinguisher to counter the impact of tear gas fired by riot policemen in Yangon, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Since the coup, more than 1,700 people have also been "arbitrarily arrested and detained in relation to their participation in protests or engagement in political activity", the statement said.
At least 700 people were detained on Wednesday alone, with many of them reportedly swept up as soldiers and police conducted door-to-door searches.
END MILITARY "STRANGLEHOLD"
Those arrested include parliamentarians, political and rights activists, election officials, teachers, healthcare workers, journalists and monks, it said.
"Many of the arbitrary arrests and detentions that have been carried out since Feb 1 may constitute enforced disappearances," Bachelet warned, calling for the immediate release of all those who remain arbitrarily detained.
Tear gas and fire extinguisher gas float around demonstrators during a protest against the military coup in Yangon, Myanmar, Mar 2, 2021. Picture taken from behind a window. (Photo: Reuters)
She also expressed alarm at the targeting of media workers, with at least 29 journalists arrested in recent days, eight of whom had been charged with crimes, including inciting opposition or hatred of the government and attending unlawful assemblies.
"I urge all those with information and influence ... to support international efforts to hold military leaders accountable for the serious human rights violations that have been committed both now and in the past," Bachelet said.
"This is the moment to turn the tables towards justice and end the military's stranglehold over democracy in Myanmar."
UNITED NATIONS: The UN special envoy for Myanmar said the generals who have seized power in the Southeast Asian nation indicated they do not fear renewed sanctions, though they are “very surprised” that their plans to restore military rule without much opposition is not working.
Christine Schraner Burgener told UN correspondents on Wednesday (Mar 3) that after the Feb 1 military coup that ousted Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government from power she warned Myanmar’s army that the world’s nations and the UN Security Council “might take huge strong measures”.
“And the answer was: ‘We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past,’” the UN envoy said.
When she also warned the army that Myanmar would become isolated, Schraner Burgener said: “The answer was: ‘We have to learn to walk with only a few friends.’”
The coup reversed years of slow progress towards democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions. As the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Aung San Suu Kyi’s rise to power after 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.
Schraner Burgener noted that opposition to the coup was being spearheaded by young people who lived in freedom for 10 years, noting they “are well organised and very determined they don’t want to go back into dictatorship and isolation”. She was speaking by video link from Bern, Switzerland, on what she called “the bloodiest day since the coup”.
Schraner Burgener urged a united international community “to take the right measures”, stressing that Security Council sanctions that must be implemented by every country would be “more powerful” than sanctions by individual countries.
United Nations envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener.
The council has scheduled closed consultations for Friday on calls to reverse the coup — including from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres — and the escalating military crackdown, which Schraner Burgener said killed 38 people on Wednesday alone.
Schraner Burgener said she receives about 2,000 messages a day from people in Myanmar, many desperate to see an international response. She said she also speaks every day with representatives of the ousted Parliament and has spoken several times with the armed forces deputy commander-in-chief Soe Win most recently on Feb 15.
Schraner Burgener said the deputy commander explained in their first phone call on Feb 4 that the new State Administration Council — the name for the new ruling junta — is charged with implementing a five-step military roadmap.
That roadmap, which the junta has also published in state-run media in Myanmar, includes reconstituting the electoral commission, which rejected the military’s allegations of fraud in a November election where Suu Kyi’s party won 82 per cent of the vote. She said that has already been done.
It aims for a national cease-fire agreement with all 21 ethnic armed groups in Myanmar, which Schraner Burgener said is going to be difficult as 10 have already taken a strong stand against the coup.
It also aims at stamping out COVID-19 and recovering business activity. Its final task is holding new elections in a year.
Protesters cover with makeshift shields during an anti-coup protest in Yangon, Myanmar, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer
Schraner Burgener said in her view the military’s “tactic” was to investigate members and leaders of Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party, prove they committed crimes like election fraud, treason or working with foreigners, and put them in prison.
“And then the NLD will be banned and then they will have new elections where they want to win, and then they can continue to stay in power,” she said.
“The army had told me the plan — to threaten the people, to make arrests and then the majority of the people would go home because they have fear,” Schraner Burgener said. Then the military “have the control back again”, and people will get used to the situation “and go back to business as usual”.
She said the army is surprised by the opposition, which has been led by young people.
“I think that the army is very surprised that it doesn’t work because in the past, in 1988 and 2007 and 2008, it worked,” she said, noting the years of previous violent military crackdowns on uprisings against its rule.
Police stand on a road during an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, March 3, 2021. REUTERS/Stringer
VISIT TO MYANMAR DENIED
She has an office in the capital Naypyidaw and has been asking to return since the coup on condition she can talk to the military leaders and see representatives of the ousted parliamentarians as well as Aung San Suu Kyi and ousted President Win Myint, who are among about 1,200 people she says are detained.
“I really hope to visit Myanmar as quickly as possible,” she said. “I don’t have the solution on the silver plate, but I have some ideas which I would like to discuss.”
Schraner Burgener did not disclose the ideas.
She said the military has told her the time is not right yet for a visit. She asked if she could visit if she lifted her conditions and said she was told it would not make a difference.
During her three years as the UN special envoy, Schraner Burgener said she always warned the Security Council and the General Assembly that a coup could happen because she knew the structure of the government — that the military had the power.
Under Myanmar’s constitution, drafted under military rule, the army maintained control of many key ministries surrounding defence and security and also was guaranteed enough seats in Parliament to override any changes to the charter.
“I always felt she was on a tightrope dealing with the army,” Schraner Burgener said of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Schraner Burgener said she thought military chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, who staged the coup, was “really afraid” that Aung San Suu Kyi would have more success with reforms following her “overwhelming victory in the election”.
Myanmar police broke up demonstrations in several places with tear gas and gunfire on Thursday (Mar 4) but there was no immediate word on casualties a day after the United Nations said 38 people had been killed in the bloodiest day since last month's coup.
Undeterred by the crackdown, activists said they refused to accept the Feb. 1 military coup and were determined to press for the release of elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her victory in a November election.
"We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta," activist Maung Saungkha told Reuters.
Protesters run away as police fire tear gas in Sanchaung, Yangon on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: Naung Kham)
Police later opened fire and used tear gas to break up protests in Yangon and the central town of Monywa, witnesses said. Police also fired in the town of Pathein, to the west of Yangon, media reported.
Protesters gathered elsewhere including in the historic temple town of Bagan where hundreds marched carrying pictures of Suu Kyi and a banner saying: "Free our leader", a witness said.
In some parts of Yangon, protesters hung sheets and sarongs on lines across the street to obscure the view of police aiming their guns. They also uncoiled barbed wire to reinforce barricades.
Five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over the second city of Mandalay early on Thursday, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military might.
On Wednesday, police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds with little warning in several cities and towns, witnesses said.
UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said in New York that Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the Feb 1 coup with 38 deaths, bringing the total toll to more than 50 as the military tries to impose its authority.
"Myanmar's security forces now seem intent on breaking the back of the anti-coup movement through wanton violence and sheer brutality,” said Richard Weir, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.
In one particularly brutal incident, a man in custody appeared to have been shot in the back, the group said.
A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
Police fire tear gas at protesters in Sanchaung, Yangon on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: Naung Kham)
'FEW FRIENDS'
Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party said in a statement that flags would fly at half mast at its offices to commemorate the dead.
Schraner Burgener said she warned Myanmar deputy military chief Soe Win that the military was likely to face strong measures from some countries and isolation in retaliation for the coup.
"The answer was: 'We are used to sanctions, and we survived'," she told reporters. "When I also warned they will go (into) isolation, the answer was: 'We have to learn to walk with only few friends'."
The UN Security Council is due to discuss the situation on Friday in a closed meeting, diplomats said.
UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said the "systematic brutality" of the military was again on display.
"I urge members of the UN Security Council to view the photos/videos of the shocking violence," he said on Twitter.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was "appalled" by the violence and was evaluating how to respond.
The United States has told China it expects it to play a constructive role, he said. China has declined to condemn the coup, with Chinese state media calling it a "major cabinet reshuffle".
The European Union said the shootings of unarmed civilians and medical workers were clear breaches of international law. It also said the military was stepping up repression of the media, with a growing number of journalists arrested.
'EVERYTHING WILL BE OK'
Save the Children said four children were killed on Wednesday including a 14-year-old boy who Radio Free Asia reported was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of military trucks. The soldiers loaded his body onto a truck and left, according to the report.
Images of a 19-year-old woman, one of two shot dead in Mandalay, showed her wearing a T-shirt that read "Everything will be OK".
Police in Yangon ordered three medics out of an ambulance and beat them with gun butts and batons, video broadcast by US-funded Radio Free Asia showed. Reuters was unable to verify the video independently.
Protesters lie on the ground after police opened fire to disperse an anti-coup protest in Mandalay, Myanmar, Mar 3, 2021. Among them, Angel (bottom left), 19, also known as Kyal Sin, took cover before she was shot in the head. (Photo: REUTERS/Stringer)
The military justified the coup by saying its complaints of voter fraud in the Nov. 8 vote were ignored. Suu Kyi's party won by a landslide, earning a second term.
The election commission said the vote was fair.
Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hold new elections but given no time frame.
YANGON: At least 38 people died on Wednesday (Mar 3) in the "bloodiest" day of Myanmar's crisis, the United Nations said, as the military government defied growing international condemnation of its coup with a violent crackdown that the US said left it "appalled and revulsed".
Myanmar has been in turmoil since Feb 1 when the military ousted 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, Britain has called for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Friday, and after Wednesday's deaths the United States said it was considering further action.
But the military government has so far ignored the global condemnation, responding to the uprising with escalating strength.
A policeman popping out from a police vehicle aims a slingshot towards anti-coup protesters in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
"Only today, 38 people died," UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told reporters on Wednesday, adding that more than 50 people had died in total since the military takeover, with many more wounded.
"Today was the bloodiest day since the coup happened," she noted, without providing any further details, including a breakdown of the deaths.
She called for the UN to take "very strong measures" against the generals, adding that in her conversations with them they had dismissed the threat of sanctions.
"I will keep going on, we will not give up," she said.
The violence left the United States "appalled and revulsed", State Department spokesman Ned Price said, telling reporters: "We call on all countries to speak with one voice to condemn the brutal violence by the Burmese military against its own people."
He singled out China, a frequent US adversary that Myanmar's military has historically considered its main ally.
Policemen and soldiers armed with guns and slingshots advance towards anti-coup protesters in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
"China does have influence in the region. It does have influence with the military junta. We have called upon the Chinese to use that influence in a constructive way, in a way that advances the interests of the people of Burma," Price said.
And he said the United States, which has imposed sanctions on junta leaders, was looking at further actions.
'DEMOCRACY IS OUR CAUSE'
Earlier, AFP recorded at least 17 deaths across Myanmar on Wednesday, with Monywa in the central Sagaing region registering at least seven, according to a doctor.
Multiple medics also said they saw two other individuals being dragged away by security forces, though they could not confirm if they had died.
On the outskirts of commercial hub Yangon at least six demonstrators died, according to a rescue worker and local journalist.
Anti-coup protesters run from teargas and charging riot police and soldiers in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Parts of the city were transformed, with protesters using makeshift tyres and barbed wire barricades to block major roads.
Near the famed Sule pagoda intersection, protesters pasted print-outs of junta leader Min Aung Hlaing's face on the ground - a tactic aimed at slowing down security forces who will avoid standing on the portraits.
In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, two demonstrators were killed, a doctor confirmed to AFP, adding that one of the victims was 19 years old and was shot in the head.
Another 19-year-old protester died after being shot in Salin.
"They shouldn't have used such lethal force against the peaceful protesters," said his friend Min Pyae Phyo, through tears. "I won't forget and forgive them the rest of my life," he told AFP.
And a demonstration in Myingyan turned deadly when security forces fired 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.
Anti-coup protesters run as one of them discharges a fire extinguisher to counter the impact of tear gas fired by riot policemen in Yangon, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
Local media in northern Kachin state also reported similar scenes of violence.
In Dawei on Wednesday, one gunshot victim from Sunday, when 18 people were killed across the country, was cremated.
Mourners held floral wreaths and portraits of Lwin Lwin Oo, 33, as coffin bearers were flanked by hundreds chanting: "We are united, yes we are ... Democracy is our cause."
JOURNALISTS CHARGED
Wednesday's violence came on the heels of news that six Myanmar journalists would be charged under a law prohibiting "causing fear, spreading false news, or agitating directly or indirectly a government employee", according to their lawyer Tin Zar Oo.
Among them is Associated Press photographer Thein Zaw, who was arrested on Saturday as he covered an anti-coup demonstration in Yangon. Video emerged on Wednesday of him being held in a chokehold by police as he was handcuffed.
Anti-coup school teachers in their uniform and traditional Myanmar-hats participate in a demonstration in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Mar 3, 2021. (Photo: AP)
The other five are from Myanmar Now, Myanmar Photo Agency, 7Day News, Zee Kwet Online news and a freelancer. They face up to three years in jail.
The United States called for their release and was "forcefully making clear" that their detention was "unacceptable", Price said.
Burgener said that the generals had told her they would hold elections in "one year".
But she also said she had not been able to speak directly with the leaders since Feb 15, communicating only in writing since then.
She said she sent a "long letter" directly to the army's number two Soe Win on Sunday but had not yet heard back, though she did receive information from the army daily.
And she said she had not yet been granted permission to visit the country.
According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group, more than 1,200 people have been arrested since the coup, with about 900 still behind bars or facing charges.
But the real number is likely far higher - state-run media reported more than 1,300 people were arrested on Sunday alone.
