YANGON: Myanmar's military accused anti-junta protesters of arson and violence as Western countries imposed more sanctions on individuals and groups linked to last month's coup and an ensuing brutal crackdown on dissent.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said 164 protesters had been killed in the violence and expressed sadness at the deaths.
"They are also our citizens," he told a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw on Tuesday (Mar 23).
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group says at least 261 people have been killed in the harsh crackdown by security forces.
Three people were killed in Myanmar's second city, Mandalay in unrest on Monday, including a teenage boy, witnesses and news reports said.
Security forces staged more raids in parts of Yangon on Monday night with shots fired and some people wounded, the Mizzima news service reported.
Demonstrators are seen behind barricades during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay, Myanmar on Mar 22, 2021. (Photo: Reuters)
The junta has tried to justify the coup by saying a Nov 8 election won by Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy (NLD) was fraudulent - an accusation the electoral commission rejected. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date and have declared a state of emergency.
Zaw Min Tun blamed protesters for violence and arson and said nine members of the security forces had been killed.
"Can we call these peaceful protesters?" he said, while showing a video of factories on fire. "Which country or organisation would regard this violence as peaceful?"
He said strikes and hospitals not fully operating had caused deaths, including from COVID-19, calling them "undutiful and unethical".
This photo taken and received courtesy of an anonymous source on Mar 22, 2021 shows a protester pushing a cement ring past a burning barricade during a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations against the military coup in Mandalay. (Photo: AFP/Handout)
The spokesman also accused media of "fake news" and fanning unrest and said reporters could be prosecuted if they were in contact with the CRPH, as the remnants of Aung San Suu Kyi's government is known locally. The military has declared the CRPH an illegal organisation.
He gave granular details or how the NLD had created hundreds or even thousands of extra ballots in numerous townships by inventing voters, including in Aung San Suu Kyi's own constituency. Videos of people saying they were paid by NLD representatives were shown at the news conference.
Also shown was video testimony of former Yangon chief minister Phyo Min Thein saying he visited Aung San Suu Kyi multiple times and gave her money "whenever needed".
Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for her campaign to bring democratic civilian rule to Myanmar, is being held in detention. Her lawyer says the charges are trumped up.
OVERNIGHT PROTESTS
There were also more examples of demonstrations overnight staged without people in a bid to avoid becoming targeted by security forces trying to stamp out organised rallies.
In Hsipaw in Shan State the names of dead protesters written on cards were laid out next to candles with a sign reading "We spirits don’t want the junta", DVB TV News reported.
Elsewhere, helium-filled balloons were released on Monday bearing messages calling for international help. Street protesters were replaced by toy cars or dolls, some led by cardboard cutouts or manikins dressed in outfits.
This photo taken and received courtesy of an anonymous source via Facebook on Mar 22, 2021 show residents setting free balloons with messages relating to "R2P", or the "Responsibility to Protect" principle in Yangon's Hlaing township. (Photo: AFP/Handout)
The European Union and the United States imposed sanctions on Monday against individuals involved in the coup and the repression of the demonstrators.
The EU sanctions were the bloc's most significant response since the overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi's elected government on Feb 1.
The 11 people it targeted included General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of the Myanmar military and head of the junta that has taken power.
The EU already has an arms embargo on Myanmar and has targeted some senior military officials since 2018.
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters before the meeting that the military repression "has reached an unbearable extent".
This handout photo taken and released by Dawei Watch on Mar 22, 2021 shows protesters taking part in a demonstration against the military coup in the coastal city of Dawei. (Photo: AFP/Dawei Watch)
Stronger measures are expected soon as the bloc moves to take aim at businesses run by the military, EU diplomats said.
Washington had already sanctioned Min Aung Hlaing and the measures announced on Monday expanded the list.
The US action targeted senior policeman Than Hlaing and military officer Aung Soe, as well as two Burmese Army divisions, the 33rd Light Infantry and 77th Light Infantry.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said members of the 33rd Division had fired live rounds into a crowd in Mandalay. Both units were part of the security forces' "planned systemic strategies to ramp up the use of lethal force", he said.
There was no immediate response from the junta, which has shown no sign so far of being swayed by international condemnation of its actions.
BOULDER, Colorado: A United States police officer killed in a mass shooting at a Colorado supermarket on Monday (Mar 22) had seven children and had been looking for a new job in order to protect his family, his father said.
The shooting in Boulder, Colorado, left nine other people dead while a suspect injured in the violence was arrested, authorities told a news conference late on Monday.
Officer Eric Talley was the first on the scene, Boulder police chief Maris Herold said, lauding his intervention as "heroic".
Talley, 51, joined the police more than a decade ago and had been looking to eventually find a new line of work, his father Homer said in a statement issued to local media.
"He was looking for a job to keep himself off of the frontlines and was learning to be a drone operator. He didn't want to put his family through something like this," Homer Talley said.
"He had seven children. The youngest is 7-years-old. He loved his kids and his family more than anything."
Amid an outpouring of grief, a man named Jeremy Herko who said he'd met Talley at "the academy", described him as one of his best friends.
"He was a devout Christian, he had to buy a 15-passenger van to haul all his kids around, and he was the nicest guy in the world," Herko wrote in a Facebook post.
The Boulder Police Department tweeted a photo of Talley in uniform. "Rest in peace Officer Eric Talley. Your service will never be forgotten," the department said.
Talley was featured in a 2013 article as one of three police officers who helped save ducks stuck in a drainage ditch.
He waded into calf-deep water to rescue the ducks from the pipes, according to the article in the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper.
Talley is the sixth on-duty death in the Boulder Police Department's history and the first officer killed in the line of duty since 1994, the Boulder Daily Camera reported.
"He was, by all accounts, one of the outstanding officers at the Boulder Police Department and his life was cut far too short," said Michael Dougherty, the Boulder County district attorney.
The bloodshed in Boulder marked the second deadly US mass shooting in a week, following gun violence last week that left eight people dead in the wider Atlanta area. A 21-year-old man has been charged with those killings.
HONG KONG: Eight Hong Kong activists, jailed in China last year after being captured at sea, arrived back in the city and were immediately detained on Monday (Mar 22) in a case that has drawn international attention and concern over their treatment.
Dubbed by supporters as "The Hong Kong 12", the group was picked up by Chinese coast guard last August as they tried to make a break for nearby Taiwan.
Those on board were being prosecuted for actions linked to Hong Kong's huge and often violent protests in 2019.
The charges they faced ranged from rioting and attempted arson to possession of offensive weapons and making explosives.
They were eventually convicted by a Shenzhen court of illegally crossing the maritime border and sentenced to seven-month jail terms.
On Monday, eight of them were handed over to Hong Kong police having completed their sentences.
"They have been deported in batches on the day in accordance with the law," police in Yantian, the mainland district where the group were jailed, said in a statement.
Hong Kong police confirmed their return in a separate statement.
Images published by local media showed some of those being returned had black hoods placed over their heads as they were marched by officers into a Hong Kong police station close to the border with the mainland.
Among those returned into Hong Kong custody on Monday was Andy Li. Before he fled, he was arrested under a sweeping national security law Beijing imposed on Hong Kong last year.
More than 100 people have been arrested under the law which carries up to life in prison.
Another of the returned fugitives is a dual national with Hong Kong and Portuguese citizenship.
Two teens in the group - a 16- and 17-year old - were returned to Hong Kong last December.
The two remaining members of the group were given longer sentences for organising an illegal border crossing and remain in prison on the mainland.
Activist and barrister Chow Hang-tung, speaking on behalf of a concern group for the defendants, said she was unhappy with the handover arrangements for them.
"(Authorities) never communicated with the family about the whole arrangement so the family members are forced to come here and wait all day until now," Chow said at a press briefing outside a Hong Kong police station close to the mainland border.
"Just for the very thin hope of seeing their families, waving to them, shouting to them, even till now, they still haven’t had any chance to meet their sons."
Johnny Patterson, policy director for rights group Hong Kong Watch, said the "appalling ordeal" the group faced "shines a spotlight on the draconian new normal in Hong Kong."
"It's a case of out of the frying pan, into the fire."
Beijing and Hong Kong authorities have taken a tougher stance on the city's protest movement over the past year, implementing a tough national security law aimed at cracking down on dissent.
In February, 47 activists and lawmakers were charged for subversion under the security law over their involvement in an unofficial primary election that authorities say was part of a plan to paralyse the government. Most of the city’s prominent activists are currently in jail or in self-exile abroad.
Hong Kong was promised it would be allowed to maintain its separate political, economic and social systems for 50 years following the handover, including considerably greater freedoms of speech and protest than permitted in mainland China.
Critics say Chinese moves, including the imposition of the national security law, widespread arrests of critics and the impending changes to Hong Kong's electoral system, have all but nullified that pledge.
YANGON: Protesters honked car horns in Myanmar on Monday (Mar 22) and planted posters in an empty square to avoid arrest, injury or death as the European Union approved sanctions on 11 people linked to last month's coup and subsequent crackdown.
At least 250 people have been killed so far in anti-junta protests which the security forces are trying to stamp out, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group.
"The number of murders has reached an unbearable extent, which is why we will not be able to avoid imposing sanctions," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters as he arrived in Brussels for a meeting with his EU counterparts.
Maas later said the "excesses of violence" in Myanmar was "absolutely unacceptable".
The EU placed Myanmar junta chief Min Aung Hlaing on an assets freeze and visa ban blacklist.
Min Aung Hlaing is "responsible for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar", the bloc's official journal said.
The bloc also hit nine other senior military officers and the head of Myanmar's election commission with sanctions in the form of travel bans and asset freezes.
Anti-coup protesters hold red balloons, calling for foreign intervention to aid them in downtown Yangon, Myanmar on Mar 22, 2021. (Photo: AP)
According to diplomats and two internal documents seen by Reuters last week, the EU is also planning to target companies "generating revenue for, or providing financial support to, the Myanmar Armed Forces".
"We don't intend to punish the people of Myanmar but those who blatantly violate human rights," Maas said.
A spokesman for the junta did not respond to calls seeking comment. He has previously said security forces have used force only when necessary.
The Southeast Asian nation has been locked in crisis since the elected government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was overthrown by the military on Feb 1.
The violence has forced many citizens to think up novel ways to express their rejection of a return to army rule.
CAR HORNS, SHOTS
In downtown areas of the commercial capital Yangon, motorists honked car horns in response to a call on social media to mark the one-month anniversary of the launch of one of the biggest demonstrations since the coup.
In the western town of Mindat in Chin state, protesters planted scores of posters in a square in front of the main market saying "Military dictatorship must fail".
Anti-coup protesters flash three-fingered gesture, a symbol of resistance, during a rally outside their homes in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, on Mar 22, 2021. (Photo: AP)
In the latest violence, one person was killed in the country's second city of Mandalay, aid workers and news reports said.
Four people were killed and several wounded in the city on Sunday when security forces opened fire after residents tried to resist efforts by the military to set up a base in a school, the Myanmar Now news portal reported.
One man was shot dead and several were wounded when police opened fire on a group setting up a barricade in the central town of Monywa, a doctor there said on Sunday as a community group issued a call on Facebook for blood donors.
"Sniper, sniper," people can be heard shouting in a video clip shortly after the man was shot in the head in Monywa and more shots rang out.
State media said on Sunday that men on motorcycles attacked a member of the security forces who later died. The military said two policemen were killed in earlier protests.
SOUTHEAST ASIAN DIPLOMATIC PUSH
The junta says a Nov 8 election won by Aung San Suu Kyi's party was fraudulent, an accusation rejected by the electoral commission. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date.
Asian neighbours, who have for years avoided criticising each other, have begun speaking out.
Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan visited Brunei Darussalam on Monday before going to Malaysia and Indonesia, which are seeking an urgent meeting of Southeast Asia's ASEAN regional grouping, of which Myanmar is a member.
Singapore, which has deep economic ties with Myanmar, has previously called the military action a "national shame".
The BBC said on Monday that one of its reporters in Myanmar who was detained by plainclothes men three days ago had been freed. Aung Thura, from the BBC's Burmese service, was detained on Friday along with a journalist who works for the domestic Mizzima news service.
There was no immediate word on the whereabouts of the Mizzima reporter.
The military has unleashed a crackdown against anti-coup protesters. (Photo: AFP)
Australian media reported that two Australian business consultants were detained as they tried to leave Myanmar, but it was not clear why. An Australian foreign ministry spokesperson said it was providing consular assistance but declined to comment further for privacy reasons.
Sean Turnell, an Australian economic adviser to deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was detained last month. The army has not announced any charges against Turnell, who is among nearly 2,000 people the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners says have been detained since the coup.
"Every day I imagine the moment my phone rings and you are at the other end of the line, telling me you are your way home," Turnell's wife Ha Vu wrote on her Facebook page on Monday. "I pray for that day to be soon. In the meantime, I irrevocably believe that you are still treated well, with dignity and respect."
