At least 18 dead in Myanmar on the bloodiest day of protests

Myanmar police fired on protesters across the country on Sunday in the bloodiest day of weeks of protests against a military coup and at least 18 people were killed, the UN human rights office said.

The police were soon in force and opened fire in different parts of the largest city Yangon after stun grenades, tear gas and shots in the air could not break up the crowds. Soldiers also strengthened the police.

Several wounded people were dragged away by fellow protesters and left bloody smears on sidewalks, media images showed. One man died after being taken to hospital with a bullet in the chest, said a doctor who asked not to be identified.

“Police and military forces have confronted peaceful protests, using deadly force and less than lethal force that – according to credible information received by the UN Office for the Protection of Human Rights – has killed at least 18 people and injured more than 30,” he said. UN human rights office said.

Myanmar has been in chaos since the army took power and detained elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and much of her party leadership on February 1, alleging fraud in an November election that left her party with a storm won.

The coup, which halted preliminary steps towards democracy after nearly 50 years of military rule, put hundreds of thousands on the streets and condemned Western countries.

Among the dead were three people in Dawei in the south, politician Kyaw Min Htike told Reuters.

The media-declared Myanmar Now reported that two people were killed during a demonstration in the second city of Mandalay. Security forces fired again later in the day and one woman was killed, Mandalay resident Sai Tun told Reuters.

“The medical team checked her and confirmed that she did not reach it. She was shot in the head,” Sai Tun said.

Police and the spokesman for the ruling military council did not respond to phone calls to comment.

The dead in Yangon included a teacher, Tin New Yee, who died after police spread a teacher’s protest with stun grenades and the crowd fled, her daughter and a co-teacher said.

Police also threw stun grenades outside a medical school in Yangon, scattering doctors and students in white lab coats. A group called the Whitecoat Alliance of Medici said more than 50 medical personnel had been arrested.

Police protests in other towns, including Lashio in the north east, Myeik in the deep south and Hpa-An in the east, broken up.

Junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing said last week that authorities were using minimal force to deal with the protests.

Nevertheless, at least 21 protesters have now been killed in the unrest. The army said a policeman was killed.

The repression seems to be that the military is determined to impose its authority in the face of resistance, not only on the street, but also more widely in the civil service, municipal administration, the judiciary, the education and health sector and the media.

“The Myanmar security forces’ clear increase in the use of lethal force in several cities … is outrageous and unacceptable,” Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch in New York, said in a statement.

The Canadian embassy said it was “upset about an increase in violence and the use of force against protesters”, and Indonesia, which has taken the lead within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in efforts to quell the unrest to leave, said it is deeply concerned.

According to state-run MRTV television, more than 470 people were arrested on Saturday when police began nationwide repression. It was not clear how many were detained on Sunday.

Youth activist Esther Ze Naw said the people were struggling with the fear with which they lived under military rule.

“Obviously they are trying to instill fear in us by making us run and hide,” she said. “We can not accept that.”

State television announced on Saturday that Myanmar’s UN envoy had been fired for betraying the country, urging the United Nations to use “any necessary means” to reverse the coup.

The ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, remained defiant. “I have decided to fight back for as long as I can,” he told Reuters in New York.

While Western countries have condemned the coup and imposed some limited sanctions, the generals have traditionally shaken off diplomatic pressure. They promised to hold a new election, but did not set a date.

Suu Kyi’s party and supporters said the result of the vote in November should be respected.

Suu Kyi, 75, who has spent nearly 15 years under house arrest, is facing charges of illegally importing six radio stations and violating a natural disaster law by violating coronavirus protocols. The next trial in her case is Monday.