Protesters holding up coup posters shouting slogans through megaphones at the courthouse.
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Large crowds rallied in Myanmar on Sunday to unleash a military coup on February 1 in a protest of defiance after the bloodiest episode of the campaign for democracy the previous day, when security forces fired on protesters and killed two.
The military could not suppress the protests and civil disobedience of strikes against the coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with a promise of new elections and stern warnings against inconsistency.
Tens of thousands of people gathered peacefully in the second city of Mandalay, where Saturday’s killings took place, witnesses said.
“They targeted the heads of unarmed civilians. They targeted our future,” a young protester told the crowd.
Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun did not respond to Reuters’ attempts to contact him by telephone for comment.
He told a news conference on Tuesday that the army’s actions were within the constitution and supported by most people, and he blamed the protesters for inciting violence.
In the capital city of Yangon, thousands of mostly young people gathered in different places to sing and sing slogans.
“Our young people have our dreams, but this military coup has created so many obstacles,” Ko Pay said in Yangon. “That’s why we appear in the protests.”
In Myitkyina in the north, people laid flowers for the dead protesters. Large crowds marched in the central towns of Monywa and Bagan, in Dawei and Myeik in the south, Myawaddy in the east and Lashio in the northeast.
A protester tied her head after she was beaten by security forces during a protest against the military coup in Mandalay on February 20, 2021.
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At the Inle Lake tourist spot, people, including Buddhist monks, went to a flotilla of boats carrying portraits of Suu Kyi up and ended signs “Military coup”.
The protest action of more than two weeks was largely peaceful until Saturday, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule until 2011.
It seems unlikely that the violence will end the unrest.
“The number of people will increase … We will not stop,” protester Yin Nyein Hmway said in Yangon.
‘Aggressive protesters’
The trouble in Mandalay began with confrontations between the security forces and striking shipyard workers.
Video clips on social media show members of the security forces shooting at protesters and witnesses said they found the used patterns of live rounds.
The UN’s special rapporteur for Tom Andrews, Myanmar, said he was horrified by the deaths of the two, one of them a teenage boy.
“From water cannons to rubber bullets to tear gas and now hardened troops firing at peaceful protesters. This madness must end now,” he said on Twitter.
The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said the strikers sabotaged boats at the city’s river port and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults. Eight policemen and several soldiers were injured.
“Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured due to the security measures taken by the security forces in accordance with the law,” the newspaper said without mentioning the deaths.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) has condemned the violence by security forces in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.
A young female protester, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, became the first dead among the protesters on Friday. She was shot in the head on February 9 in the capital Naypyitaw.
Hundreds of people attended her funeral on Sunday.
Military media said that the bullet that killed her did not come from a gun used by the police and that it therefore had to be fired by an ‘external weapon’.
The army says one policeman died from injuries sustained in a protest.
‘Coordination of damage’
The military took over after he allegedly cheated in the November 8 election that the NLD swept and detained Suu Kyi and others. The Electoral Commission dismissed the fraud charges.
Facebook has deleted the army’s main page for repeated violations of its standards ‘banning incitement to violence and coordinating damage’ and Western countries condemning the coup have rejected the violence.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned”.
France, Singapore, Britain and Germany also condemned the violence, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said lethal force was unacceptable.
The United States, Britain and others have announced limited sanctions, focusing on military leaders, but the generals have long been taking off foreign pressure.
Suu Kyi is facing charges of violating a law on the management of natural disasters, as well as the illegal importation of six radio stations. Her next court appearance is on March 1.
According to a rights group, 569 people were detained in connection with the coup.