At least 149 people have been killed in the February 1 coup in Myanmar, including five in custody, a UN human rights official said as mass funerals were held for dozens of people shot dead by security forces in recent days.
The revised death toll follows the bloodiest day in the six weeks since the army took over, with 74 protesters killed on Sunday, followed by 20 people the next day.
Mass funerals were held in Yangon on Tuesday, with hundreds of mourners gathered in various townships to tell delegates.
At a crematorium in Yangon, 31 funerals were reported, a mourner said at one of the ceremonies. Hundreds of people washed up after the farewell from the street to medical student Khant Nyar Hein, who was killed in Yangon on Sunday.
“Let them kill me now, let them kill me instead of my son, because I can no longer,” the student’s mother saw in a video posted on Facebook.
Mourners chanted: “Our revolution must triumph.”
Some families have told the media the security forces have seized the bodies of loved ones but they will still hold a funeral.
Most of Sunday’s deaths took place in the impoverished Hlaing Tharyar Congregation in Yangon, an area that produces clothing with Chinese – owned factories, several of which were razed Sunday.
Burmese media Irrawaddy on Tuesday published photos of residents fleeing the township and crowding them on flat trucks sitting in columns of wrong traffic. Some carried their pets on the backs of motorcycles, while others stuffed their belongings in vinyl bags on tuk-tuks.
“We can see the people on the roads as far as one can see,” the Burmese Democratic voice reported.
A resident told Agence France-Presse about the exodus, saying that people wanted to leave at dawn and protesters removed implemented barricades – erected to slow down the security forces – to let them out.
After 09:00, residents blocked the roads again with barriers. They allowed people to leave only in the morning, ”she said, adding that security forces had been deployed on the highways of the congregation. “We dare not go out on the street,” she said.
The death toll rose again on Tuesday when one of the protesters was shot dead in central Kawlin city, a resident said.
People held photos of ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and during a small rally in the southern city of Dawei put an end to the repression, the media report Dawei Watch reported. There was no report of violence.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres was outraged at the escalating violence and called on the international community to end the repression, his spokesman said, while the US also denounced the bloodshed.
“The military is trying to overthrow the outcome of a democratic election and is brutally suppressing peaceful protesters,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Tokyo.
UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said during a briefing in Geneva where she gave the revised death toll: “We call on the military to stop killing and continuing the protesters. “
At least 37 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar, including 19 who remain in custody while five people have died in custody, she said.
State broadcaster MRTV said martial law had been instituted in parts of Yangon and that military commanders would take over the administration of districts and courts.
The military has said it has seized power after rejecting allegations of fraud in the November 8 election by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy by the Electoral Commission. It promised to hold a new election but did not set a date.
The army ruled the former British colony for decades after a coup in 1962 and staged uprisings hard before embarking on a tentative transition to democracy a decade ago.
It has been reversed, but the protests and civil disobedience of strikes paralyze large parts of the economy and could undermine the ability of poor families to feed themselves, the UN’s World Food Program.
The WFP said that the price of rice in parts of the north had risen by as much as 35%, and that prices for cooking oil and pulse had also been higher, while fuel costs had risen by 15% since the coup.
“These rising food and fuel prices are exacerbated by the near-paralysis of the banking sector, the slowdown in overpayments and widespread restrictions on the availability of cash,” the WFP said.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, has been detained since the coup and is facing various charges, including illegal importation of walkie-talkie radios and violation of coronavirus protocols.
Sunday’s arson attacks on 32 factories invested in China’s industrial district in Yangon have led to China’s strongest remarks about the unrest in its neighboring country. It called on the military to stop the violence, punish offenders and protect its people.