Yangon, Myanmar (AP) – Police protest against demonstrators to disperse the military coup of Myanmar resist fired with warning shots and water cannons fired at crowds who were on the streets on Tuesday, despite rules that make demonstrations illegal.
Water cannons were used in Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, where witnesses said at least two warning shots were fired to try to break up the crowd. According to social media reports, police have arrested more than two dozen people there. Police also used water cannons for a second day in the capital Natpyitaw and fired shots into the air.
Police also fired rubber bullets at the crowd in Naypyitaw and wounded several people. Photos on social media showed a suspected shooter – an officer with a short-range pistol – and several injured.
Unconfirmed reports on social media were circulating of shootings with live rounds and deaths among the protesters, with the possibility of inciting violent retaliation against the authorities, against which supporters of the country’s civil disobedience movement warned. The AP could not immediately confirm the reports.
The protesters are demanding that the ousted civilian government be restored and are seeking freedom for the country’s elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other ruling party members who have been detained since the military took over and barred the new parliament from convening on February 1. word. .
The escalating defiance is striking in a country where demonstrations in the past have been met with deadly violence and are a reminder of past movements in the South Asian country’s long and bloody struggle for democracy. The military used deadly force to destroy a massive uprising in 1988 against military dictatorship and an uprising in 2007 led by Buddhist monks.
The orders issued Monday night for some areas in Yangon and Mandalay banned marches and rallies of more than five people, along with motorized marches, while also setting a curfew from 8pm to 4am. It was not immediately clear whether regulations had been instituted for other areas.
Violation of the orders, issued under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Act, is punishable by up to six months imprisonment or a fine.
Demonstrations were also held in other cities on Tuesday, including Bago – where city elders negotiated with police to avoid a violent confrontation – and Dawei, and in northern Shan state.
Unconfirmed reports on social media in Magwe in central Myanmar, where water cannons were also used, claim that several police officers came over to join the protesters. It is also said that a police officer in Naypyitaw changed sides. The AP could not immediately confirm the reports.
Crowds also gathered in Yangon, the country’s largest city where thousands of people have been protesting since Saturday, despite increased security. No violence was reported.
Soldiers did not appear to have been deployed to stop the protests, a small indication of self-control by the military government. The military has a record of brutality in the crushing uprising in the past, as well as in fighting ethnic minorities in border areas who wanted self-determination. It is also accused of carrying out genocide in its 2017 anti-insurgency campaign that drove more than 700,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority across the border to seek safety in Bangladesh.
State media on Monday referred to the protests for the first time and claimed that it endangered the country’s stability.
“Democracy can be destroyed if there is no discipline,” reads a statement from the Ministry of Information, which was read on the state television station MRTV. “We will have to take legal action to prevent acts that violate state stability, public safety and the rule of law.”
However, the military commander who led the coup and is now the leader of Myanmar made no mention of the unrest in a 20-minute television speech Monday night, his first to the public since the takeover.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing instead reiterated allegations of vote fraud that were the justification for the takeover of the army, allegations that were refuted by the state election commission. He added that his junta would hold new elections in a year and hand over power to the winners, explaining the junta’s proposed policy for COVID-19 control and the economy.
The general’s remarks, which included encouragement to foreign investors, did nothing to ease concerns about the coup in the international community.
The UN Human Rights Council, the 47-member body in Geneva, is holding a special session on Friday to consider “the human rights implications of the crisis in Myanmar”.
Britain and the European Union were at the forefront of the request for the session, which amounts to a striking public debate among diplomats over the situation in Myanmar and could lead to a resolution expressing concern about the situation or recommending international action.
The call for the special session – the 29th in the council’s almost 15-year history – needs the support of at least one third of the council’s 47 member states.
New Zealand has suspended all military and high-level political contact with Myanmar, Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta announced on Tuesday in Wellington, adding that any New Zealand aid may not go to or benefit from Myanmar’s military government. be not.
“We do not recognize the legitimacy of the military-led government and call on the military to release all detained political leaders immediately and restore civilian government,” Mahuta said. She said New Zealand was also imposing a travel ban on military leaders and had joined other countries in requesting the special session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
——-
Associated Press author Jamey Keaten in Geneva and Nick Perry in Wellington, New Zealand, contributed to this report.