UN: 38 killed in ‘bloodiest day’ of protests in Myanmar

The United Nations (UN) says at least 38 people were killed in Myanmar on Wednesday, marking the bloodiest day of protests against the recent military coup in the Southeast Asian country.

Security forces opened fire with live bullets on people in several towns and cities to break up protests on Wednesday, giving little advance warning, witnesses said.

They claimed that at least eight people were killed in the main city of Yangon, one early in the day and seven others in the early evening.

A doctor told AFP that one protester had been shot in the chest in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay while another, a 19-year-old woman, had been shot in the head.

“It’s horrific, it’s a massacre. No words can describe the situation and our feelings,” a youth activist said.

UN rights office denounces military crackdown on peaceful protesters in Myanmar, says 18 killed

The UN rights office censures the police crackdown on peaceful protesters, saying at least 18 people have been killed.

Save the Children said in a statement that four children were among the dead, including a 14-year-old boy who Radio Free Asia reported was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of military trucks in Myingyan.

Hundreds of protesters were also arrested, local media reported.

United Nations (UN) Special Envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener described Wednesday’s death toll as “shocking.”

“I saw today very disturbing video clips. One was [showing] police beating a volunteer medical crew; they were not armed,” Burgener said. “Another video clip showed a protester was taken away from police and they shot him from very near, maybe one meter. He didn’t resist his arrest and it seems he died on the street.”

Earlier on Wednesday, videos from various locations showed security forces firing slingshots at demonstrators, chasing them down, and even beating an ambulance crew member with rifle butts and batons.

Burgener said Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the military junta seized power on February 1.

She said about 1,200 people had been detained in Myanmar since then and many families were unaware of their health condition and whereabouts.

Burgener said more than 50 people had died in total since the coup started, with many more having been wounded.

The envoy further called on the UN to take “very strong measures” against the military rulers, stressing that there needs to be a unity of the international community to stop the crisis in Myanmar.

The latest round of violence came a day after Myanmar’s neighbors called on the country’s military rulers to release former de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and end the use of lethal force against anti-coup protesters.

Myanmar army says ready for sanctions, isolation

Meanwhile, Myanmar’s military has dismissed threats of sanctions and isolation after Burgener warned the country’s deputy military chief Soe Win of firm action.

Burgener said that in conversations with Win, she had warned him that the military was likely to face strong measures from some countries and isolation in retaliation for the coup.

“The answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions, and we survived,’” the UN official told reporters. “When I also warned they will go in isolation, the answer was, ‘We have to learn to walk with only few friends.’”

Myanmar crackdown intensifies: Multiple fatalities in latest protests

Police have killed at least three people and wounded several others in a single day as demonstrations against an early February military junta enters the fourth week in Myanmar.

Burgener is due to brief the UN Security Council on the developments in Myanmar on Friday.

She has warned that the situation in Myanmar is not an internal affair and that “it hits the stability of the region.”

‘We choose this dangerous road’

Meanwhile, pro-democracy activists in Myanmar have pledged to hold more demonstrations following the most violent day of unrest.

“We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta so we choose this dangerous road to escape,” an activist told Reuters on Thursday.

“We will fight the junta in any way we can. Our ultimate goal is to remove the junta system from the roots,” said another activist, adding that his General Strike Committee of Nationalities group had planned to hold a protest on Thursday.

Other activists said on social media that at least two more demonstrations were planned in Yangon.

Five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over Mandalay early on Thursday, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military force.

For about the past four weeks, Myanmar has been the scene of daily protests against the military, which grabbed power in the coup on February 1. The army ousted the government of Suu Kyi and arrested her and several political leaders, claiming that it had found fraud in a November 2020 election that her party won in a landslide.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people in the Southeast Asian country have held numerous protests against the coup leaders almost on a daily basis, demanding the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees.

The junta has also come under pressure by the international community to hand over power to civilians and release the former officials.

The generals have, however, ignored the global condemnation so far, responding to the uprising by escalating their crackdown.

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