Mar 04,2021: Myanmar pro-democracy activists were back out on the streets on Thursday to demonstrate against military rule a day after the United Nations said 38 people had been killed in the most violent day of unrest since last month’s coup.
Police opened fire to break up a protest in the town of Pathein, to the west of Yangon, early on Thursday, media reported, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
On Wednesday, police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds with little warning in several cities and towns, witnesses said, a day after the neighbouring countries had called on the junta to show restraint.
Regardless of the danger, activists said they refused to live under military rule and were determined to press for the release of elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her victory in the election in November.
“We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta,” activist Maung Saungkha told Reuters.
In some parts of Yangon, protesters hung sheets and sarongs on lines across the street to spoil the view of police aiming their guns. They also uncoiled barbed wire to reinforce barricades.
Five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over the second city of Mandalay early on Thursday, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military might.
U.N. special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said in New York that Wednesday was the bloodiest day since the Feb. 1 coup with 38 deaths, bringing the total toll to more than 50 as the military tries to cement its power.
A rights group and some media have given different numbers of wounded and killed in Wednesday’s violence. The dead included four children, an aid agency said. Media reported that hundreds of protesters were arrested.
Earlier on Wednesday, videos from various locations showed security forces firing slingshots at demonstrators, chasing them down, and even beating an ambulance crew with rifle butts and batons.
