On Sunday, authorities in Myanmar began the most violent crackdown to date on demonstrators who have been on the streets for weeks in opposition to the February 1 military coup.
Violence against unarmed and mostly peaceful protesters left 18 dead and more than 30 injured, according to the United Nations human rights office, and occurred across the country, including in the central city of Mandalay, Dawei in the southeast and Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. The crackdown has continued in recent days, with nearly 40 killed by security forces, including 13 on Wednesday.
Unlike previous conflicts in Myanmar, post-coup repression was “carried out in front of thousands of phones and cameras”, allowing real-time documentation of the extreme violence committed by authorities, said Richard Weir, a researcher at Human Rights Watch who previously lived in Myanmar.
Much of the violence on Wednesday was captured by shaky videos recorded on cell phones, with screams from protesters punctuated by the crackle of live ammunition. Young protesters with helmets and face masks used to protect against the coronavirus struggled to avoid security forces, who at times seemed to shoot at random.
The New York Times analyzed dozens of these videos, which show soldiers and police officers using a variety of weapons, including shotguns, flash bangs, tear gas grenade launchers and rifles. In at least two episodes we tracked, images captured civilians suffering from what appeared to be fatal gunshot wounds. The photographs also show that at least one of the units involved in the country’s genocidal campaign against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority appears to be involved in the crackdown.
Here’s what we know from the visual evidence.
A fatal shooting in Yangon
One of the most violent episodes on Sunday occurred in Yangon, near Hledan Junction, which has become a regular meeting place for protesters.
At around 8:30 am, the news agency Mizzima TV filmed police officers advancing west on Hledan Road.
They are seen firing stun guns and bomb-action rifles, which are capable of firing lethal and less lethal ammunition.
A video from Myanmar’s News Watch shows protesters running towards a school as they flee from police officers who continue to advance towards them.
Amid flash bangs and sounds of gunshots, some of the protesters carry the inert body of someone who appears to have been injured.
In a video captured by the local news agency Myanmar Now, another protester is motionless outside the school gate and begins to bleed in half.
Some stop to try to save the wounded. They take you away.
Dr. Rohini Haar, a medical consultant for Physicians for Human Rights, reviewed other images of the man’s body for The Times. Dr. Haar said the man’s wound appeared to be consistent with a live ammunition bullet wound.
The man, who later died, was identified by family members as Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing. He posted “#How_Many_Dead_Bodies_UN_Need_To_Take_Action” on his Facebook page the night before.
Gathering medical workers
At the same time, in another place in Yangon, in the municipality of Yankin, the video shows doctors and medical students wearing white coats also protesting peacefully.
Police aim a mixture of firearms at the crowd, including some that appear to be BA-63 rifles, which can be loaded with lethal ammunition or blank cartridges to scare the crowds away. They also fire a shotgun.
At the end of the road, protesters are seen fleeing amid flash bangs.
Some seek refuge on a side street.
But police officers gather protesters in a parking lot and load them up in police vehicles.
A notorious unit in Mandalay
In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, a protester was shot in the head through his motorcycle helmet.
U Si Thu, a doctor and protester, told The Times that the man, U Maung Maung Oo, was fleeing the police and soldiers who were trying to prevent the protesters from meeting. Two other protesters were injured, the doctor said.
Graphic videos show civilians trying to rescue the man and take him to an ambulance.
Dr. Haar told The Times that, as the man was wearing the helmet, his serious injury could not have been caused by less lethal ammunition like a rubber bullet.
Several blocks away, security forces confronting the demonstrators on Theik Pan Street were filmed tear gas burning on the grounds of the Municipal Hospital.
Soldiers photographed firing a tear gas grenade launcher on the hospital grounds and assisting the police in arrest wore a badge that Human Rights Watch’s Weir said appeared to be from the 33rd Myanmar Light Infantry Division.
The 33rd Light Infantry Division has already been implicated in what the United Nations has described as the government’s genocidal campaign against the Muslim minority Rohingya.
Shooting in crowds
In the southern city of Dawei, police opened fire on hundreds of people, witnesses said. At least three people died and more than 50 were injured, said Dr. Tun Min, who treated the wounded in a hospital.
A video shows police officers carrying a weapon similar to a BA-63 rifle and then taking turns to shoot.
TV Mizzima filmed several bodies being taken to a hospital in the city.
In Myaynigone, a neighborhood in Yangon, another video shows policemen firing shotguns, which can be loaded with lethal or less lethal ammunition. The video was filmed a few hundred meters from another video showing protesters gathered in the street before being dispersed by tear gas and flash bangs.
One of the policemen, who is carrying a purse, appears to pick up the used shotgun shells, which the protesters have photographed to prove that ammunition was being used.
According to the Association of Assistance for Political Prisoners, a defense group based in Thailand and Myanmar, about 30 people have been killed since the February 1 coup and more than 1,200 prisoners.
“The streets have become combat zones,” wrote the association on Monday. “The purpose of all this is to create fear and obedience to the military.”
The military junta that now commands the country has made it clear that it has no intention of backing down and said that “the protesters are now urging people on a path of confrontation, where they will suffer the loss of life.”
Logan Mitchell contributed reports. Additional production by Arielle Ray and Drew Jordan.