At least 149 people have been killed in Myanmar since the February 1 coup, including five in custody, a UN human rights official said, while mass funerals were held for dozens of gunmen killed by security forces in the past few days.
The revised death toll estimate follows the bloodiest day in the six weeks since the seizure of power by the military, with 74 protesters killed on Sunday, followed by 20 people the next day.
Mass funerals were held in Yangon on Tuesday, with hundreds of people gathering in different counties to say goodbye to the dead.
A crematorium in Yangon reported 31 funerals, said a mourner at one of the ceremonies. Hundreds of people took to the streets to say goodbye to medical student Khant Nyar Hein, who died in Yangon on Sunday.
“Let them kill me now, let them kill me in my son’s place because I can’t take it anymore,” said the student’s mother in a video clip posted on Facebook.
The mourners shouted, “Our revolution must prevail.”
Some families told the media that security forces seized the bodies of loved ones, but would still hold a funeral.
Most of Sunday’s deaths occurred in the impoverished municipality of Hlaing Tharyar in Yangon, a clothing production area with factories mostly owned by Chinese – several of which were destroyed on Sunday.
Burmese media Irrawaddy published photos of residents fleeing the municipality on Tuesday, crowding trucks lodged in columns of winding traffic. Some carried their pets on the backs of motorcycles, while others stuffed their belongings in vinyl bags in tuk-tuks.
“We can see people on the roads as far as the eye can see,” reported the Democratic Voice of Burma vehicle.
One resident told Agence France-Presse about the exodus, saying that people wanted to leave at dawn and the demonstrators removed makeshift barricades – erected to slow down the security forces – to release them.
“After 9:00 am, residents again blocked the roads with barriers. They only allowed people to leave in the morning, ”she said, adding that security forces were deployed on the main roads in the municipality. “We dare not go out into the street,” she said.
Estimates of the death toll rose again on Tuesday when a protester was shot dead in the central city of Kawlin, a resident there said.
People held up photos of deposed civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and called for an end to repression during a small protest in the southern city of Dawei, Dawei Watch media reported. There was no report of violence.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, was shocked by the escalation of the violence and called on the international community to help end the repression, his spokesman said, while the United States also denounced the bloodshed.
“The military is trying to overturn the results of a democratic election and is brutally cracking down on peaceful protesters,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Tokyo.
Ravina Shamdasani, a UN human rights spokesman, said at a press conference in Geneva, where she gave the revised death toll: “We ask the military to stop killing and detaining the demonstrators.”
At least 37 journalists have been arrested in Myanmar, including 19 who remain in detention, while five people have died in custody, she said.
State broadcaster MRTV said that martial law was enforced in parts of Yangon and that military commanders would take over the administration of districts and courts.
The army said it took power after its charges of fraud in the November 8 elections, won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, were rejected by the electoral commission. He promised to hold a new election, but did not set a date.
The military ruled the former British colony for decades after a 1962 coup and severely repressed the uprisings before beginning a provisional transition to democracy a decade ago.
This has been reversed and, instead, protests and a campaign of civil disobedience strikes are paralyzing large parts of the economy and could undermine the ability of poor families to feed themselves, the UN World Food Program said.
The WFP said that the price of rice has gone up by 35% in northern parts and the prices of cooking oil and legumes have also gone up, while the cost of fuel has gone up 15% since the coup.
“These rising food and fuel prices are exacerbated by the near paralysis of the banking sector, a slowdown in remittances and widespread limits on the availability of money,” said the WFP.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, has been detained since the coup and faces several charges, including illegal importation of walkie-talkie radios and violation of coronavirus protocols.
Sunday’s arson attacks on 32 Chinese factories in an industrial district in Yangon have sparked China’s strongest comments about the turmoil in its neighbor. He urged the military to stop the violence, punish the perpetrators and protect its people.