In many districts of the largest city, Yangon, on Saturday and Sunday, witnesses reported sounds of gunshots and shock grenades. Terrified residents watched and filmed as security forces invaded residential areas in the city and made several nighttime arrests. Residents told Reuters the police fired and gave no reason for the arrests, which continued until the early hours of Sunday.
“On the night of his arrest, Khin Maung Latt was tortured to death in his cell,” the AAPP said in a press release on Sunday. Reports of bruises on Khin Maung Latt’s head and body raised suspicions that he had been abused, NLD lawmaker Ba Myo Thein told Reuters.
CNN cannot independently verify this report and the details surrounding Khin Maung Latt’s death are not immediately clear.
Khin Maung Latt had worked as a campaign manager for one of the two Muslim lawmakers elected in 2020. The mourners met for his funeral on Sunday in Yangon.
Hospital occupation fears
Over the weekend, Myanmar troops were seen occupying hospitals and universities in Yangon and Mandalay, according to local media Myanmar Now. Activists fear that their presence could harm the treatment of injured protesters or make it possible to arrest them.
On Monday, the international group Doctors for Human Rights condemned the “invasion and occupation of public hospitals and the use of unrestrained excessive force against civilians”.
“If it was not obvious before, it is absolutely clear now: the Myanmar military will not stop violating the rights of the people of Myanmar until the international community takes decisive action to prevent and respond to these outrageous acts,” the group said in a statement. .
Human Rights Doctors said the military occupation of hospitals was “a violation of international law – which only serves to further undermine a health system already faced by the Covid-19 pandemic and the military’s recent coup d’état.”
“This widespread siege of hospitals follows several days of injuries and prominent civilian victims and can be interpreted as a direct attempt to prevent access to care for civilians,” said a statement by Sandra Mon, from the Center for Public Health and Human Rights in Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“It is also a threat to attend doctors to warn them against the treatment of injured protesters. Myanmar military personnel are with impunity, despite their intentional acts of night terror. We may be seeing a national increase in military retaliation against peaceful protesters and doctors in the United States. coming days come. ”
Myanmar’s unions called for a national strike on Monday as part of a civil disobedience campaign against the coup. Eighteen unions from the main industries, including agriculture, energy, mining, construction, food and transport, called for a “total shutdown of the Myanmar economy”.
“Myanmar’s labor organizations are united in support of an extensive work stoppage across the country against the military coup and for the future of democracy in Myanmar,” says a joint statement. “No one can force any citizen of Myanmar to work; we are not slaves to the military junta now and we never will be.”
Meanwhile, women’s groups have asked people to appear on Monday to mark International Women’s Day and to “fly” their Htamains (sarong) as part of the anti-junta movement. The images showed women marching with their Htamains flying like flags behind them, or hanging on the streets in front of the barricades.
As protests continued on Monday, at least two people died in the northern city of Myitkyina after police opened fire on protesters, according to Reuters, who cited witnesses. Several others were injured in the violence.
Weekend of violence
The call for the strike follows massive protests on Sunday, which were violently suppressed by the military, according to Myanmar Now. Reports say security forces fired live and rubber bullets in cities across the country, including Mandalay and Nyaung-U – close to the ancient city and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Bagan.
Myanmar military personnel were filmed beating a man on the streets of Mandalay, and in Nyaung-U, images obtained by Reuters showed security forces in shock equipment with shields marching through the streets shooting live and rubber bullets while the protesters protected themselves.
Images from the local media show the bullets in the hands of the demonstrators that were used against them. Witnesses told CNN that the police were also holding small daggers, forcing protesters to disperse.
At least 1,790 people have been detained, arrested, charged or convicted by the military junta since it took power, according to the AAPP watchdog group.
The AAPP said the junta was “intentionally terrorizing residents with live ammunition in Yangon”.
“After brutal repressions against peaceful protests yesterday (Saturday) by the police and the military, brutal acts continued into the night, raids on residential areas and houses, gunshots and illegal searches and arrests,” said AAPP.
Deadly violence against protesters drew hundreds of thousands of people to join demonstrations and campaigns of civil disobedience in towns and cities across the country. Some of them were policemen, who broke through the ranks to join the protesters.
Last week, an official from the state of Chin – which borders India and Bangladesh – requested the arrest and return of eight police officers who sought refuge in the Indian state of Mizoram.
In the letter to his Indian counterpart, the deputy commissioner in Myanmar’s Falam district said they should be returned “to maintain friendly relations”. According to a letter obtained by CNN, of the eight employees, four are about 20 years old.
Speaking at a news conference, India’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Anurag Srivastava, said: “From now on, we are investigating the facts. We will be back as soon as we have more details.”
Srivastava said that India is keeping an eye on the situation in Myanmar. “We are talking to our partner countries about this. We have already said that the issue must be resolved peacefully,” he said.
Meanwhile, Australia said on Monday it had suspended a bilateral defense cooperation program with the Myanmar military after the coup and the “escalation of violence and death toll”, said Foreign Minister Marise Payne.
The program was restricted to non-combat areas, such as English language training, but it has been criticized by human rights groups for engaging with the military, despite documented abuses and conflicts in ethnic states. Critics also cited the 2017 military offensive against Rohingya civilians in Rakhine state, which forced 740,000 people to flee to neighboring Bangladesh and spawned a case of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Payne said in a statement that Australia’s aid program will be redirected to “the immediate humanitarian needs of the most vulnerable and poor, including the Rohingyas and other ethnic minorities”.
Philip Wang, Zahid Mahmood, Vedika Sud and Sarah Faidell of CNN contributed to the report.