(Reuters) – Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protests on Saturday, killing at least five people, one protester and the media said, as the military stepped up its attempt to repress dissent with arrest warrants for 20 more critics. high profile.
Despite the death of more than 550 people by the security forces since the February 1 coup, protesters are leaving every day, often in small groups in small towns, to express opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of the military regime.
Security forces in the central city of Monywa, which has seen daily protests for weeks, fired on a crowd, killing at least four people and wounding several, two media organizations said.
“They started shooting non-stop with stunning grenades and real shots,” the protester in Monywa, who declined to be identified, told Reuters via a messaging app.
“People stepped back and quickly put up … barriers, but a bullet hit a person in front of me, in the head. He died on the spot. “
A man was shot dead in the southern city of Thaton, according to the online news portal Bago Weekly Journal and residents. Police also opened fire in the city center of Bago, injuring a man.
Protests also took place in Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, and in the northern city of Hpakant, the media reported.
Police and a spokesman for the military junta did not take calls for comment.
The military said the dead instigated the violence. He says he staged the coup because a November election won by Suu Kyi’s party was rigged. The electoral commission rejected the claim.
The activist group Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners, in a statement on Saturday, said security forces had killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the coup.
“People still protest every day because we strongly believe that this is a struggle between good and evil,” protest leader Tayzar San said in an audio message to Reuters.
State media announced that authorities had issued warrants for 20 other celebrities – including social media influencers, singers and models – under a law against inciting dissent in the armed forces, taking the number of warrants issued to high-profile democratic activists on the last day to 38
The charge could carry a three-year prison sentence.
SILENCING THE VOICES?
One of the wanted, actress Paing Phyoe Thu, who attended rallies in the main city of Yangon in the weeks after the coup, said she would not be intimidated.
“Whether a warrant has been issued or not, as long as I am alive, I will oppose the military dictatorship that is intimidating and killing people. The revolution must prevail, ”she said on Facebook. His whereabouts were not immediately known.
Military teams were also looking for protest leaders and several “unscrupulous” people with homemade weapons were arrested, state media reported.
The military is also campaigning to control the flow of information, ordering Internet service providers to cut wireless broadband from Friday, depriving most customers of access, although some messages and photos are still being posted. and shared.
The United States and other Western countries denounced the coup and called for the release of Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for his campaign against the military regime. She was accused of violating an act of official secrets that is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The United States also condemned the closure of the Internet.
“We hope this does not silence the voices of the people,” said a State Department spokeswoman, Jalina Porter, at a news conference.
The coup reignited old wars with ethnic minority forces in search of autonomy in the north and east.
Myanmar’s oldest insurgent group, the Karen National Union (KNU), saw the first military air strikes against its forces in more than 20 years, after announcing its support for the pro-democracy movement.
The KNU, which signed a ceasefire with the government in 2012, said more than 12,000 residents had fled their homes because of the air strikes. He called for an international embargo on arms sales to the military.
The media reported that about 20 people have been killed in air strikes in KNU territory in the past few days, including nearly a dozen at a gold mine run by the group.
Fighting also increased in the north between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil caused several thousand refugees to flee to Thailand and India.
Reporting by the Reuters team; Written by Robert Birsel; Editing by Edwina Gibbs, William Mallard and Ros Russell