Repression is intensifying in Burma. Two demonstrators were killed and around thirty were injured Saturday, February 20 in Mandalay, in central Burma, by fire from the police during an anti-junta rally, the most severe violence since the coup State of 1is February. Several hundred police were deployed in the afternoon to a shipyard in the country’s second city, raising fears of arrests of employees mobilized against the coup. Protesters banged on pots in an attempt to prevent arrests, some throwing projectiles at the police who then fired.
Two people died, including a minor who was shot in the head, rescuers told AFP, reporting about 30 injured. “Half of the victims were targeted by live ammunition. This escalation in violence comes the day after the death of a 20-year-old grocer, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, shot and wounded on February 9.
“The bullet that pierced her hit all of our heads”
The junta in power since the coup d’état continues to increase the pressure on the pro-democracy movement. Despite this, several thousand protesters, including representatives of many ethnic minorities in traditional dress, again took to the streets of Rangoon, the economic capital, on Saturday. They demand the return of civilian government, the release of detainees and the abolition of the Constitution which is very favorable to the military.
Near the famous Shwedagon Pagoda in the city center, a funeral wreath has been laid in homage to Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing. “The bullet that pierced her hit all of our heads,” said one protestor. “You are our martyr,” wrote another, placing a white rose at the foot of his portrait. A funeral service is scheduled to take place on Sunday.Almost three weeks after the putsch which overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi and put an end to a fragile ten-year democratic transition, the concert of international protests and the announcement of new sanctions do not sway the generals. Internet connections were almost cut for the sixth consecutive night, before being restored in the morning.
Hundreds of arrests
The arrests are continuing with nearly 550 people arrested in less than three weeks (political leaders, striking officials, monks, activists, etc.), according to an NGO providing assistance to political prisoners. Only about 40 have been released. The demonstrations have gathered in the past two weeks hundreds of thousands of Burmese across the country, a wind of revolt unprecedented since “the saffron revolution” in 2007, repressed in blood by the army.
Many incidents have been reported in recent days, with several injured. In Myitkyina, in the north, small groups of protesters were dispersed on Friday by police and soldiers armed with batons. A teacher, who was there and is now in hiding for fear of being arrested, told Agence France-Presse that she had witnessed dozens of arrests. The junta for its part reported the death of a police officer earlier this week.
The fear of reprisals is very strong in Burma, which has already lived under the yoke of the military for more than fifty years since its independence in 1948. Despite this, alongside the rallies, calls for civil disobedience continue with doctors, teachers. , air traffic controllers and railway workers still on strike. In Monywa (center), a soldier gave a three-fingered salute, in a gesture of resistance, before joining a demonstration, according to images posted on social networks. Men made him drink and he participated in the rally under the influence of the drink, the newspaper assured Global New Light Of Myanmar, which belongs to the state, adding that the soldier was going to be prosecuted. The soldier himself assured in a video posted on social networks that he was drunk at that time.
New sanctions?
The crisis remains at the heart of the international agenda. European Union foreign ministers will meet on Monday to discuss possible measures against the military. “Sanctioning certain military leaders is symbolically important, but will not have a significant impact,” warned the NGO Burma Campaign UK. “They are unlikely to have assets to freeze in the European Union, and a visa ban amounts to nothing more than a holiday ban,” she added, pleading for coercive measures extended to powerful conglomerates controlled by the military.
To date, the United States, which has condemned “all violence against the people of Burma”, has only announced targeted sanctions against certain generals, as have the United Kingdom, the former colonial power, and Canada. . Beijing and Moscow, traditional allies of the Burmese army at the United Nations, see the crisis as “an internal affair” in the country.
Aung San Suu Kyi, 75, held incommunicado since her arrest, is indicted on non-political grounds, accused of “illegally” importing walkie-talkies and violating a law on the management of natural disasters. The military justified their coup with allegations of massive fraud in the November elections, largely won by the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
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