YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Images of Myanmar security forces chasing protesters who protested a coup d’état, shot a civilian at close range and brutally beat others have revealed the scale of a brutal crackdown in which 38 people were shot and killed in one day.
Despite the shocking violence the day before, protesters took to the streets on Thursday to denounce the takeover of the army on February 1, as many hoped the rising death toll would force the international community to take more vigorous action than it has so far the case is. The UN Security Council will meet on Friday.
UN Special Envoy to Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, described Wednesday as “the bloodiest day” since the takeover, when the military overthrew leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government. It is confirmed that more than 50 civilians, mostly peaceful protesters, have since been killed by police and soldiers, including the 38 she says were murdered on Wednesday.
While details of deaths have been difficult to confirm, social media is inundated with images of security forces targeting protesters and other civilians.
“I saw very disturbing video clips today,” said Schraner Burgener, speaking to UN reporters in New York via video link from Switzerland. One was when the police beat up a voluntary medical team. They were not armed. Another video clip showed that a protester was taken by the police and they shot him from very close range, maybe just three feet. He did not oppose his arrest and it appears that he died in the street. “
She appeared to be referring to a video shared on social media that begins with a group of security forces following a civilian they appear to have just taken out of a building. A shot sounds and the person falls. After the person raises his head briefly, two of the troops drag the person by the arms across the street.
In other footage, which appears to have been pulled from a security camera, about two dozen security forces, some with firearms drawn, chase two people wearing the hard hats donned by many protesters on a street. If they catch up with the people, they hit them repeatedly with bars and kick them. One of the agents, who at one point appears to be in charge of some of his comrades, films the cruelty on his cell phone.
In another video, several police officers repeatedly kick and hit a person with rods, while the person bows to the ground, with their hands above their head. Cops move in and out of the frame, get up a few flights of stairs, and then casually walk away.
Wednesday’s shocking death toll and sheer amount of images of brutality sparked outrage, with State Department spokesman Ned Price saying the US was “shocked” at the images of “horrific violence” and the UN’s independent expert. on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, saying that the “systematic brutality of the military junta is once again atrocious.”
“I urge members of the UN Security Council to see the photos / videos of the shocking violence unleashed on peaceful protesters before meeting during Friday’s poetry session,” he said on Twitter.
The Security Council has planned those consultations on calls to reverse the coup – including by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres – and to end escalating military action.
But any concerted action at the UN will be difficult, as two permanent members of the Security Council, China and Russia, would almost certainly veto it. Some countries have imposed or are considering imposing their own sanctions.
Even if the council took action, UN envoy Schraner Burgener warned it might not matter. She said she had warned the Myanmar military that the nations of the world and the Security Council “could take enormous forceful measures.”
“And the answer was, ‘We are used to sanctions and we’ve survived those sanctions in the past,’” she said. When she also warned the military that Myanmar would be isolated, Schraner Burgener said, “The answer was, ‘We have to learn to walk with just a few friends.’ ”
The coup ended years of slow progress towards democracy in Myanmar, which has languished for five decades under strict military rule leading to international isolation and sanctions. When the generals loosened their grip, culminating in Suu Kyi’s assumption of power in the 2015 elections, the international community responded by lifting most sanctions and pouring investment into the country.
The highest death toll on Wednesday was in Yangon, the country’s largest city, where an estimated 18 people died. Most, if not all, deaths occurred in the eastern district of North Okkalapa.
Video at the main hospital there showed grieving relatives collecting the blood-soaked bodies of relatives. Some family members cried uncontrollably, while others looked shocked at the environment around them.
There were attempts to hold new protests in at least three areas of Yangon on Thursday: North Okkalapa, Sanchaung and Insein, all of which were violent scenes from recent days. Police again used tear gas to try to disperse the crowds, while protesters re-erected barriers along main roads.
Protests also continued in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, where three people were killed on Wednesday. A formation of five fighter jets flew over the city on Thursday morning in what appeared to be a display of power.
Demonstrators in the city displayed the three-fingered greeting as they rode their motorbikes to join a funeral procession for Kyal Sin, also known by her Chinese name Deng Jia Xi, a university student who was shot dead during a demonstration the day before. attended. Many thousands of people attended.
As part of the crackdown, security forces have also arrested more than 1,000 people, including journalists, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. At least eight journalists, including Thein Zaw of The Associated Press, were detained on Saturday. He and several other members of the media have been charged with violating a public security law that could give them up to three years in prison.