Protesters hold anti-coup signs shouting slogans through megaphones at the courthouse.
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Large crowds marched into Myanmar on Sunday to denounce a military coup in a show of resistance following the bloodiest episode of the previous day’s campaign for democracy, when security forces shot at protesters and two were killed.
The military has failed to suppress the demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes against the coup and the detention of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others, even with the promise of new elections and stern warnings against dissent.
Tens of thousands of people gathered peacefully in Mandalay’s second city, where the killings took place on Saturday, witnesses said.
They aimed at the heads of unarmed civilians. They were aiming for our future, ”a young protester told the crowd.
Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun has not responded to attempts by Reuters to contact him by phone for comment.
He told a news conference on Tuesday that the military’s actions were within the constitution and supported by most, and accused protesters of inciting violence.
In the capital Yangon, thousands of mostly young people gathered in different locations to sing and sing slogans.
“We young people have our dreams, but this military coup has created so many obstacles,” Ko Pay said in Yangon. “That’s why we come forward at the protests.”
In Myitkyina in the north, people laid flowers for the dead protesters. Large crowds marched into the central cities of Monywa and Bagan, Dawei and Myeik to the south, Myawaddy to the east and Lashio to the northeast, the posted photos showed.
A protester has bandaged her head after being beaten by security forces during a demonstration against the military coup in Mandalay on February 20, 2021.
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At the tourist spot of Inle Lake, people, including Buddhist monks, went to a fleet of boats with portraits of Suu Kyi and signs that read “military coup – end.”
The more than two-week protests had been largely peaceful until Saturday, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule until 2011.
The violence didn’t seem to end the excitement.
“The number of people will increase … We will not stop,” protester Yin Nyein Hmway said in Yangon.
‘Aggressive protesters’
Troubles in Mandalay started with clashes between security forces and shipyard workers on strike.
Video clips on social media showed members of the security forces firing at protesters and witnesses saying they found the used patterns from live rounds.
UN Special Rapporteur on Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said he was shocked by the deaths of the two, one of them a teenage boy.
“From water cannons to rubber bullets to tear gas and now hardened troops firing pointless at peaceful protesters. This madness must end now,” he said on Twitter.
The state-run newspaper Global New Light of Myanmar said the strikers sabotaged boats in the city’s river port and attacked police with sticks, knives and catapults. Eight police officers and several soldiers were injured, he said.
“Some of the aggressive protesters were also injured as a result of the security measures taken by the security forces in accordance with the law,” the paper said without naming the dead.
Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) condemned the violence by security forces in Mandalay as a crime against humanity.
A young female protester, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, became the first death among protesters on Friday. She was shot in the head on February 9 in the capital Naypyitaw.
Hundreds of people attended her funeral on Sunday.
Military media said the bullet that killed her did not come from a gun used by the police and must therefore have been fired by an “external weapon”.
The military says a police officer died of injuries sustained during a protest.
‘Coordinate damage’
The military seized power after alleged fraud in the Nov. 8 elections that occupied the NLD and detained Suu Kyi and others. The election commission rejected the fraud charges.
Facebook removed the military’s main page for repeated violations of the standards “that prohibit incitement to violence and coordinate damage” and Western countries condemning the coup condemned the violence.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the United States was “deeply concerned.”
France, Singapore, Britain and Germany also condemned the violence, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said deadly violence was unacceptable.
The United States, Britain and others have enacted limited sanctions targeting military leaders, but the generals have long held back from foreign pressure.
Suu Kyi is accused of violating a natural disaster law and illegally importing six two-way radios. Her next trial is on March 1.
A rights group said 569 people have been detained in connection with the coup.