Myanmar security forces kill more than 80 protesters with rifle grenades – monitoring group

(Reuters) – Myanmar security forces fired rifle grenades at protesters in a town near Yangon on Friday, killing more than 80 people, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group and a domestic news outlet said.

Details of the death toll in the town of Bago, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Yangon, were initially unavailable as security forces piled bodies up in the Zeyar Muni pagoda compound and cordoned off the area, according to witnesses and domestic media. .

Newscast AAPP and Myanmar Now said on Saturday that 82 people were killed in protest against the Feb. 1 military coup in the country. The firing started before sunrise on Friday and continued into the afternoon, Myanmar Now said.

“It’s like genocide,” the news outlet quoted a protest organizer named Ye Htut. “They shoot every shadow.”

According to reports on social media, many residents of the city have fled.

A spokesman for Myanmar’s military junta was not available on Saturday.

AAPP, which daily tracks a number of protesters killed and arrested by security forces, has previously said 618 people have died since the coup.

That figure is disputed by the military, which says it staged the coup because elections won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in November were manipulated. The election committee has rejected the allegation.

Junta spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw on Friday, that the military had recorded 248 civilian deaths and 16 police deaths and said no automatic weapons had been used by security forces.

An alliance of ethnic armies in Myanmar opposing the junta’s crackdown on Saturday attacked a police station in the east and at least 10 police officers were killed, according to domestic media.

The Naungmon Police Station, Shan State, was attacked early in the morning by fighters from an alliance that included the Arakan Army, the Ta’ang National Liberation Army and the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army, media reported.

Shan News said at least 10 police officers were killed, while news channel Shwe Phee Myay put the death toll at 14.

Myanmar’s military rulers said on Friday that protests against the regime were diminishing as people wanted peace, and that it would hold elections within two years.

Depressed lawmakers in Myanmar urged the United Nations Security Council on Friday to take action against the military.

“Our people are willing to pay all costs to regain their rights and freedoms,” said Zin Mar Aung, who has been appointed acting foreign minister before a group of impeached lawmakers. She urged Council members to exert both direct and indirect pressure on the junta.

“Myanmar is on the verge of state failure, of state collapse,” Richard Horsey, a senior adviser for Myanmar at the International Crisis Group, told the first public discussion on Myanmar at the UN informal meeting. councilors.