Myanmar: Protesters hit with flashbangs ahead of ASEAN talks
March 2, 2021
Protesters in Myanmar took to the streets again on Tuesday to protest the ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi'selected government last month, as foreign ministers geared up to meet on the crisis.
This week's talks between members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) follow the suspected deaths of at least 18 people on Sunday, the most violent day since last month's coup sparked nationwide mass protests.
Military forces ramped up their use of deadly force and mass arrests over the weekend. Meanwhile, police in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, used tear gas against the protesters on Tuesday.
Phyu Phyu Thaw, an activist in Yangon, told DW that despite the threat of violence, protesters will not give up until they achieve democracy in Myanmar.
"They are shooting people day in, day out," she told DW. Security forces are not only shooting people in the daytime, but also at night, and shutting down the internet connections, she added.
"So we are worried about our safety. But it doesn't mean that we will surrender," she said. "We fight back and we get the democracy."
Police use live ammunition
Demonstrators wore hard hats and held makeshift shields, gathering behind barricades in different parts of Yangon to chant slogans against military rule.
"If we're oppressed, there will be explosion. If we're hit, we'll hit back," demonstrators chanted before police fired stun grenades to scatter crowds in at least four different places in the city.
There were no reports of any injuries in Yangon but, according to witness reports, several people were injured in the northwestern town of Kale when police fired live ammunition to disperse a crowd.
Protesters also marched through the streets of Dawei, a small city in southeastern Myanmar that has seen almost daily large protests against military rule. Meanwhile, hundreds gathered in the Hledan area of Yangon, where a day earlier police had repeatedly used tear gas canisters.
ASEAN to call for cooperation
Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said his ASEAN counterparts would be frank when meeting via video on Tuesday, and would tell a representative of Myanmar's military that they were shocked by the violence.
In a television interview on Monday, Balakrishnan said ASEAN would encourage dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta. "They need to talk, and we need to help bring them together," he said.
UN denounces bloody crackdown
The UN said it believed that at least 18 people in several cities were killed on Sunday, when security forces opened fire to disperse demonstrators.
Funerals were being held on Tuesday for several of the victims. Authorities also detained more than 1,000 people over the weekend, according to the independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the weekend's crackdown "unacceptable," according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
"Words of condemnation are necessary and welcome but insufficient. The world must act. We must all act,'' the UN's independent expert on human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a separate statement.
lc/msh (Reuters, AP)