Junta ramps up violence as it cracks down on protests around the country

Junta ramps up violence as it cracks down on protests around the country

Security forces came down hard on protesters on Saturday, arresting dozens as nationwide demonstrations against military rule continue  

Myanmar Now
Published on Feb 28, 2021
A protester flees as security forces crack down on anti-coup demonstrators in Yangon's Tamwe township on February 27. (Myanmar Now)
A protester flees as security forces crack down on anti-coup demonstrators in Yangon's Tamwe township on February 27. (Myanmar Now)

Myanmar’s junta stepped up its campaign to end anti-military protesters in Yangon and elsewhere on Saturday, three weeks after the start of daily protests and rallies against the February 1 coup.

In Monywa, a town in central Myanmar, security forces shot a woman in the chest with live ammunition. An emergency worker told local news outlet 7Day that the woman was in critical condition and has been admitted to a hospital. 

No further details were available. 

Photos circulating on social media showed security forces, including those in plainclothes, slapping an arrested woman, kicking a man onto a police truck, and violently arresting journalists.

 

 

According to the Monywa Gazette, at least 50 people have been arrested in the city since the crackdown began Saturday morning.

 

 

At least five journalists, including a Myanmar Now multimedia reporter and the chief executive officer of the Monywa Gazette, were among several people arrested by the police during crackdowns in different cities.

The arrested journalists also include an AP photographer, a photographer from local photo news agency MPA, and a reporter from the Chin state capital Hakha.

The whereabouts of the arrested journalists remains unknown. 

It was unclear how many people had been rounded up by police on Saturday, but witnesses and journalists on the ground reported dozens of arrests at various locations throughout the day.

The violence came a day after Myanmar's envoy to the United Nations, Kyaw Moe Tun, made an emotional appeal at the UN calling on the international community to use “all means necessary” to end the military takeover. 

Calling the military an “existential threat for Myanmar as a polity and civilized society,” he concluded his 12-minute speech by raising a three-finger salute in solidarity with the protesters.

In Yangon, police were out in force from early in the day to break up protesting crowds at key rallying points. Using stun grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas, they repeatedly forced protesters to flee into nearby residential areas.

As the police advanced, protesters scattered into side streets, sometimes running into apartment buildings or shopping centres.

The police announced from a vehicle on Bagayar road in Sanchaung township on Friday afternoon that they would use force to break up crowds of more than five people. Despite the heavy police presence, however, some continued to protest near the road.

Around the city, large crowds continued to gather to chant anti-military slogans and sing revolutionary songs. Some protesters stood their ground a few meters away from the police, defending themselves behind makeshift barricades.

As they chased fleeing protesters into residential neighbourhoods, riot police also intimidated and arrested bystanders.  

A photograph posted by news outlet The Irrawaddy showed a pregnant woman surrounded by police—one placing his fist on her throat—as they searched for fleeing protesters in a residential area.

Another photo shows a policeman pointing his gun at a medic cowering behind a table with her fellow emergency workers behind her.

In Mandalay, security forces blocked the area around the central railway station to stop protesters from gathering. No police or soldiers were seen near the clock tower or the Myanma Economic Bank where they were stationed over the past few days.

Meanwhile, elected MP Win Mya Mya, a National League for Democracy (NLD) executive committee member for Mandalay region, became the latest member of the party to be taken into custody following her arrest at around 9:30am on Saturday.

In the southern city of Dawei, the police also started cracking down on anti-coup protests on Saturday after weeks of demonstrations. Local news outlet Dawei Watch reported that the security forces used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds and at least one person was arrested.

Most cities in Myanmar have been filled with protesters over the past three weeks after the army seized power from the elected government and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, president Win Myint, and other top officials.

NLD sources told Myanmar Now that Suu Kyi had been moved from her home in Naypyitaw, where she had been held under house arrest since February 1, to an undisclosed location this week.

Protesters in Myanmar are preparing for another general strike on Sunday, following one on Monday that marked an effort to increase pressure on the regime to restore civilian rule.

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.

 
Junta announces corruption charge against ousted minister hated by nationalists 

Aung Ko played a key role in abolishing Ma Ba Tha under the NLD government

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 6, 2021
Thura Aung Ko seen in Naypyitaw during an interview with Myanmar Now in December 2020 (Myanmar Now) 

The military council will pursue corruption charges against an ousted minister who played a key role in outlawing the anti-Muslim hate group Ma Ba Tha under the National League for Democracy (NLD) government, state media reported on Saturday.

The junta accused Thura Aung Ko, the NLD-appointed minister of religious affairs, of awarding religious titles to individuals in exchange for bribes, a statement in the Burmese language version of The Mirror said.

Aung Ko received 10 million kyat (more than $7,000) in July last year and 30 million kyat in March, the statement alleged. It also suggested that he had been given a Ford Everest Titanium luxury vehicle worth more than 100 million kyat ($70,000) in December 2019 by a businessman. 

The anti-corruption commission has filed lawsuits against the minister at Mayangone and Mingaladon police stations in Yangon under Section 55 of the Anti-Corruption Law, violations which are punishable by up to 15 years in prison, the statement added. 

The move makes Aung Ko the first NLD cabinet member to be charged with corruption by Min Aung Hlaing’s junta since the February 1 coup. 

The anti-corruption commission did not respond to calls from reporters seeking comment on the lawsuit.

A former Brigadier General in the army, Aung Ko also used to be a member of the central executive committee of the military-proxy Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP).

He was appointed Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs in 2003 under the military regime, and was included in a list of officials subject to visa bans and asset freezes by the European Union that same year.

Like other USDP figures who were embraced by the NLD government after the 2015 general election, he was close to former general Shwe Mann. Shwe Mann was arguably State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi’s closest military-linked ally, and at one time the third most senior member of the military government prior to 2011. 

Although Aung Ko did not win a parliamentary seat in the 2015 general election, the NLD government appointed him Minister of Religious Affairs and Culture.

As the man responsible for outlawing the anti-Muslim Patriotic Association of Myanmar – better known by the Burmese acronym Ma Ba Tha – in May 2017, he drew the ire of Buddhist nationalists. 

The group held frequent demonstrations in recent years to support the military and was behind numerous hate-speech campaigns against the country’s Muslim minority.

In March 2017 the State Sangha Committee, the country’s highest religious authority, also imposed a one-year preaching ban on the ultranationalist monk Wirathu after he praised the assassins of highly respected Muslim lawyer Ko Ni on social media.

In response, followers of Wirathu and other ultranationalists held protests in Yangon and Naypyitaw against Aung Ko, accusing him of favouring Islam over Buddhism and calling for both his resignation and the overthrow of the NLD administration.

During an exclusive interview with Myanmar Now late last year, Aung Ko explained how he managed to disband Ma Ba Tha and its rebranded Buddha Dhamma Charity Foundation both through religious authorities and legal procedures.

Wirathu was charged with sedition in May 2019 in relation to a speech he gave earlier that year, in which he made lewd comments about State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi. After nearly 18 months in hiding, he turned himself in to the police just days before last year’s general election.

Aung Ko also faced pressure from the military for his criticism of the police force.

At an interfaith event in Yangon in January 2020, he suggested that fugitive nationalists like Wirathu remained at large because the civilian government did not have authority over the military-controlled Ministry of Home Affairs, which oversees the police. 

Military spokesperson Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun called on the government to take action against him in February 2020 regarding this remark, and accused him of defaming the military.

Both Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint have been held mostly incommunicado  since the February 1 coup, only appearing for court hearings via live video.

Many of the NLD’s chief ministers have also been charged under a law that bars causing fear or alarm to the public and inciting people to commit offences against the state. Other cabinet members remain under house arrest.
 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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A Yangon township reels from an assault on young lives and human decency

Eight protesters were confirmed dead after Wednesday’s crackdowns in North Okkalapa, with dozens more injured and many others still unaccounted for

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 6, 2021
Relatives mourn at a memorial to honour a protester who has fallen in North Okkalapa. (Myanmar Now)

Win Khant Maung did not move. He had bruises all over his body. You only knew he was alive from the low moans he made as he lay there in agony.

The 18-year-old was arrested at around 10am on Wednesday for taking part in an anti-junta protest near Kantharyar park in Yangon’s North Okkalapa township.

After he was apprehended, Win Khant Maung was forced to spend the entire day in the back of a prison truck. At around 5pm, he was finally transferred to Insein prison, where police and military personnel brutally assaulted him, inflicting his near-fatal injuries.

Later that night, he and a number of others ended up at the Shwe Pauk Kan police station. The police informed a volunteer group, who then contacted ward officials. This is how the families of the detainees learned what had happened to them.

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Soldiers and police start burning tires used by protesters to form a barricade. (Myanmar Now)

Many were distraught when they saw how their loved ones had been treated.

“He was covered in bruises—at least 30 of them. You can’t even touch his head. They hit him in the groin as well, and his legs, his arms, his knees. Everywhere!” Win Khant Maung’s mother said, sobbing.

“He didn’t have a weapon. There was no need for this level of abuse,” she added with anguish in her voice.

Currently, doctors involved in the Civil Disobedience Movement are tending to his injuries. Because he can’t be sent to a hospital, he is being cared for in a religious hall in his ward.

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Anti-coup protester Win Khant Maung receives medical treatment after being tortured in custody. (Myanmar Now)

‘Kill them all!’

March 3 was a day of escalation in the ruling junta’s war on unarmed protesters opposed to its February 1 takeover. Using live ammunition, it killed dozens of people around the country and wounded many more. There were casualties reported in Mandalay, Monywa, Myingyan, Salay and Mawlamyine.

But North Okkalapa, in the northern outskirts of Yangon, is where security forces unleashed the worst violence that day.

It started early, as thousands of people approached the North Okkalapa roundabout to begin another day of protests first thing in the morning. A combined force of soldiers and police blocked their way at the roundabout and the bridge leading into the township.

The protesters slowly backed away rather than face a direct confrontation, but then the crackdown began without warning.

“We were stepping back slowly because we thought we could reason with them. Then, all of a sudden, the soldiers and police got off their trucks. Five minutes later, they started firing rubber bullets and throwing smoke bombs,” a protest leader told Myanmar Now.

Even after five smoke bombs were used against them, the protesters held their ground. That’s when the soldiers started lobbing tear gas canisters. Soon, they moved on to live ammunition.

At this point, the protesters were forced to flee into side streets to escape, their pursuers close behind them.

“They even hit people who let us into their homes. When some of us ran into houses on Nweni 6 lane, they came right inside the houses, swearing and hitting. Hitting people with guns! And kicking them with their military boots,” the protest leader recounted.

Hiding inside, the protesters could clearly hear conversations between the soldiers and police.

“We heard them saying, ‘Can’t you shoot? What are you afraid of? Shoot them all! Kill them all!’” the protest leader said.

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Protesters carry an injured protester. (Myanmar Now)

Mid-day massacre

Three of the protesters were captured sometime before noon, but this didn’t stop the others from regrouping. Using car tires, they set up a barricade near the bridge.

Then, at around 1pm, the soldiers and police started cracking down again, setting the tires on fire and shooting at the protesters, this time to kill.

Htet Aung, a 19-year-old protester, was one of the first casualties. He died of a gunshot wound to the chest, according to a doctor who attempted to save his life.

Min Oo, 20, who was also among the first to fall, was shot in the pelvic region and died at the hospital that evening.

Another unidentified protester was shot in the back after he was caught trying to flee. A video of the incident shows him being kicked after he falls to the ground and later dragged away, possibly dead.

Many near the bridge attempted to escape this killing spree, but were soon captured. More than 100 young protesters were rounded up, and as they were being herded into three military trucks, local residents started shouting, demanding their release.

This was met with another violent—and this time even more deadly—outburst from the security forces.

“When we yelled, ‘Give us the students back,’ they started firing. First they used rubber bullets, then stun grenades. When the crowd dispersed, they started firing with machine guns. We saw these kids in the front drop one by one,” said Ye Kyaw Thu, an emergency volunteer who witnessed the scene.

The soldiers took their positions after getting off the trucks and fired non-stop with semi-automatic weapons, he recalled.

Although they were facing unarmed civilians, the soldiers kept shooting at them like they were enemies on the battlefield, he added.

“Before we could tell everyone to get down, those at the front started to drop. The soldiers used tear gas and machine guns against the crowd for like five minutes. After they threw a few more stun grenades and tear gas canisters, the trucks left,” said Ye Kyaw Thu, who helped get eight victims of this brutal attack to the nearest emergency clinic.

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A policeman shooting at the protesters in Yangon on March 4. (Myanmar Now) 


 

A night of terror and torture

The brutality did not end there. Emergency rescue workers were also targeted, including three who were seen being viciously beaten in CCTV footage that later went viral.

As the three kneeled on the ground near their ambulance, police took turns kicking them and landing heavy blows to their heads and bodies with batons and rifle butts.

Later that night, security forces continued to terrorize the residents of North Okkalapa. At about 11pm, around 20 military trucks entered the township and started firing indiscriminately, according to witnesses.

Most of these vehicles then proceeded to North Dagon township for a raid on the office of the Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS), one of Myanmar’s most respected charities.

In addition to damaging office equipment, soldiers and police also physically assaulted 10 members of the FFSS staff.

A few of the trucks, however, took a detour to the Shwe Pauk Kan police station, where they dropped off eight seriously injured protesters, including Win Khant Maung.

“The military trucks were shooting to clear a path, warning people to stay off the street. Then they dumped the eight injured people in front of the police station,” said a social worker who helped the injured protesters get medical attention.

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Soliders approaching a protest site in North Okkapla township in Yangon on March 4. (Myanmar Now) 

A doctor who attended to Win Khant Maung said his injuries were likely caused by rubber bullets shot at close range.

“These aren’t injuries he received during the crackdown. This was deliberate torture after his arrest. They shot him with rubber bullets. That’s why he has this many injuries,” the doctor told Myanmar Now.

Eight people were confirmed dead from the various crackdowns in North Okkalapa on Wednesday, while another 73 sustained serious injuries, some of them life-threatening.

More worrying, said doctors, is that there have been multiple reports of people unaccounted for. At least some of the missing persons are presumed dead.

According to a UN official, there were at least 38 deaths nationwide on March 3, making it the deadliest day so far in the now month-long struggle to force Myanmar’s junta to restore civilian rule.

 

 

 

Myanmar Now

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‘Kill them all’ - NLD village chair, his nephew stabbed to death in Magway as USDP mob attacks family  

Attack by about 25 supporters of the military proxy party came without warning and echoes violence during last year’s election 

Myanmar Now
Published on Mar 5, 2021
An NLD supporter is seen in Yangon’s Tamwe township on October 25 (Myanmar Now)

A group of Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) supporters in Magway region stabbed two people to death on Friday in a mob attack against a National League for Democracy (NLD) official and his family, one of the survivors said. 

The attack in the village of Kyaung Gone Gyi killed 53-year-old Htway Naing, the NLD’s local chair, as well as his 17-year-old nephew Nan Wai Aung.

The two were on their way home from a friend’s house with six other family members in the morning when a group of about 25 knife-wielding USDP supporters attacked them in front of a wood workshop, said Bo Bo, who survived the attack and is Htway Naing’s son.

“They were waiting in front of the wood workshop,” he told Myanmar Now. “When we passed by, they came towards us and attacked us. They had their weapons ready.” 

“When we fell over, they stabbed us with knives. When they couldn’t reach us to stab us, they attacked us with catapults. I heard them saying ‘If they die, we can do whatever we want. Kill them all’,” said Bo Bo, who was injured by a catapult.

The five other survivors were also injured, some by knives and some by slingshots, he added. 

“We ran away and I couldn’t even save my own father,” he said. 

The attack came without warning. Thein Lin, a Kyaung Gone Gyi resident, said there hadn’t been any disputes between the victims and the attackers.

“The kid was too young,” he said, referring to Nan Wai Aung.

One of the attackers was identified as Kyaw Khine Oo, a USDP member who ran in last year’s election for a lower house seat in Pwint Phyu township but lost to the NLD. He did not answer phone calls seeking comments regarding the accusation.

Nine suspected attackers have been detained, including some captured by local residents before being taken to the Pwint Phyu township police station. The family are trying to open a murder case. 

Kyaw Khine Oo and the other alleged attackers are still at large, Bo Bo said. 

The killings came amid another day of violence by the regime as anti-coup protesters took to the streets across the country even after police and soldiers murdered dozens over the past week. 

Security forces in Mandalay on Friday morning killed 27-year-old Zaw Myo, who witnesses said had been waving a flag to warn protesters about the movements of police and soldiers. 

During last year’s election USDP supporters attacked their NLD rivals several times. After the poll, a man who shouted that he was from the USDP killed an NLD supporter who had joined a victory celebration in Ayeyarwady region’s Kangyi Daunt township

 

 

Myanmar Now

Myanmar Now is an independent news service providing free, accurate and unbiased news to the people of Myanmar in Burmese and English.
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