Two Killed as Police Shoot Protesters in Myanmar
NAYPYITAW (Reuters) -- Two people were killed in Myanmar’s second city Mandalay on Saturday when police fired to disperse protesting opponents of a Feb. 1 military coup, emergency workers said, the bloodiest day in more than two weeks of demonstrations.
Protesters took to the streets in several cities and towns with members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers among those demanding an end to military rule and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
But tension escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers were confronting striking shipyard workers and other protesters.
Some of the demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse through riverside streets. Police responded with tear gas and gun fire, though it was initially not clear if they were using live ammunition or rubber bullets.
"Twenty people were injured and two are dead,” said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency.
One man died from a head wound, media workers including Lin Khaing, an assistant editor with the Voice of Myanmar media outlet in the city, and a volunteer doctor said.
Ko Aung and the doctor said a second man was shot in the chest and died later of his wound.
The demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and other disruptions show no sign of dying down. Opponents of the coup are skeptical of the army’s promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner.
A young woman protester died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd in the capital, Naypyitaw, the first death among anti-coup demonstrators.
The army says one policeman died of injuries sustained in a protest.
The demonstrators are demanding the restoration of the elected government and the release of Suu Kyi and others. They have also called for the scrapping of a 2008 constitution that has assured the army a major role in politics since nearly 50 years of direct military rule ended in 2011.
The army seized back power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy swept, detaining her and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.
Nevertheless, the army says its action is within the constitution and is supported by a majority of the people. The military has blamed protesters for instigating violence.
Earlier on Saturday, several thousand protesters gathered in the northern town of Myitkyina and confronted lines of police before dispersing.
Protesters took to the streets in several cities and towns with members of ethnic minorities, poets and transport workers among those demanding an end to military rule and the release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and others.
But tension escalated quickly in Mandalay where police and soldiers were confronting striking shipyard workers and other protesters.
Some of the demonstrators fired catapults at police as they played cat and mouse through riverside streets. Police responded with tear gas and gun fire, though it was initially not clear if they were using live ammunition or rubber bullets.
"Twenty people were injured and two are dead,” said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service agency.
One man died from a head wound, media workers including Lin Khaing, an assistant editor with the Voice of Myanmar media outlet in the city, and a volunteer doctor said.
Ko Aung and the doctor said a second man was shot in the chest and died later of his wound.
The demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and other disruptions show no sign of dying down. Opponents of the coup are skeptical of the army’s promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner.
A young woman protester died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd in the capital, Naypyitaw, the first death among anti-coup demonstrators.
The army says one policeman died of injuries sustained in a protest.
The demonstrators are demanding the restoration of the elected government and the release of Suu Kyi and others. They have also called for the scrapping of a 2008 constitution that has assured the army a major role in politics since nearly 50 years of direct military rule ended in 2011.
The army seized back power after alleging fraud in Nov. 8 elections that Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy swept, detaining her and others. The electoral commission had dismissed the fraud complaints.
Nevertheless, the army says its action is within the constitution and is supported by a majority of the people. The military has blamed protesters for instigating violence.
Earlier on Saturday, several thousand protesters gathered in the northern town of Myitkyina and confronted lines of police before dispersing.