Security forces are firing live ammunition on sit-ins.
Myanmar’s security forces killed at least seven people on Saturday after firing live ammunition at demonstrators protesting the country’s February military coup. The casualties from the protests — which likely are underreported, experts say — indicate that the country’s military government is not backing down from using lethal force against pro-democracy protesters, despite intensifying condemnations from the international community. Activists have been demanding the military step aside in favor of a civilian government for weeks, and on Saturday were commemorating the killing of a student in 1988 whose death sparked a rebellion against an earlier incarnation of the military government. That uprising resulted in the deaths of around 3,000 protesters. In the most recent protests, security forces killed at least 70 people, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group. That number includes the four deaths reported in the major city of Mandalay, where police opened fire on a sit-in protest Saturday, as well as two protesters who were killed in Pyay, where a witness told Reuters that security forces deliberately slowed the arrival of an ambulance. Another protester was killed in the suburbs outside Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city. Beyond these deaths, several injuries were also reported. According to the Associated Press, the death toll is likely higher because police were seen seizing bodies and security forces occupying hospitals are often “boycotted by medical personnel and shunned by protesters.” Despite police violence, rallies and vigils carried on after dark in Yangon, Mandalay, and elsewhere.
