YANGON (AP) – At least 82 people have been killed in a day in a crackdown by Myanmar security forces against pro-democracy protesters, independent local media and an organization monitoring victims have reported since Saturday. of the February coup.
The death toll on Friday in Bago was the largest of a city’s largest day since March 14, when just over 100 people died in Yangon, the country’s largest city. Bago is located about 100 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Yangon. The Associated Press cannot independently verify the death toll.
The death toll of 82 was preliminary, compiled by the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, which publishes daily counts of casualties and arrests for repression following the February 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
Their scores are widely accepted as highly credible because cases are not added until they have been confirmed, with the information posted on their website.
In its report on Saturday, the group said it expected the death toll in Bago to rise as more cases were verified.
The online news site Myanmar Now also reported that 82 people had died, citing an unnamed source involved in charity rescue efforts. Myanmar Now and other local media said the bodies had been picked up by the military and thrown into the grounds of a Buddhist pagoda.
According to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, security forces have killed at least 701 protesters and spectators since the army took office.
The attack on Bago was the third last week which involved a massive use of force to try to crush persistent opposition to the ruling board.
On Wednesday, attacks were launched against strong opponents of the military government who had established strongholds in the northern cities of Kalay and Taze. At both locations, at least 11 people, including possibly some spectators, were reported dead.
Security forces were accused of using heavy weapons in their attacks, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, although The Associated Press was unable to confirm these allegations independently. Photos posted on Bago’s social media appeared to show fragments of mortar shells.
Most of the protests in cities across the country are being carried out by non-violent protesters who consider themselves part of a civil disobedience movement.
But as police and the military increased their use of lethal force, a harsh faction of protesters armed themselves with homemade weapons like firearms in the name of self-defense. In Kalay, the activists called themselves “civilian army” and some were equipped with rudimentary traditional hunting rifles in the remote area.
A Myanmar Now report said residents of Tamu, a town in the same region as Kalay, used hunting rifles on Saturday to ambush a military convoy and claimed to have killed three soldiers.
The board has also taken other steps to deter resistance. He recently published a list of 140 people working in the arts and journalism in charge of disseminating information that undermined the country’s stability and the rule of law. The penalty for the crime is up to three years in prison. The arrests of those on the list have been widely reported in the state media.
State television channel MRTV reported Friday night that a military court had sentenced 19 people to death, 17 in absentia, for allegedly killing an army officer in Yangon on March 27. The attack took place in an area of the city that is under martial. the law, and the judicial action seemed to be the first time the death sentence was imposed under the rule of the Board.
UN special envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener arrived in the Thai capital Bangkok on Friday on a regional mission to resolve the crisis in Myanmar. He intends to express various ideas from Southeast Asian governments, but has been denied permission to visit Myanmar.