YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Myanmar police on Tuesday repeatedly used tear gas and rubber bullets against crowds protesting last month’s coup, but protesters regrouped after each volley and tried to defend themselves. with barricades as clashes between protesters and security forces intensified.
Authorities have stepped up their crackdown on protests in recent days. The United Nations said it believed at least 18 people had died on Sunday, when security forces fired on crowds, while a human rights group said more than 1,000 people were detained over the weekend, including an Associated Press reporter. A lawyer for the journalist said he has been charged with a crime that could see him imprisoned for up to three years.
Despite increasingly brutal repression, protesters have continued to flood the streets and are beginning to more severely resist attempts to disperse. Hundreds, many wearing construction helmets and makeshift shields, gathered in Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon, where a day earlier police had fired repeated rounds of tear gas. They dragged bamboo sticks and debris to form barricades, chanted slogans and sang songs on the police lines. They even threw banana skins on the road in front of them to try to stop any police rush.
Protesters, mostly young people, fled in panic every time tear gas canisters were fired, but soon returned to their barricades. Videos posted on social media showed similar chaotic scenes in the Insein district, north of Yangon.
Protesters also took up their flags and banners to march through the streets of Dawei, a small town in southeastern Myanmar that has seen large anti-coup protests almost daily. A group of protesters was targeted by security forces as they entered a narrow street on their way to pay tribute to the home of a man killed in Sunday’s crackdown. Another was attacked on the main street in the city center.
Police also dispersed protests in Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city, on Tuesday.
Yangon, Dawei and Mandalay were among the cities where security forces allegedly fired live ammunition at crowds on Sunday, according to the UN Office of Human Rights. Wheels were also reportedly fired live on Tuesday, but could not be confirmed immediately.
Some fear that the intensive use of force by the Board will seek to provoke a violent backlash from protesters – many of whom have remained nonviolent – to discredit them and justify even harsher repression. Videos in recent days show more protesters trying to stand firm and throw objects at police.
“I ask the people of Myanmar not to fall into this trap, so that they remain at peace,” UN special envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener said in an interview with CNN, acknowledging that it was more easy for her, out of violence, to urge peaceful protests. He also accused the authorities of spreading rumors about the conditions of the detainees to provoke even more anger in the streets.
The February 1 coup reversed years of slow progress towards democracy in Myanmar after five decades of military rule. The day came when a newly elected Parliament was supposed to take office. The National League for Democracy party, led by leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was reportedly installed for a second five-year term, but was instead detained along with President Win Myint and other senior officials.
The military government has accused 75-year-old Suu Kyi of various crimes that critics say are being attacked just to keep her imprisoned and potentially prevent her from running in the elections promised in a year by the military. His party says it does not know where Suu Kyi is being held, who has a long history of campaigns for democracy in Myanmar.
The repression of the weekend provoked international condemnation. In addition to the use of force, authorities also detained more than 1,000 people, according to the Independent Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners.
This included at least eight journalists, including Thein Zaw of the AP, who was arrested while covering the protests. His lawyer said on Tuesday that he and five other journalists from Myanmar have been charged with violating a law and order. The AP has described his detention as arbitrary and has demanded his immediate release.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the use of force and arbitrary detentions “unacceptable,” according to his spokesman. The US, British and other governments issued similar statements of concern.
But the military has shown no sign of backing down.
Protesters and their supporters have called for help from abroad, but there is little prospect of major intervention. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations, a regional group of ten nations, has a policy of seeking consensus among its members, making it unlikely to take strong action. A virtual meeting on Tuesday of the group’s foreign ministers it ended with only one statement, issued by the group’s presidency, instead of a joint statement, calling for an end to the violence and talks to try to reach a peaceful settlement.
UN human rights expert in Myanmar Tom Andrews has proposed that countries could impose a global embargo on arms sales in Myanmar and “harsh, targeted and coordinated sanctions” against those responsible for the coup. state, repression and other rights abuses.
But any kind of coordinated action at the United Nations would be difficult as two permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and Russia, would veto it safely. Some countries have imposed or are considering imposing their own sanctions.
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Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini in Jakarta, Indonesia and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed to this report.