(Reuters) – Myanmar security forces fired rifle grenades at protesters in a city near Yangon and killed more than 80 people, according to the control group of the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners ( AAPP) and a national media.
Details of the death toll in the town of Bago, 90 km (55 miles) northeast of Yangon, were not initially available because security forces piled bodies into the Zeyar Muni Pagoda complex and cordoned off the area. , according to witnesses and national media.
The AAPP and Myanmar Now newspaper said on Saturday that 82 people had died during the protest against the February 1 military coup in the country. The shootings began on Friday morning and continued into the afternoon, Myanmar Now said.
“It’s like a genocide,” the newspaper said of a protest organizer named Ye Htut. “They’re shooting at all shadows.”
Many residents of the city have fled, according to accounts on social media.
A spokesman for the Myanmar military junta could not be reached on Saturday.
AAPP, which has maintained a daily count of protesters killed and arrested by security forces, has previously said 618 people have died since the coup.
This figure is disputed by the army, which says it staged the coup because the November election won by Aung San Suu Kyi’s party was called. The election commission has dismissed the claim.
Board spokesman Major General Zaw Min Tun told a news conference in the capital, Naypyitaw, on Friday that the military had recorded 248 civilian deaths and 16 policemen, and said security forces did not they had used automatic weapons.
An alliance of ethnic armies in Myanmar that has opposed board repression attacked a police station in the east on Saturday and killed at least ten policemen, national media reported.
Naungmon police station in Shan state was attacked early in the morning by fighters from an alliance that includes the Arakan army, the Ta’ang national liberation army and the army. of the National Democratic Alliance of Myanmar, the media reported.
Shan News said at least ten police officers were killed, while the media Shwe Phee Myay put the death toll at 14.
Myanmar’s military rulers said on Friday that protests against their government were diminishing because people wanted peace and that they would hold elections in two years.
Myanmar lawmakers, urged, urged the UN Security Council on Friday to take action against the military.
“Our people are willing to pay any cost to regain their rights and freedom,” said Zin Mar Aung, who has been appointed foreign minister by a group of ousted lawmakers. He urged Board members to apply direct and indirect pressure on the Board.
“Myanmar is on the brink of state failure, of state collapse,” Richard Horsey, Myanmar’s senior adviser to the International Crisis Group, Myanmar’s first public discussion, told UN informal meeting by board members.
Reuters staff reports; Written by Raju Gopalakrishnan; Edited by Pravin Char