At least 50 protesters killed in Myanmar Saturday in crackdown on dissent
- by Nick Cohen
- in Industry
- — Mar 27, 2021
Singapore's Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan met his Indonesian counterpart in Jakarta on Thursday and said both countries were "very distressed" by the situation in Myanmar.
Previously, UN officials have said the military's actions against civilians "likely meet the threshold for crimes against humanity" and have called on the UN to impose a global arms embargo on Myanmar and further sanctions on military-owned and operated companies.
Associated Press journalist Thein Zaw, who was arrested while covering a street protest in Yangon along with eight other media workers, was among those released.
But the junta puts the death toll as much lower at 164, and has branded the victims as "violent terrorist people".
Four people were killed in the town of Taunggyi in central Myanmar in the shooting, the Myanmar Now news portal said.
The group also said that as of Thursday, 2,981 people had been arrested, charged or sentenced in the crackdown since February 1. Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her campaign to bring democratic civilian rule to Myanmar, and other members of her National League for Democracy (NLD) are being held in detention.
At least 320 people have been killed in the subsequent crackdown as of Thursday evening, according to figures compiled by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) activist group.
The World Bank has warned the country faces a huge 10 percent slump in GDP in 2021.
He stressed his claim the military will ensure social and economic developments in the country. MEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
So far, hundreds have fled to Karen state, where the rebel Karen National Union has sheltered hundreds of anti-coup activists escaping the junta.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, became independent from Britain in 1948.
The movement against the junta and its takeover received a major boost on Thursday when the USA and the United Kingdom announced tough sanctions against two military-owned conglomerates with vast holdings in many sectors.
But although many foreign governments have condemned the military's actions, Thomas Andrews, special United Nations rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, said the diplomatic response was slow and "out of step with the scale of the crisis".
"The Myanmar Armed Forces Day isn't an armed forces day, it's more like the day they killed people", General Yawd Serk, chair of the Restoration Council of Shan State/Shan State Army - South (RCSS), told Reuters.
Soldiers also confronted protesters staging candlelight vigils across the country, with reports of at least one man shot and killed.
Reuters could not independently verify the numbers killed.
After presiding over a military parade in the capital Naypyitaw to mark Armed Forces Day, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing reiterated a promise to hold elections without giving any timeframe.
It called for the release of all those detained since the coup and for the military to "withdraw from active engagement in politics".
Only the entrance of the office was scorched, and party members were already inside assessing the damage, he said. Residents heard bangs that could be either stun grenades or gunfire, they said.
Some of NLD leaders had been found guilty of corruption and legal action was being taken against them, he added.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced new sanctions against Myanmar's chief of police, Than Hlaing, and its Bureau of Special Operations commander, Lt. Gen. Aung Soe, as well as two army units long implicated in human rights abuses in ethnic areas.