Dozens killed in Myanmar

Special Desk

They call it the deadliest day in Myanmar. Dozens of people were reportedly killed when security forces opened fire on the Armed Forces Day on Saturday.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) recorded at least 89 deaths that included children. The lethal crackdown came as protesters defied warnings and took to the streets on the annual Armed Forces Day. US, UK and EU officials have condemned the violence.

“The security forces have disgraced themselves by shooting unarmed civilians,” British Ambassador Dan Chugg said in a statement.

The latest deaths would take the number killed in the suppression of protests since the 1 February coup to beyond 400.

Protesters gathered on Saturday, despite the military’s threat to use deadly violence against them. State TV had warned in a broadcast on Friday that protesters risked being shot “in the head and back”. Security forces were out in strength trying to prevent rallies.

Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch (HRW) in Asia, described the scenes as “shocking, horrible, barbaric and unacceptable”.

In Yangon, gunshots were fired at the US cultural centre. The US embassy said those shots caused no injuries. Among the dead were four outside a police station in the Dala suburb of Yangon, Myanmar.

Deaths were also reported on the streets of the second-largest city Mandalay, as protesters carried the flag of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of Myanmar’s detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and gave their now traditional anti-authoritarian three-finger salute.