In the aftermath of the deadliest day in Myanmar since the coup, citizens demonstrated again on Thursday to restore democracy, amid a call for the United Nations to impose a “global embargo” on arms deliveries. .
“Even if Myanmar’s future is determined by its people, the international community must act urgently and decisively to support it,” UN Special Rapporteur Thomas Andrews said in a report released Thursday.
He therefore recommended that the UN Security Council “impose a global arms embargo”, as Canada and the Europeans are already doing, according to him. He also called for “targeted economic sanctions” against the Myanmar generals.
The Security Council is meeting behind closed doors on Friday to discuss the situation in that country.
According to the United Nations, at least 38 Myanmarese were killed on Wednesday by security forces, who fired live ammunition at pro-democracy rallies. Voices were immediately raised internationally to stop this bloodshed.
The military should no longer “murder and imprison protesters,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. French President Emmanuel Macron has also called for “an immediate end to the crackdown”, as has British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. “Horrified and repulsed”, the US State Department called on China to “use its influence” with the Myanmar generals.
Beijing and Moscow, traditional allies of the Myanmar army at the United Nations, have not officially condemned the coup d’état of 1is February, considering the crisis as “an internal matter”.
Bloody repression
Despite fears of reprisals, several protests took place on Thursday, including in Rangoon, the country’s largest city. ” We are united ! Chanted protesters behind makeshift barricades.
Not far from there, traders were hurrying to sell their goods. “It’s dangerous to stay here. The police and the army are also shooting in the streets. It is better to go home and come back in the evening, ”said a street vendor.
The junta seems more determined than ever to quell the wind of resistance that has blown over Myanmar since the putsch that overthrew the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi. “The use of lethal force […] shows how little security forces fear being held responsible for their actions, ”said Richard Weir of the NGO Human Rights Watch.
Images posted on social media on Wednesday showed protesters covered in blood and gunshot wounds to the head. At least 54 civilians have been killed since the coup, according to the UN. Among them, four minors. There are also dozens of injured.
The army for its part reported the death of a police officer. Asked, she did not respond to multiple requests from AFP.
State television, MRTV, blamed “the riots” on the protesters, assuring that the security forces only used “weapons intended for crowd control in order to minimize injuries”.
However, the Myanmarese continued to bury their dead on Thursday. A large crowd attended the funeral of Kyal Sin, who died the day before, in Mandalay. “There will be no forgiveness for you until the end of the world,” she chanted, gathered in front of her coffin surrounded by flowers.
The 19-year-old quickly became a symbol. A photo of her, shortly before being targeted by a fatal shot, wearing a t-shirt that read “Everything will be fine” has gone viral on social networks.
In Yangon, an altar was improvised with traffic cones around bloodstains so that townspeople could lay flowers in tribute to the dead. Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), lowered the flags in its offices.
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