Naypyitaw: Myanmar security forces opened fire at a funeral on Sunday, witnesses said, as people across the country gathered to mourn 114 people killed the previous day in the worst crackdown on protests since the military coup on February 1. Mourners fled the shooting in Bago at a service for 20-year-old student Thae Maung Maung near Yangon and there were no immediate reports of casualties, three people in the town said. “While we are singing the revolution song for him, security forces just arrived and shot at us,” a woman who was at the service said. “People, including us, run away as they opened fire.” Three people were killed in other shooting incidents on Sunday, witnesses and local media said.
One person was killed when troops opened fire overnight on a group of protesters near the capital Naypyitaw, Myanmar Now news reported and there were several protests on Sunday in the Sagaing region near the country’s second city, Mandalay. There were no reports of large-scale protests within Mandalay, which bore the brunt of the casualties on Saturday, Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day, or in Yangon. At least six children between the ages of 10 and 16 were among those killed on Saturday. Protesters call the victims “Fallen Stars”. Saturday’s casualties took the overall number of civilians reported killed since the coup to more than 440.
The bloodshed drew Western condemnation. The UN special rapporteur for Myanmar said the army was carrying out “mass murder”. Countries including the US, Britain, Germany and EU condemned the violence. UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said the junta should be cut off from funding, such as oil and gas revenues, and from access to weapons. “Words of condemnation are ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them,” he said. BritishAmbassador Dan Chugg said the security forces had “disgraced themselves” and the US envoy called the violence horrifying.
Military jets also launched air strikes on a village in territory controlled by an armed group from the Karen ethnic minority and at least two people were killed, a civil society group said. Earlier, the Karen National Union said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing10 people, including a lieutenant colonel, and losing one of its own fighters as tensions with the military surged after years of relative peace.
Demonstrators turned out on Saturday in Yangon, Mandalay and other towns, as they have done almost daily since the Febraury1coup that ousted elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi. The Myanmar Now news portal said 114 people were killed across the country in crackdowns on the protests. At least 40 people, including a 13-year-old girl, were killed in Mandalay, and at least 27 people were killed in Yangon, Myanmar Now said. A boy as young as five was earlier reported among the dead in Mandalay. Another 13-year-old was among the dead in the central Sagaing region. “Today is a day of shame for the armed forces,” Dr Sasa, a spokesman for CRPH, an anti-junta group set up by deposed lawmakers. A military spokesman did not respond to calls seeking comment on the killings by security forces, the air strikes or the insurgent attack on its post. “They are killing us like birds or chickens, even in our homes,” said Thu Ya Zaw in the central town of Myingyan, where at least two protesters were killed. “We will keep protesting regardless... We must fight until the junta falls.”
