Myanmar police shot dead two protesters on one of the bloodiest days since the coup

Videos posted on social media showed escalating confrontations between protesters and security forces.

Shots were heard in the footage from Haidan District in Yangon. And local media reported that at least five people were wounded in these clashes. Gunshots could also be heard in a live broadcast on social media from local media outlets from Tamui City, Yangon, as she saw crowds of protesters fleeing the police. At least five students were arrested during protests in downtown Yangon on Sunday.

Sunday marks the second day of the intense military campaign against the anti-coup protesters. Hundreds of people, including journalists, are reported to have been arrested. In cities across Myanmar, security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons and fired their rifles into the air on Saturday to disperse protesters.

At least five protesters and a police officer have been killed since the coup, according to Reuters. A group of activists, the Association to Support Political Prisoners, said they had documented 854 people as of Saturday who had been arrested, charged, or convicted since the February 1 coup. However, the group found that “hundreds of people” were arrested in Yangon and elsewhere on Saturday.

The UN ambassador challenges the army

In the. Saturday, The state-run MRTV Television announced the sacking of the UN ambassador Kyaw Mo Tun, saying he had “abused the permanent ambassador’s authority and responsibility” and “betrayed the country”.

Speaking to Reuters after his release, Kyaw Mo Tun said he had “decided to resist as much as possible.”

Speaking to the New York rally on Friday, Kyaw Mo challenged the army that now controls the country, urging the UN Security Council and the world to use “any means” to save the people of Myanmar and the army to take responsibility. .

“We need more strong measures from the international community to immediately end the military coup, stop the oppression of the innocent, restore state power to the people, and restore democracy,” he said.

Kyaw Mo Tun said he was speaking on behalf of the government of Suu Kyi, which won an overwhelming majority in the November 8 elections. Suu Kyi is now captured along with other heads of government such as President Win Myint.

The ambassador also defied the “Hunger Games” tripartite salute used by the demonstrators in the streets of Myanmar, and which borrowed from recent protests in neighboring Thailand.

The diplomat received a rare applause from his UN colleagues at the end of the speech. The new US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, praised the envoy’s “courageous” remarks.

“The United States continues to strongly condemn the military coup in Myanmar,” she said in a speech to the gathering on Friday. We condemn the brutal killing of unarmed security forces. “

Thomas Greenfield added that the United States “will continue to provide life-saving humanitarian aid, including the Rohingya and other vulnerable populations in the states of Chin, Kachin, Rakhine and Shan.”