(Removes second bullet point and paragraph 13 reference to
Cardinal Charles Maung Bo comment on Twitter, which did not come
from a verified account. The correction also applies to previous
versions of this story.)
* Police break up protests in several places
* State media says "illegal organisations" creating unrest
* Myanmar's ousted president faces new charges - lawyer
March 3 (Reuters) - Myanmar security forces opened fire on
protests against military rule on Wednesday, killing at least 18
people, a human rights group said, a day after neighbouring
countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar
resolve the crisis.
The security forces resorted to live fire with little
warning in several towns and cities, witnesses said, as the
junta appeared more determined than ever to stamp out protests
against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of
Aung San Suu Kyi.
"It's horrific, it's a massacre. No words can describe the
situation and our feelings," youth activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi
told Reuters via a messaging app.
A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer
telephone calls seeking comment.
Ko Bo Kyi, joint secretary of the Assistance Association for
Political Prisoners rights group, said in a post on Twitter: "As
of now, so called military killed at least 18."
In the main city Yangon, witnesses said at least eight
people were killed, one early in the day and seven others when
security forces opened sustained fire with automatic weapons in
a neighbourhood in the north of the city in the early evening.
"I heard so much continuous firing. I lay down on the
ground, they shot a lot," protester Kaung Pyae Sone Tun, 23,
told Reuters.
A protest leader in the community, Htut Paing, said the
hospital there had told him seven people had been killed.
Hospital administrators were not immediately available for
comment.
Another heavy toll was in the central town of Monywa, where
six people were killed, the Monywa Gazette reported.
Others were killed in various places including the
second-biggest city Mandalay, the northern town of Hpakant and
the central town of Myingyan.
At least 40 people have been killed since the coup.
The violence came a day after foreign ministers from
Southeast Asian neighbours urged restraint but failed to unite
behind a call for the release of Suu Kyi and the restoration of
democracy.
Myanmar is predominantly Buddhist but has small Christian
communities.
Pope Francis, who visited Myanmar in 2017, said on Twitter:
"Sad news of bloody clashes and loss of life...I appeal to the
authorities involved that dialogue may prevail over repression."
'WE SHALL OVERCOME'
Security forces breaking up protests in Yangon detained
about 300 protesters, the Myanmar Now news agency reported.
Video posted on social media showed lines of young men,
hands on heads, filing into army trucks as police and soldiers
stood guard. Reuters was unable to verify the footage.
Images of a 19-year-old woman, one of the two shot dead in
Mandalay, showed her wearing a T-shirt that read "Everything
will be OK".
Police in Yangon ordered three medics out of an ambulance,
shot up the windscreen and then kicked and beat the workers with
gun butts and batons, video broadcast by U.S.-funded Radio Free
Asia showed. Reuters was unable to verify the video
independently.
Democracy activist Esther Ze Naw told Reuters that the
sacrifices of those who died would not be in vain.
"We shall overcome this and win," she said.
On Tuesday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations
(ASEAN) failed to make a breakthrough in a virtual foreign
ministers' meeting on Myanmar.
While united in a call for restraint, only four members -
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore - called for
the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees.
"We expressed ASEAN's readiness to assist Myanmar in a
positive, peaceful and constructive manner," the ASEAN chair,
Brunei, said in a statement.
Myanmar's state media said the military-appointed foreign
minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, attended and "apprised the meeting
of voting irregularities" in the November election.
The military justified the coup by saying its complaints of
voter fraud in the Nov. 8 vote were ignored. Suu Kyi's party won
by a landslide, earning a second term.
The election commission said the vote was fair.
Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to
hold new elections but given no time frame.
Foreign firms should suspend all business in Myanmar to send
a clear message to the military, Chris Sidoti, a former U.N.
expert on the country, said. Suu Kyi, 75, has been held incommunicado since the coup but
appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing this week and
looked in good health, a lawyer said.
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EXPLAINER-Can Southeast Asian diplomacy end crisis in Myanmar
doctors and a fortune-teller: Myanmar's new wave of
detainees https://tmsnrt.rs/307yypD
Shots fired as Myanmar journalist live-streams police raid to
detain him looks to tougher sanctions as Myanmar violence
intensifies in Myanmar since the coup https://tmsnrt.rs/3ujRYp2
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