At least 3 killed in junta’s crackdown on protesters in Myanmar

Bangkok, Dec 5 (EFE).- At least three people were killed Sunday in Yangon in a crackdown by Myanmar’s military junta on a demonstration calling for a return of democracy, according to local media.

Several dozens of people were involved in a flash mob protest across the streets of the former capital when the authorities began shooting indiscriminately on them, according to the Khit Thit Media portal.

A video posted by the same media showed an official vehicle attack several protesters, many of them lying on the road, as the military launched an offensive.

At least one journalist covering the demonstration has been injured, while seven people have been arrested, according to local broadcaster Mizzima.

Although major demonstrations against the junta have been stemmed in Yangon following brutal repression by the police and the military, protests continue to happen spontaneously and without prior notification for large gatherings to avoid a response of the authorities.

A military coup in Myanmar on Feb.1 threw the country into a deep political, social and economic crisis.

It also opened a spiral of violence with the emergence of new civilian militias that have exacerbated the guerrilla war that has been going on in the country for decades.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, two million people need emergency humanitarian assistance in Myanmar following the coup.

The army justifies the coup on grounds of alleged mass fraud during the general elections in November 2020, the result of which has been annulled and in which the party by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi won a landslide.

At least 1,303 people have died as a result of brutal repression by police and soldiers since the coup, while more than 10,000 others – among them Suu Kyi – have been arrested, according to the nonprofit Assistance Association for Political Prisoners. EFE

nc/sc