Yangon becomes battle zone as Myanmar junta enforces martial law

The Guardian

Agence France-Presse in Yangon
Wed 17 Mar 2021

Traumatised residents flee area as security forces fire at unarmed anti-coup protesters

Protesters take cover behind homemade shields as they confront the police in Yangon. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

Part of Myanmar’s biggest city has turned into a battle zone, with burning barricades and security forces firing at unarmed anti-coup protesters.

Traumatised residents have fled Hlaing Tharyar, an industrial neighbourhood in Yangon that has become one of the flashpoint sites in a nationwide uprising against the military’s coup nearly seven weeks ago.

The junta has increasingly deployed heavier force to quell the demonstrations, with more than 200 protesters reported to have been killed in the crackdown.

Black Sunday in Myanmar: Dozens Killed as Martial Law Declared

THE I DIPLOMAT

By Sebastian Strangio
March 15, 2021

The day saw at least 39 people killed by security forces, as Chinese-financed factories came under attack.

Anti-Coup protesters carry an injured man following clashes with security forces in Yangon, Myanmar. Match 14 2021, Credit AP Photo

Myanmar’s ruling junta has declared martial law in parts of the country’s largest city as crackdowns by security forces began to take the contours of an internal counterinsurgency war. At least 39 people were killed by police and soldiers in Myanmar on Sunday, a harrowing crescendo to the six weeks of protests that have followed the military’s seizure of power on February 1.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a local civil society group, the death toll included at least 22 anti-coup protesters killed in the working class suburb of Hlaingthaya, in the northern suburbs of Yangon, as Chinese-owned businesses in the area were set on fire. At least 16 people were killed elsewhere in the country, including one policeman. The real death toll from the day could well be much higher, with Radio Free Asia reporting as many as 70 deaths from the day’s crackdown, including 51 in Hlaingthaya.