Coup in Myanmar: 12 protesters shot dead

At least 12 protesters were shot dead in Myanmar yesterday as the junta reacted to international condemnation of its crackdown by claiming ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted hefty illegal payments. 

The bloodshed came hours after the UN Security Council had called for restraint from the army, which has been trying to put down daily anti-coup protests and paralysing strikes since it took power on Feb 1.

Among the dead were eight people killed in the central town of Myaing when security forces fired on a protest, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said.

In Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon, protester Chit Min Thu was killed in the North Dagon district. His wife, Aye Myat Thu, told Reuters he had insisted on joining the protests despite her appeals for him to stay home for the sake of their son.

"He said it's worth dying for," she said through her tears. "He is worried about people not joining the protest. If so, democracy will not return to the country."

Adding corruption charges to the accusations against Suu Kyi could mean she faces a harsher penalty. She currently faces four comparatively minor charges - including illegally importing six walkie talkie radios and flouting coronavirus restrictions.

The junta spokesman, Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun, said Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth $600,000, as well as gold, while in government, according to a complaint by Phyo Mien Thein, a former chief minister of Yangon.

"He strongly said that," the spokesman told a news conference. "We have verified those facts several times. Now the anti-corruption committee is continuing the investigation."

Aye Ma Ma Myo, a member of the dissolved parliament belonging to Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy, rejected the claim.

"It is no longer uncommon to see slander against politicians and efforts to crush the party while innocent young people are killed in public," she told Reuters in a message.

Thursday's deaths brought the number of protesters killed since the coup to more than 70, the AAPP said. Some 2,000 people have also been detained since the coup against Suu Kyi's elected government, it says.

The army did not respond to requests for comment on the latest deaths but the junta spokesman said the security forces were disciplined and used force only when necessary.

UN human rights investigator Thomas Andrews told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva the military may have committed crimes against humanity. He called for multilateral sanctions on the junta and the state energy firm, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

An Amnesty International report yesterday accused the military of using "battlefield weapons" on unarmed protesters and carrying out premeditated killings orchestrated by their commanding officers.

The rights group catalogued the security forces' use of firearms that are "completely inappropriate for use in policing protests", including light machine guns, sniper rifles and semi-automatic rifles.

The army has justified taking power by saying that a November election, overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi's party, was marred by fraud - an assertion rejected by the electoral commission.

Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun reiterated that the military would only be in charge for a certain period before holding an election. The junta has said a state of emergency will last for a year, but has not set a date for the election.

With international condemnation so far seemingly ignored by the junta, the United States applied fresh pressure with sanctions against two adult children of coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing.

And the Asian Development Bank announced it had temporarily suspended funding for government projects in Myanmar "as the international community assesses the evolving situation".