Myanmar protesters defy crackdown, five killed

YANGON: Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protests on Saturday killing at least five people, a protester and media said, as the military stepped up its bid to stifle dissent with arrest warrants for a further 20 high-profile critics.
Despite the killing of more than 550 people by the security forces since the Feb. 1 coup, protesters are coming out every day, often in small groups in small towns, to voice opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of military rule.
Security forces in the central town of Monywa, which has seen daily protests for weeks, fired on a crowd killing at least four people and wounding several, two media organisations said.
“They started firing non-stop with both stun grenades and live rounds,” the protester in Monywa, who declined to be identified, told Reuters via a messaging app.
“People backed off and quickly put up … barriers but a bullet hit a person in front of me, in the head. He died on the spot.”
One man was shot and killed in the southern town of Thaton, the Bago Weekly Journal online news portal and residents reported. Police also opened fire in the central town of Bago, wounding one man.
Protests were also held in Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, and the northern town of Hpakant, media reported.
Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
The military has said those killed instigated violence. It says it staged the coup because a November election won by Suu Kyi’s party was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion.
The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group, in a statement earlier on Saturday, said the security forces had killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the coup.
“People are still protesting every day because we believe strongly that this is a fight between good and evil,” protest leader Tayzar San said in an audio message to Reuters.

SILENCING THE VOICES?
One of the wanted, actress Paing Phyoe Thu, who attended rallies in the main city of Yangon in the weeks after the coup, said she would not be cowed.
“Whether a warrant has been issued or not, as long as I’m alive I’ll oppose the military dictatorship who are bullying and killing people. The revolution must prevail,” she said on Facebook. Her whereabouts were not immediately known.
Military teams were also searching for protest leaders and several “unscrupulous” people with homemade weapons had been arrested, state media said.
The military is also waging a campaign to control the flow of information, ordering internet providers to cut wireless broadband from Friday, depriving most customers of access, though some messages and pictures were still being posted and shared.
The United States and other Western countries have denounced the coup and called for the release of Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her campaign against military rule. She has been charged with violating an official secrets act that is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
The United States also condemned the internet shutdown. reuters