YANGON, Sept 27: Security forces swept through Myanmar’s main city on Thursday, killing nine people including a Japanese journalist, and arresting hundreds more in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
At least 50,000 people, many of them youths and students, swarmed into Yangon undeterred by the deaths the day before of at least four protesters, including three Buddhist monks, and repeatedly defied orders to disperse.
As the shots rang out, they ran for their lives, only to regroup and face down the might of Myanmar’s junta.
In six hours of chaotic protests, state media said nine people were killed and another 11 protesters injured, including one woman.
“The protesters threw bricks, sticks and knives at the security forces, so because of the desperate situation the security forces had to fire warning shots,” it said, adding 31 police and soldiers were also wounded.
Japanese national Kenji Nagai, 50, a journalist for Tokyo-based video and photo agency APF News, is the first foreign victim of the crackdown.
It was the 10th straight day that large protests have erupted against the ruling junta, which caused outrage in this Southeast Asian nation by doubling fuel prices on Aug 15.
British diplomatic sources said there was evidence that monks whose monastery was raided before dawn were “badly beaten”, with large amounts of blood found in their dormitories after they were hauled away.
The raid was one of at least three in Yangon’s east, which each triggered clashes as hundreds of supporters tried to prevent monks from being hauled away by authorities in an apparent bid to prevent them from leading the protests.
In the city centre, at least 100 other people were taken into custody, thrown into military trucks after troops issued an ultimatum threatening “extreme action” unless they dispersed.
Groups of people were forced to lie on their stomachs while they were searched, and if found with cameras or cell phones they were beaten and their equipment was smashed.—AFP
YANGON, Sept 27: Security forces swept through Myanmar’s main city on Thursday, killing nine people including a Japanese journalist, and arresting hundreds more in a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests.
