YANGON: Another anti-coup protester was shot dead in Myanmar on Friday as a UN envoy urged the Security Council to hear the nation’s “desperate pleas” and take swift action to restore democracy.

Despite an increasingly brutal crackdown by the military authorities that has seen more than 50 people killed, protesters took to the streets again in towns around the country to denounce the Feb 1 coup.

In Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city, hundreds of engineers took to the streets crying “Free our leader” in reference to ousted State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi, detained by the military since the first night of the takeover.

A 26-year-old man helping at barriers set up in the city to slow security forces died after being shot in the neck, medical officials said.

The killing follows the deadliest day of the crackdown so far on Wednesday, when the UN said at least 38 people were killed as graphic images showed security forces firing into crowds and bloodied bodies dragged away.

Police also fired tear gas at demonstrators in the southern city of Dawei while protesters in the commercial capital Yangon were defiant despite the danger.

“Scared, yeah, I’m very scared to stay on the frontline. But we believe in our comrades and we promise to protect each other if someone is injured,” protester Didi, 27, said.

The generals have shown no sign of heeding calls for restraint despite mounting international pressure, including targeted sanctions by Western powers.

The Security Council took up the escalating crisis on Friday and heard from the UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, who warned against any moves to grant legitimacy to the junta.

“Your unity is needed more than ever on Myanmar,” Burgener told the closed-door session. “The repression must stop.” She said that she is receiving some 2,000 messages a day from Myanmar urging international action.

“The hope they have placed in the United Nations and its membership is waning and I have heard directly the desperate pleas — from mothers, students and the elderly,” she said. But she stopped short of urging international sanctions.

Myanmar’s military has historically counted on support from veto-wielding Security Council member China, which has voiced misgivings about the coup but not joined Western nations in sanctions.

The United Nations special rapporteur on rights in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, had earlier called for a global arms embargo on the country as well as an International Criminal Court probe into alleged atrocities.

In a palpable sign of the opposition to the coup, Myanmar’s newly appointed ambassador to the United Nations resigned, saying that his predecessor — sacked by the junta after dramatically condemning the seizure of power in a speech — remained the legitimate envoy.

Burgener saluted the ambassador, Kyaw Moe Tun, saying he was the representative of the elected government and needed the “full support” of Security Council powers.

In Myanmar’s north, a number of people have crossed the border into India in a bid to escape the crackdown.

Published in Dawn, March 6th, 2021