YANGON: Across Myanmar, opponents of the ruling junta on Sunday mourned the killings of at least 114 people by security forces in the bloodiest day since the military coup, but vowed to keep protesting to end army rule.
Children were among those killed on Saturday, Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day, according to news reports and witnesses, in a crackdown that drew renewed criticism from Western countries and was denounced by the US envoy as “horrifying”.
“We salute our heroes who sacrificed lives during this revolution and We Must Win This REVOLUTION,” one of the main protest groups, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities (GSCN), posted on Facebook.
The day also brought some of the heaviest fighting since the coup between the army and the ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country.
Military jets killed at least two people in a raid on a village controlled by an armed group from the Karen minority, a civil society group said, after the Karen National Union faction earlier said it had overrun an army post near the Thai border, killing 10 people.
Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the junta leader, had said during a parade to mark Armed Forces Day that the military would protect the people and strive for democracy.
The Myanmar Now news portal said 114 people were killed across the country in crackdowns on the protests. The dead included 40 people in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay. At least 27 people were killed in the commercial hub Yangon. A 13-year-old was among the dead in the central Sagaing region.
Deaths were recorded from the Kachin region in the mountainous north to Taninthartharyi in the far south on the Andaman Sea – taking the overall number of civilians reported killed since the coup to more than 440.
US Ambassador Thomas Vajda said on social media: “This bloodshed is horrifying,” adding “Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule”. The EU delegation to Myanmar said Saturday would “forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonour.”
The top military officer from the United States and nearly a dozen of his counterparts were set to condemn the killings, according to a joint statement obtained by Reuters ahead of its planned release.
The statement said that a professional military must follow international standards for conduct “and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves.”
It said the country’s military must “cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions.”
Among the signatories were the United States, Britain and some EU states that have imposed sanctions on the army. It was also signed by Japan and Australia, which have traditionally been closer to Myanmar.
The condemnation was not universal. Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin attended the military parade in Naypyitaw, having met senior junta leaders a day earlier.
The support from Russia and China is important for the junta as those two countries are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and can block potential UN actions.
