Protesters hold ‘bleeding strike’ in Myanmar to draw attention to killings
Protesters in Myanmar have staged a “bleeding strike” to remember the more than 700 people who have been killed by security forces since a military coup in early February.
Myanmar normally holds a New Year festival this week. But festivities have been canceled this year in protest at the junta, which took over power by overthrowing the government of de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
Protesters have been using the holiday as a rallying point, splashing red paint in the streets and on bus stations and pavements to symbolize the blood spilled since the coup.
The junta has been attempting to quell mass protests with lethal force since then.
According to a local monitoring group, at least 714 people have been killed, but the actual toll is likely to be even higher.
“The purpose of the ‘bleeding strike’ is to remember the martyrs who died in the struggle for democracy,” said a protester in Yangon.
Some protesters were rallying on Wednesday with signs calling for the release of Suu Kyi.
She has been in detention since the coup and faces various charges, including violating an official secret act that could see her imprisoned for 14 years.
“Please save our leader — future — hope,” read a sign with a picture of Suu Kyi held by a protester in the second city of Mandalay.
Suu Kyi’s lawyer has rejected the charges against her.
The United Nations (UN) human rights office warned on Tuesday that it feared that the military crackdown on the protests risked escalating into a civil conflict.
Some militia groups have already declared an intention to fight security forces.
A bloody junta crackdown in the central town of Bago last week killed at least 82 people and forced others to flee to nearby villages.
According to the monitoring group of the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), military forces fired on people, using assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), and hand grenades.
The Bago University Students’ Union said in a Facebook post last week that the junta charged families 120,000 Myanmar kyat (85 dollars) to retrieve the bodies of the relatives who had died.
The military also “prevented medical personnel from helping the wounded,” Bachelet said.
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