The security forces resorted to live fire with little warning in several towns and cities
\nNews agency
\nNaypyitaw
\nMyanmar security forces opened fire on protests against military rule on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, witnesses and media reported, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis.
\nMyanmar security forces shoot dead 13 anti-coup protesters despite calls for restraint
\nThe security forces resorted to live fire with little warning in several towns and cities, witnesses said, as the junta appeared more determined than ever to stamp out protests against the Feb. 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s horrific, it\u2019s a massacre. No words can describe the situation and our feelings,\u201d youth activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi told Reuters via a messaging app.
\nA spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.
\nThe heaviest toll was in the central town of Monywa, where five people – four men and one woman – were killed, said Ko Thit Sar, editor of the Monywa Gazette.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve confirmed with family members and doctors, five people have been killed,\u201d he told Reuters. \u201cAt least 30 people are wounded, some still unconscious.\u201d
\nIn the main city Yangon, witnesses said at least three people were killed when security forces opened fire with automatic weapons in the early evening.
\n\u201cI heard so much continuous firing. I lay down on the ground, they shoot a lot and I saw two people killed on the spot,\u201d protester Kaung Pyae Sone Tun, 23, told Reuters. He said several people were wounded and carried away.
\nTwo people were killed in the country\u2019s second-biggest city Mandalay, a witness and media reports said. Two people were killed in the northern mining town of Hpakant, a resident there said, and one person was killed in the central town of Myingyan.
\nAt least 35 people have been killed since the coup.
\nThe violence came a day after foreign ministers from Southeast Asian neighbours urged restraint but failed to unite behind a call for the release Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy.
\n\u201cThe country is like the Tiananmen Square in most of its major cities,\u201d the Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, said on Twitter, referring to the violent suppression of student-led protests in Beijing in 1989.
\nSecurity forces breaking up protests in Yangon detained about 300 protesters, the Myanmar Now news agency reported.
\nVideo posted on social media showed lines of young men, hands on heads, filing into army trucks as police and soldiers stood guard. Reuters was unable to verify the footage.
\n\u2018Continue This Fight\u2019
\nImages of a 19-year-old woman, one of the two shot dead in Mandalay, showed her wearing a T-shirt that read \u201cEverything will be OK\u201d.
\nPolice in Yangon ordered three medics out of an ambulance, shot up the windscreen and then kicked and beat the workers with gun butts and batons, video broadcast by U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia showed. Reuters was unable to verify the video independently.
\nDemocracy activist Esther Ze Naw told Reuters that the sacrifices of those who died would not be in vain.
\n\u201cWe will continue this fight and win. We shall overcome this and win,\u201d she said.
\nOn Tuesday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) failed to make a breakthrough in a virtual foreign ministers\u2019 meeting on Myanmar.
\nWhile united in a call for restraint, only four members – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Singapore – called for the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees.
\n\u201cWe expressed ASEAN\u2019s readiness to assist Myanmar in a positive, peaceful and constructive manner,\u201d the ASEAN chair, Brunei, said in a statement.
\nMyanmar\u2019s state media said the military-appointed foreign minister, Wunna Maung Lwin, attended the conference and \u201capprised the meeting of voting irregularities\u201d in a November election.
\nThe military justified the coup saying its complaints of voter fraud in the Nov. 8 vote were ignored. Suu Kyi\u2019s party won by a landslide, earning a second term.
\nThe election commission said the vote was fair.
\nJunta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing has pledged to hold new elections but given no time frame.
\nForeign firms should suspend all business in Myanmar to send a clear message to the military, Chris Sidoti, a former UN expert on the country said.
\nSuu Kyi, 75, has been held incommunicado since the coup but appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing this week and looked in good health, a lawyer said.
\nShe is one of nearly 1,300 people who have been detained, according to activists.
\nOusted President Win Myint is facing two new charges, his lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw, said, including one for a breach of the constitution that is punishable by up to three years in prison. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The security forces resorted to live fire with little warning in several towns and cities News agency Naypyitaw Myanmar security forces opened fire on protests against military rule on Wednesday, killing at least 13 people, witnesses and media reported, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-177964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n