International

New Zealand on Thursday temporarily suspended entry for all travellers from India, including its own citizens, for about two weeks following a high number of positive coronavirus cases arriving from the South Asian country. The move comes after New Zealand recorded 23 new positive coronavirus cases at its border on Thursday, of which 17 were from India. ‘We are temporarily suspending entry into New Zealand for travellers from India,’ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said in a news conference in Auckland. India has recorded 12.8 million Covid-19 cases, the most after the United States and Brazil. It is now battling a deadly second wave of infections, and this week the number of daily new cases passed the peak of the first wave seen last September. The suspension will start from 1600 local time on April 11 and will be in place until April 28. During this time the government will look at risk management measures to resume travel. The suspension applies to anyone who has been in India during the past 14 days. It is the first time that New Zealand has extended any bar on entry to its own citizens and residents. ‘I want to emphasize that while arrivals of COVID from India has prompted this measure, we are looking at how we manage high risk points of departure generally. This is not a country specific risk assessment...,’ Ardern said. New Zealand has virtually eliminated the virus within its borders, and has not reported any community transmission locally for about 40 days. But it has been reviewing its border settings as more infected people have been arriving recently, most of them from India. Pre-departure testing requirements reduced the number of positive cases coming from other countries but that's not been the case with India, Ardern said. ‘We have looked into whether or not we have issues with accuracy of the pre-departure tests. That has not demonstrated that that's where the problem lies. So this suspension gives us the time to look at the problem more generally,’ she said. New Zealand on Thursday also reported one new locally infected case in a worker who was employed at a coronavirus managed isolation facility.    

Opponents of Myanmar’s military junta sprayed red paint on roads in the country’s biggest city yesterday to mark the deaths of hundreds of “martyrs” killed by troops, as the crisis dragged on with no clear diplomatic solution in sight. Some 570 people have been killed during nearly two months of unrest since the military coup on Feb. 1, and security forces have arrested close to 3,500 people, with about four-fifths of them still in detention, advocacy group the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said yesterday. Demonstrators woke early in Yangon to spray and splash pavements, roads and bus shelters with red paint in protest at a sweeping crackdown by security forces that has caused weeks of international outrage. “The blood has not dried,” said one message in red. Another daubed across a bus shelter took aim at rank-and-file soldiers who it said were being exploited by kleptocratic generals. “Don’t kill people just for a small salary as low as the cost of dog food,” it said. Anger has swept Myanmar in the past two months over the return of a military government and an abrupt end to a brief era of democratic and economic reform and international integration that was absent under the military’s oppressive 1962-2011 rule. Some protesters have called their movement a “spring revolution”, characterised by street marches, quirky acts of non-violent rebellion and civil disobedience campaigns aimed at crippling the government apparatus. Their ability to organise may have been hampered in recent days by the military’s halt of broadband wireless Internet, adding to a weeks-long block of mobile data services which had been the main channel for spreading word of what was happening in the country during the crackdown. Those able to access social media, including some journalists, shared pictures of striking workers marching for a second day in the city of Mandalay, some wearing gas masks and giving the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of resistance to army rule. A day earlier, demonstrators held placards of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi and signs calling for international intervention. Authorities have issued arrest warrants for dozens of celebrities, models and influencers, and yesterday a popular comedian was arrested in Yangon, the Mizzima news site reported. Sithu Aung Myint, a prominent journalist, was on the wanted list. Writing on Facebook, he said he was proud to be considered a threat. “When the coup council who have been committing crimes announces you as a lawbreaker together with the whole country, you will be more than happy because you are recognised as a hero in this revolution,” he wrote. “Your next generation will be proud of you.” Protesters and workers have come out daily against the military takeover, which followed several years of awkward power-sharing between generals and Suu Kyi’s civilian government under a democratic system created by the army. Suu Kyi’s party won an election by landslide in November, and had pledged to change the constitution to reduce the military’s political clout. Despite the election commission saying the vote was fair, the military justified its coup by alleging that the ballot was fraudulent, and has promised to hold a new election at an unspecified time. On Monday, the military’s mouthpiece newspaper, the Global New Light of Myanmar, carried a banner quoting the junta’s leader, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. “Democracy is based on the wish of the majority, but such a wish must be authentic with honest politics,” it said. Min Aung Hlaing has sought to play down the unrest and dismissed international concern as misplaced, calling it an internal issue that the military was handling with “utmost restraint”. Western countries have called for a restoration of Suu Kyi’s government, a position echoed by only a handful of Myanmar’s regional neighbours. Brunei, the chair of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) on Monday agreed to a meeting of its leaders over the crisis in Myanmar, though no date was set, Asean operates by consensus but the divergent views of its 10 members on how to respond to the army’s use of lethal force against civilians and the group’s policy of non-interference has limited its ability to act.

Anti-coup demonstrators in Myanmar decorated boiled eggs yesterday, as Pope Francis in his Easter message expressed solidarity with the country’s youth. Myanmar has been gripped by turmoil since a February 1 coup ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi and derailed the country’s tentative transition to democracy. Security forces have sought to quell a mass uprising with lethal force and the death toll reached 564 as of late yesterday, according to local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). On Easter, decorated eggs became the latest emblem of resistance as scores of Myanmar protesters painted political messages on them and left them on neighbours’ doorsteps. Pictures posted on social media showed eggs adorned with images of Suu Kyi and three-finger salutes – a protest gesture – while others said “save our people” and “democracy”. “I am Buddhist but I have joined this campaign because it is easy to get a hold of eggs. I spent almost one hour decorating my eggs,” a Yangon-based protester said. “I am praying for Myanmar’s current situation to get back to democracy.” Delivering his Easter message at the St Peter’s Basilica yesterday, Pope Francis singled out Myanmar youth “committed to supporting democracy and making their voices heard peacefully, in the knowledge that hatred can be dispelled only by love”. Protesters also hit the streets again yesterday, some carrying flags and riding motorbikes. In Pyinmana, a town in Naypyidaw region, security forces opened fire on demonstrators. “A man who was in the walking crowd got hit and killed. Another one was also shot,” a resident said. A 30-year-old protester was also killed in the early hours of yesterday morning in northern Kachin state. “They shot him at the roadside. He was wounded and died later. They took away his dead body this morning at 6am,” an eyewitness said. The military junta insists security forces are “exercising utmost restraint,” as they respond to the protests, state-run newspaper Myawady reported yesterday. In Pyay, a town in Bago region, people plastered photos of Myanmar children killed since early February on a billboard and on fences. While foreign companies have faced growing calls to sever ties with the junta, French energy giant Total announced yesterday it will not halt gas production in coup-hit Myanmar. Chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said Total has a duty to stay the course. “Can a company like Total decide to cut off the electricity supply to millions of people – and in so doing, disrupt the operation of hospitals, businesses?” he told the Journal du Dimanche. Pouyanne said he was “outraged by the repression” in Myanmar but would refuse to “act to the detriment of our local employees and the Burmese population who are already suffering so much.” The military-controlled Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise has partnerships with Total and US rival Chevron and generates annual revenues of around $1bn from the sale of natural gas. Total paid about $230mn to the Myanmar authorities in 2019 and $176mn in 2020 in taxes and “production rights”, according to the financial statements.

Myanmar security forces opened fire on pro-democracy protests yesterday killing at least five people, a protester and media said, as the military stepped up its bid to stifle dissent with arrest warrants for a further 20 high-profile critics.  Despite the killing of more than 550 people by the security forces since the Feb 1 coup, protesters are coming out every day, often in small groups in small towns, to voice opposition to the overthrow of an elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi and the return of military rule. Security forces in the central town of Monywa, which has seen daily protests for weeks, fired on a crowd killing at least four people and wounding several, two media organisations said. “They started firing non-stop with both stun grenades and live rounds,” the protester in Monywa, who declined to be identified, told Reuters via a messaging app. “People backed off and quickly put up ... barriers but a bullet hit a person in front of me, in the head. He died on the spot.” One man was shot and killed in the southern town of Thaton, the Bago Weekly Journal online news portal and residents reported. Police also opened fire in the central town of Bago, wounding one man. Protests were also held in Myanmar’s second city, Mandalay, and the northern town of Hpakant, media reported. Police and a spokesman for the junta did not answer telephone calls seeking comment. The military has said those killed instigated violence. It says it staged the coup because a November election won by Suu Kyi’s party was rigged. The election commission has dismissed the assertion. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group, in a statement earlier on Saturday, said the security forces had killed 550 people, 46 of them children, since the coup. “People are still protesting every day because we believe strongly that this is a fight between good and evil,” protest leader Tayzar San said in an audio message to Reuters. State media announced that authorities had issued warrants for another 20 celebrities – including social media influencers, singers and models – under a law against inciting dissent in the armed forces, taking the number of warrants issued for high-profile democracy campaigners over the past day to 38. The charge can carry a prison term of three years. One of the wanted, actress Paing Phyoe Thu, who attended rallies in the main city of Yangon in the weeks after the coup, said she would not be cowed. “Whether a warrant has been issued or not, as long as I’m alive I’ll oppose the military dictatorship who are bullying and killing people. The revolution must prevail,” she said on Facebook. Her whereabouts were not immediately known. Military teams were also searching for protest leaders and several “unscrupulous” people with homemade weapons had been arrested, state media said. The military is also waging a campaign to control the flow of information, ordering Internet providers to cut wireless broadband from Friday, depriving most customers of access, though some messages and pictures were still being posted and shared. The United States and other Western countries have denounced the coup and called for the release of Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her campaign against military rule. She has been charged with violating an official secrets act that is punishable by up to 14 years in prison. The United States also condemned the Internet shutdown. “We hope this won’t silence the voices of the people,” a State Department spokeswoman, Jalina Porter, told a briefing. The coup has rekindled old wars with autonomy-seeking ethnic minority forces in the north and the east. Myanmar’s oldest insurgent group, the Karen National Union (KNU), has seen the first military air strikes on its forces in more than 20 years, after it announced its support for the pro-democracy movement. The KNU, which signed a ceasefire with the government in 2012, said more than 12,000 villagers had fled their homes because of the air strikes. It called for an international embargo on arms sales to the military. Media has reported that about 20 people were killed in air strikes in KNU territory in recent days, including nearly a dozen at a gold mine run by the group. Fighting has also flared in the north between the army and ethnic Kachin insurgents. The turmoil has sent several thousand refugees fleeing into Thailand and India.

Myanmar’s ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has been accused of breaking a colonial-era official secrets law, her lawyer said yesterday, as former colonial power Britain ramped up sanctions against the junta. The newly unveiled charge came amid growing international outrage over the February 1 coup and the military’s subsequent clampdown on protesters that has left at least 535 people dead. Internet service providers were ordered to shut down Myanmar’s wireless services, provider Ooredoo said yesterday, in the latest move to suppress communication. Britain announced sanctions on the Myanmar Economic Corp (MEC), a conglomerate controlled by the military that Washington has already blacklisted. International powers have sought to pile pressure on the military by hitting its sprawling business interests, which include the country’s lucrative jade and ruby trade. Earlier, Suu Kyi appeared by video link in court in the capital Naypyidaw, where she faces a raft of charges that could see her barred from political office. The hearing dealt with administrative aspects of the case including the formal appointment of eight defence lawyers. “Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s physical condition was good according to the (lawyer who saw her on screen). She was smart and charming as always,” lawyer Khin Maung Zaw told reporters. He later said that Suu Kyi has been accused of breaking an official secrets law in a lawsuit filed March 25. The junta is also probing the Nobel laureate over allegations she took payments of gold and more than $1mn in cash, but Khin Maung Zaw said these were not likely to translate into formal charges at this stage. The next hearing will be April 12. London will also stump up $700,000 towards UN Security Council efforts to document serious human rights violations in Myanmar. “Two months on from the start of the coup, the Myanmar military has sunk to a new low with the wanton killing of innocent people, including children,” British foreign minister Dominic Raab said in a statement. The measures would hit one of the military’s “key funding streams”, he added. A group of ousted MPs from Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who have been working underground against the junta, have announced plans for “a new civilian government” in the first week of April. They said Myanmar’s military-drafted 2008 constitution was “cancelled”, and yesterday a group of protesters burned a pile of copies in the street in Yangon. In another blow to the junta’s business interests, two military-owned supermarkets in Yangon were set ablaze overnight, and more international companies cut ties. German company Giesecke+Devrient, which supplies raw materials to Myanmar’s central bank for the production of banknotes, announced Wednesday it was suspending deliveries. French renewable energy giant Voltalia said it was also withdrawing from the country because of the political and humanitarian crisis. Protests — and the security forces’ tough response — continue, and in Monywa in central Myanmar on Thursday a 31-year-old protester was shot dead, while 10 others were wounded, a rescue worker said. One person was also killed, and six others injured, in Mandalay, a rescue worker and a doctor said. And the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said security forces had been targeting first responders. “Myanmar Red Cross first aiders and medics have been wrongfully arrested, intimidated or injured and Red Cross property and ambulances have been damaged. This is unacceptable,” Asia-Pacific director Alexander Matheou said. The UN Security Council held an urgent closed-door session on the escalating crisis on Wednesday, where special envoy on Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener urged it to act. Britain’s UN envoy Barbara Woodward said the Security Council was “united in its condemnation” and was discussing “a range of measures at our disposal”, but China ruled out sanctions or other “coercive measures”. Fears are also growing that a broader conflict could erupt in a country plagued for decades by on-off fighting between the military and rebel ethnic armies. Several of Myanmar’s 20 or so armed ethnic groups, who control large areas of territory mostly in border regions, have voiced their opposition to the coup and crackdown. Three of them — the Ta’ang National Liberation Army, the Myanmar Nationalities Democratic Alliance Army and the Arakan Army — on Wednesday threatened to join the protesters’ fight against the military.

* PNG health minister calls conspiracies biggest vaccine challenge * PNG battling a spike in new cases * Even health workers are reluctant to be vaccinated Misinformation shared on Facebook is the biggest threat to Papua New Guinea's Covid-19 vaccine plans and the social media giant must take steps to ‘stop it’, the Pacific country's health minister said on Thursday. Conspiracy theories about vaccines are so entrenched that even frontline health workers are hesitant to take the shot, Jelta Wong said at a talk with an Australian think tank that was streamed online. ‘Facebook is our biggest conspiracy theorist platform,’ Wong said at the Lowy Institute talk, adding people should not rely on unverified claims on Facebook to guide their approach to vaccines. ‘Facebook has a lot of influence here. They're supposed to have programmes where they stop these types of things. Facebook must take responsibility of this and stop it.’ False claims and conspiracies have proliferated on social media platforms during the pandemic, but distrust in PNG is unusually deep-seated, local health leaders say, hurting the island's prospects of recovery as infections spike. Facebook Inc is committed to removing ‘false claims about the safety, efficacy, ingredients or side effects of the vaccine, including conspiracy theories’, its director of public policy for Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific islands, Mia Garlick, said in an email. ‘Conversations about vaccines tend to be nuanced, so we're continuing to work with health experts, including the World Health Organization, to make sure that our approach and our policies are in the right place,’ she added. 'SHOULDN'T BE GIVING ANY OXYGEN' Still, peddlers of bogus claims continue to evade Facebook's policing by disseminating their views via comments beneath legitimate news items, experts noted. ‘Someone will post a story as simple as the prime minister being vaccinated ... and then the comments that come under it, it just turns into this frenzied discussion,’ David Ayres, country director for family planning clinic Marie Stopes, said by telephone from PNG's capital, Port Moresby. Ayres said in his organisation, about 40 out of 100 employees were opposed or reluctant to take the vaccine. ‘When those people are interacting in their community, interacting with their family, it's promulgating these messages that we really shouldn't be giving any oxygen at all.’ Bridgette Thorold, country director of child services non-profit ChildFund PNG, said even if there were enough vaccines for PNG's 10 million people, many would refuse due to misinformation. To reassure citizens about vaccines, health minister Wong, Prime Minister James Marape and several other PNG officials took the AstraZeneca shot this week. PNG'S VACCINE SUPPLY While PNG will not make vaccination mandatory, it should have enough shots in the next three or four months for everyone who wants to be vaccinated, Wong said. PNG, which gained independence from Australia in 1975, has so far received 8,000 vaccine doses from Australia's supply. India, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has promised another 70,000 doses, but deliveries could be delayed as it has since has put a temporary hold on all major exports of the AstraZeneca shot to meet domestic demand. China has committed 200,000 doses for its citizens in PNG. PNG also expects 588,000 doses by June under the COVAX initiative to help poorer countries, but there are doubts about supplies given export curbs by producing countries. PNG had recorded 6,112 cases and 60 deaths by Wednesday. Australia says that tally vastly underestimates the extent of the crisis as the island does not do mass testing.    

Myanmar activists held candle-lit vigils overnight after scores of deaths in recent days from a military crackdown on anti-coup protesters and clashes in ethnic border areas, as the United States ordered non-essential embassy staff to leave. At least 521 civilians have been killed in two months of protests against the Feb 1 coup, 141 of them on Saturday, the bloodiest day of the unrest, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). The advocacy group said a further eight people died on Tuesday, when thousands came out to march in several towns, according to media and photos on social media. There were also new candle-lit protests overnight in towns across Myanmar in defiance of a curfew and at least one dawn march on Wednesday by demonstrators, media reports said. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the army ousted an elected government led by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, detaining her and reimposing military rule after a decade of tentative steps towards democracy. Fighting has also flared between the army and insurgents in frontier regions, and refugees are spilling over borders. The Karen National Union rebel group, which operates along the eastern border with Thailand, said on Tuesday it was bracing for a major government offensive. The group urged the international community, neighbouring Thailand in particular, to help Karen people fleeing the “onslaught” and called for countries to cut ties with the junta to stop the violence against civilians. Meanwhile, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), a rebel group in the north, attacked a police station in Kachin state at 3am on Wednesday, the Kachin News Group said. A march by civilian protesters also took place at dawn on Wednesday in Moegaung in Kachin, the news service reported. Police and a spokesman for the Myanmar junta did not answer calls seeking comment. The United States on Tuesday ordered the departure of non-emergency US government employees and their family members from Myanmar due to concerns over civil unrest. Opponents of the coup have called for a united front with insurgent groups. Rebels have battled the government for decades for greater autonomy in remote border regions.  The military has justified its long grip on power by saying it is the only institution capable of ensuring national unity. Military aircraft bombed KNU fighters on the weekend, sending about 3,000 villagers fleeing to Thailand. Thailand denied accusations from activists that refugees were being forced to return but a Thai official on the border said the army was sending most people back because it was deemed safe on the Myanmar side. A spokesman for the UN refugee agency said it was concerned about reports people were being sent back and it was seeking information from Thailand. A border state in India withdrew an order to refuse refugees food and shelter aftission. A civil disobedience campaign of strikes has paralysed parts of the economy and protesters stepped it up by asking residents on Tuesday to leave rubbish at city intersections. Western countries have condemned the coup and the violence and called for Suu Kyi’s release, and some have imposed limited sanctions. In Washington, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some foreign countries and companies with significant investments in enterprises that support Myanmar’s military should reconsider those stakes. He said the recent violence was “reprehensible” and followed a pattern of “increasingly disturbing and even horrifying violence” against demonstrators opposing military rule. Indonesia has led efforts by members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), of which Myanmar is a member, to encourage a negotiated solution, despite an old agreement not to comment on each other’s problems. Foreign criticism and Western sanctions against previous Myanmar juntas have had little short-term impact.

Myanmar security forces killed at least five protesters yesterday, three of them in the main city of Yangon, witnesses and media reported, as activists called on ethnic minority forces in the diverse nation to back their campaign against military rule.  After the bloodiest day since the Feb 1 military coup with 114 deaths on Saturday, thousands took to the streets in towns across the country, determined to show their opposition to the relapse into military rule after a decade of democratic reform. At least two people were killed in the Yangon district of South Dagon when security forces moved in to clear protesters’ barricades, residents said. “We can confirm two were killed in our ward,” said one neighbourhood resident who asked to be identified as just Win. “About 15 members of the security forces came and shot all around.” Security forces fired a much heavier-calibre weapon than usual to clear a barricade in South Dagon, witnesses said and a video clip showed, but it was not immediately clear what type. Pictures on social media from the northwestern town of Kale showed soldiers with rocket-propelled grenade launchers but it was not known if they had fired them. One man was killed earlier in another Yangon neighbourhood, when security forces fired on protesters and a Red Cross team, witness Thiha Soe told Reuters. Police and a junta spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. Myanmar’s Red Cross said in a message it was checking the report. Two people were also killed in shooting in the central town of Myingyan, student leader Moe Myint Hein told Reuters. Based on a tally by the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group, 464 civilians have been killed since the coup. Despite the violence, crowds turned out in towns across the country, according to media and social media posts. One of the main groups behind the protests, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities, called in an open letter on Facebook for ethnic minority forces to help those standing up to the “unfair oppression” of the military. “It is necessary for the ethnic armed organisations to collectively protect the people,” the group said. Insurgents from different ethnic groups have battled the central government for decades for greater autonomy. Though many groups have agreed to ceasefires, fighting has flared in recent days between the army and forces in both the east and north. Heavy clashes erupted on the weekend near the Thai border between the army and fighters from Myanmar’s oldest ethnic minority force, the Karen National Union (KNU). About 3,000 villagers fled to Thailand when military jets bombed a KNU area, killing three civilians, after a KNU force overran an army outpost and killed 10 people, an activist group and media said. The Free Burma Rangers activist group said 2,009 people had been forced to return to the Myanmar side of the border on Monday evening. “Thailand’s heartless and illegal act must stop now,” Sunai Phasuk, senior researcher on Thailand for Human Rights Watch, wrote on Twitter. A Thai provincial official who declined to be identified said the refugees had not been pushed back but were on the Thai side of a border river. Earlier, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said he wanted Myanmar’s latest problems to remain there. “Please, let this be an internal problem. We don’t want to have an exodus, evacuation into our territory but we will observe human rights too,” Prayuth told reporters in Bangkok. He also dismissed suggestions Thailand was backing the Myanmar junta saying no one could support such violence against civilians. In Myanmar’s north, fighting erupted on Sunday in the jade-mining area of Hpakant when Kachin Independence Army (KIA) fighters attacked a police station, Kachinwaves media reported. There were no reports of casualties. Both the KNU and KIA have expressed support for the anti-coup movement and called on the army stop the violence against civilian protesters. Myanmar’s military has for decades justified its grip on power by saying it is the only institution capable of preserving national unity. It seized power saying that November elections won by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s party were fraudulent, an assertion dismissed by the election commission. Suu Kyi remains in detention at an undisclosed location and many other figures in her party are also in custody. UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar Tom Andrews said the army was carrying out “mass murder” and called on the world to isolate the junta and block its access to weapons. US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the United States was suspending all trade engagement with Myanmar until the return of a democratically elected government. But foreign criticism and sanctions imposed by some Western countries have failed to sway the generals. Neighbours China and India have declined to condemn the coup and Russia has also maintained its close ties with a visit by a Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and a pledge to beef up military ties. The Kremlin said Russia’s long-standing and constructive ties with Myanmar did not signify its approval of “tragic events” there.

Defence chiefs from a dozen countries yesterday jointly condemned the bloodbath in Myanmar a day earlier, when at least 107 people – including seven children – were killed as security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters. Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military ousted and detained civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, triggering mass protests demanding a return to democracy. The junta on Saturday staged a major show of might for its annual Armed Forces Day as the death toll from crackdowns since the coup climbed to at least 423, according to a local monitoring group. The defence chiefs of 12 countries including the United States, Britain, Japan and Australia condemned the Myanmar military’s use of lethal force against civilians. “A professional military follows international standards for conduct and is responsible for protecting – not harming – the people it serves,” the rare joint statement said. “We urge the Myanmar Armed Forces to cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions.” Funerals were held yesterday for some of the victims, after the bloodiest day since the putsch. In Mandalay, the family of Aye Ko, a father-of-four, commemorated his life at a service after he was killed overnight. “I am very saddened to lose my husband – together with my children I’m heartbroken,” his wife Ma Khaing said. Relatives of 13-year-old boy Sai Waiyan, who was shot Saturday playing outside his house in Yangon, cried over his casket yesterday afternoon, local media reported. Despite the dangers, protesters hit the streets again yesterday in parts of Yangon including Hlaing, and in the cities of Dawei, Bago, Myingyan and Monywa. State-run media confirmed two men and two women were killed at Monywa yesterday. There was also a death in Myingyan – one woman was killed and two others injured, a medic said. At Hlaing, a 16-year-old boy lost a hand in a blast, trying to throw back a grenade that security forces had lobbed at protesters, a rescue worker said. A day earlier there were brutal military crackdowns at more than 40 locations across the country. The Mandalay and Yangon regions saw the majority of deaths, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).The United Nations put Saturday’s death toll at 107 people – including seven children – but expects it to rise further. “The shameful, cowardly, brutal actions of the military and police – who have been filmed shooting at protesters as they flee, and who have not even spared young children – must be halted immediately,” United Nations envoys Alice Wairimu Nderitu and Michelle Bachelet said in a joint statement. Military-run broadcaster Myawaddy TV reported Saturday’s death toll was 45, noting 552 people had been arrested and claimed it was an unavoidable crackdown because protesters used real guns and bombs against security forces. Rebels in eastern Myanmar’s Karen state said they had been targeted in air strikes late Saturday, hours after the ethnic armed group seized a military base. Hsa Moo, an ethnic Karen and human rights activist, said three people were killed and at least eight injured. It was the first air assault in 20 years in the state, and targeted the Fifth Brigade of the Karen National Union (KNU) – one of the country’s largest armed groups – which says it represents the ethnic Karen people. Further air strikes yesterday sent 2,000 people from two villages in Karen state darting through the jungle across the border into Thailand seeking safety, Hsa Moo said. There was a grand parade of troops and military vehicles in the capital Naypyidaw on Saturday where junta leader General Min Aung Hlaing defended the coup and pledged to yield power after new elections. But he also issued a threat to the anti-coup movement, warning that acts of “terrorism which can be harmful to state tranquillity and security” were unacceptable. On Saturday night Min Aung Hlaing and his wife entertained dignitaries including Russian deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin at a lavish outdoor dinner in Naypyidaw. State-run newspaper the Mirror reported there were musical performances and a drone display featuring a representation of Min Aung Hlaing saluting. Armed Forces Day commemorates the start of local resistance to the Japanese occupation during World War II, and usually features a parade attended by foreign military officers and diplomats. Overnight, at the Miss Grand International beauty pageant in Bangkok, a tearful Myanmar contender, Han Lay, pleaded for peace.  “Please help Myanmar, we need your urgent international help right now,” she said.

Demonstrators in Myanmar maintained their dogged opposition to military rule yesterday despite a rising death toll, with two more people killed as the junta appeared equally determined to resist growing pressure to compromise.  The country has been in turmoil since the military overthrew an elected government led by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1, bringing an end to 10 years of tentative democratic reform. One man was shot dead and several were wounded when police opened fire on a group setting up a barricade in the central town of Monywa, a doctor there said as a community group issued a call on Facebook for blood donors. Later, one person was killed and several were wounded when security forces fired on a crowd in the second city of Mandalay, the Myanmar Now news portal reported. At least 249 people have now been killed since the coup, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners activist group. The violence has forced many citizens to think up novel ways to express their rejection of a return to army rule. Protesters in some 20 places across the country staged candle-lit, nighttime protests over the weekend, from the main city of Yangon to small communities in Kachin State in the north, Hakha town in the west and the southernmost town of Kawthaung, according to a tally of social media posts. Hundreds of people in the second city of Mandalay, including many medical staff in white coats, marched in a “Dawn protest” before sunrise on Sunday, video posted by the Mizzima news portal showed. “Failure of the military regime, our cause our cause ... federal democracy, our cause our cause,” the crowd chanted as the sky was beginning to brighten and birds called from trees lining deserted streets. Protesters in some places were joined by Buddhist monks holding candles while some people used candles to make the shape of the three-fingered protest salute. Others came out later on Sunday, including the crowd in Monywa, where police opened fire. “Sniper, sniper,” people can be heard shouting in a video clip shortly after the man was shot in the head and more shots rang out. The spokesman for the junta was not available for comment but has previously said security forces have used force only when necessary. State media said on Sunday that men on motorbikes attacked a member of the security forces who later died. The military said two policemen were killed in earlier protests. The junta says a Nov 8 election won by Suu Kyi’s party was fraudulent, an accusation rejected by the electoral commission. Military leaders have promised a new election but have not set a date. Western countries have repeatedly condemned the coup and the violence. Asian neighbours, who have for years avoided criticising each other, have also begun speaking out. Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore have denounced the use of lethal force and called for the violence to stop. The Philippines has expressed concern. Indonesia and Malaysia want an urgent meeting of Southeast Asia’s regional grouping, of which Myanmar is a member, on the crisis. But the military, which sees itself as the sole guardian of national unity and ruled for nearly 50 years after a 1962 coup, has shown no sign of even considering back-tracking on its seizure of power. Coup leader General Min Aung Hlaing visited the Coco islands, one of Myanmar’s most strategically important outposts, 400km south of Yangon, on Saturday and reminded members of the armed force there that their main duty was to defend the country against external threats. The state-run Kyemon newspaper prominently featured a quote from independence hero Aung San, Suu Kyi’s father, who in 1947 said: “It is everyone’s duty to sacrifice their lives and defend and fight back against foreign countries’ insults.”

Protesters returned to the streets across Myanmar yesterday, defying a junta-led campaign of fear as regional powers Indonesia and Malaysia condemned the violence deployed by security forces against anti-coup demonstrators.  The country has been in turmoil since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a February 1 coup, triggering a nationwide uprising as protesters call for a return to democracy. So far, more than 230 people have been killed in anti-coup unrest, according to a local monitoring group, as security forces have deployed tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds against protesters. But the movement has pushed ahead – albeit in smaller numbers. Local media showed protesters in gas masks gathering in northern Shan state, while in the southern coastal city of Dawei, motorists hoisted posters of Suu Kyi and signs that read: “End the dictatorship.” Sporadic demonstrations persisted yesterday across the former capital Yangon, with a small group marching on a residential area chanting for the military to “Surrender if you do not want life in prison!” The country’s largest city has emerged as a hotspot for unrest, as security forces armed with guns continue to root out protesters sporting home-made protection gear. In Thaketa township – an area that has seen continuous crackdowns this week – security forces opened fire on residents who tried to retaliate by throwing Molotov cocktails. A teenager was killed, shot in the face, said a resident, declining to be named. According to one AFP-verified video taken in the township, security forces stalked the streets, firing continuously at random and shouting abuse at residents. Prominent activist Ei Thinzar Maung remained defiant on social media, sending out a tweet with the hashtag #SpringRevolution. “Who says we have to give up because of unequal weapons?” she wrote. “We are born for victory.”  Outside of protests, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group said “casualties and unprovoked shootings are increasing day by day”. Local media reported a death overnight in the ruby-producing city of Mogok, when neighbourhood night guards were shot while on duty. “One died on the spot last night while two others are in critical condition in the hospital,” a rescue team member confirmed to AFP, declining to give more details. In the central city of Pakokku along the Irrawaddy river, 39-year-old Mar La Win stepped out of her housing compound on Friday night and was immediately beset by security forces, her husband said. “I heard them shooting and she fell down,” said Myint Swe, who managed to escape through smaller streets and hid with his three children at home.  By Saturday morning he was told by police to go to the mortuary to identify her body.  “She was covered in bruises on her forehead, thigh, and foot, but they said it was her wound in her thigh (that killed her),” he told AFP.  “I feel so bitter about their inhumane action against my wife,” he said. Myanmar’s regional neighbours on Friday condemned the escalating violence, with Indonesian President Joko Widodo calling for a high-level regional meeting “to discuss the crisis”. “Indonesia urges that the use of violence in Myanmar stop to avoid more victims,” he said. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin echoed the need for an “emergency” summit among the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations. “I am appalled by the persistent use of lethal violence against unarmed civilians... The use of live ammunition against peaceful protests is unacceptable,” he said in a statement Friday. “This deplorable situation must stop immediately.” International condemnation by the United States, former colonial power Britain and the United Nations has so far failed to slow the violence. European Union foreign ministers are set to approve sanctions on Monday against 11 junta officials, according to EU diplomats. Since the military took over in February, the junta has sunk Myanmar further into isolation, throttling mobile data this week to cause an information blackout. It has also instated an Internet shutdown every night for more than a month. Security forces have gone after the country’s press corps, raiding multiple newsrooms and arresting more than 30 journalists since the coup, according to AAPP. A local journalist, Aung Thura, with the BBC’s Burmese service was taken away by men on Friday in the capital Naypyidaw while reporting outside a court. “The British Embassy... shares the BBC’s concerns about missing BBC Burmese journalist Aung Thura,” tweeted the embassy on Friday. “We echo the call for the authorities to help confirm his location and that he is safe.” Local journalist Than Htike Aung for Mizzima – which had its broadcasting licence revoked earlier this month – was arrested as well, reported Mizzima’s Facebook page.

Security forces killed at least 14 protesters in a poor, industrial suburb of Myanmar’s main city yesterday, and at least three people in other parts of the country, according to local media. State television said a police officer had also been killed in one of the bloodiest days of protests against the February 1 coup. China’s embassy has meanwhile called on Myanmar to protect its property and citizens after saying that two Chinese-financed garment factories were set ablaze by unknown attackers. Protests are now in their sixth week since the coup toppled elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and plunged the Southeast Asian country into turmoil, with the economy paralysed by strikes by opponents of the army takeover. Security forces opened fire on protesters in the Hlaingthaya district of the city, a poor suburb that is home to migrants from across the country, domestic media said. Plumes of black smoke rose over the area. Myanmar Now said at least 14 protesters had been killed, according to the local hospital and a rescue worker. “An official from Hlaingthaya Hospital said the death toll and wounded were still arriving,” its report said. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group however said that security forces killed at least 38 people yesterday, 22 of them in the Hlaingtharyar. The higher death toll would equal that of March 3, which had previously recorded more deaths than any other day. A doctor at a private hospital treating the injured confirmed the use of both live rounds and rubber bullets. Another doctor on the ground told AFP at least three had died – corroborating local media outlet The Irrawaddy – but said the death toll is expected to climb. “Three died in front of me while I was giving treatment. I’m sending another two to hospital. That’s all I can say at this moment,” she told AFP, in between giving orders to her aides to inject medicine. “I cannot talk much – the injured people keep coming,” she said before hanging up. State television MRTV said martial law had been imposed in the district. A junta spokesman did not answer calls requesting comment. Doctor Sasa, a representative of elected lawmakers from the assembly that was ousted by the army, voiced solidarity with the people of the district. “The perpetrators, attackers, enemies of the people of Myanmar, the evil SAC (State Administrative Council) will be held accountable for every drops of blood that shed,” he said in a message. At least three deaths were reported elsewhere in Myanmar yesterday, including in the second city of Mandalay and in Bago, where state television MRTV said a police officer had died of a chest wound after a confrontation with protesters. He is the second police officer reported dead in the protests. The latest deaths would bring the toll from the protests to nearly 100 while the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group had said more than 2,100 had also been arrested by Saturday. The violence came a day after Mahn Win Khaing Than, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy Party, said the civilian government would seek to give people the legal right to defend themselves. Suu Kyi is due to return to court today. She faces at least four charges, including the illegal use of walkie-talkie radios and infringing coronavirus protocols. The army said it took power after its accusations of fraud in a November 8 election won by Suu Kyi’s party were rejected by the electoral commission. It has promised to hold a new election, but has not set a date.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told an emotional memorial service marking two years since the Christchurch mosque attacks that the country had “a duty” to support its Muslim community.  Hundreds of people turned out for the service, held amid tight security, to remember the 51 people killed and dozens wounded when a heavily armed gunman opened fire in two mosques on March 15, 2019. Temel Atacocugu, who was shot nine times in the face, arms and legs, wept as he recalled waiting to be treated with the father of three-year-old Mucaad Ibrahim when they learned the toddler had died. “Suddenly, my pain seemed insignificant,” he said. Ardern, who was widely praised for the compassion shown to survivors and the families of the victims of the shooting and her swift move to tighten firearms control in New Zealand, said words “despite their healing power” would never change what happened.  “Men, women and children ... were taken in an act of terror. Words will not remove the fear that descended over the Muslim community,” she said, adding the legacy should be “a more inclusive nation, one that stands proud of our diversity and embraces it and, if called to, defends it staunchly.” Atacocugu said it was a miracle he was still alive. “I have since had seven major surgeries and there are more to come. I will carry lots of shrapnels in my body for the rest of my life. Every time I have an X-ray it lights up like a Christmas tree.” Kiran Munir, whose husband Shaheed Haroon Mahmood was killed in the attack, told the service that the best revenge was to “not be like the enemy. We are learning to rise up again with dignity and move forward as best we can.” The gunman, self-proclaimed white supremacist Brenton Tarrant, was arrested minutes after the attacks on the Al Noor mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre. He pleaded guilty to 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of terrorism, and was sentenced last year to life imprisonment without parole, the first time a whole life term has been handed down in New Zealand. Last week, police arrested a 27-year-old man in Christchurch and charged him with threatening to kill following online threats to the same two mosques. During the memorial service, armed police were stationed outside the venue and a sniffer dog checked the bags of people entering the building.

Myanmar’s military government yesterday alleged that deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments, while eight people were killed when security forces opened fire on protests against the coup, witnesses said. Rights group Amnesty International accused the military of adopting battle tactics against demonstrators. Six people were killed in the central town of Myaing when security forces fired on a protest, a demonstrator who helped carry bodies to hospital said. A health worker there confirmed all six deaths. “We protested peacefully,” the 31-year-old man said. “I couldn’t believe they did it.”  One person was killed in the North Dagon district of the biggest city of Yangon, witnesses said. Photographs posted on Facebook showed a man prone on the street, bleeding from a head wound. One death was reported in Mandalay. Before yesterday’s deaths, an advocacy group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, had said more than 60 protesters were killed and about 2,000 people detained by security forces since the February 1 coup against Suu Kyi’s elected government. Amnesty International accused the army of using lethal force against protesters and said many killings it had documented amounted to extra-judicial executions. “These are not the actions of overwhelmed, individual officers making poor decisions,” said Joanne Mariner, Amnesty’s director of crisis response. “These are unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and murderous methods in the open.” Junta spokesman Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun told a news conference the security forces were disciplined and used force only when necessary. The unrest was not a situation that should be of concern to the international community and the West was making assumptions that were incorrect, he said. The military has previously said it is acting with utmost restraint in handling what it describes as demonstrations by “riotous protesters” whom it accuses of attacking police and harming national security and stability. Zaw Min Tun also said Suu Kyi had accepted illegal payments worth $600,000 as well as gold while in government, according to a complaint by Phyo Mien Thein, a former chief minister of Yangon. “He strongly said that,” the spokesman said. “We have verified those facts several times. Now the anti-corruption committee is continuing the investigation.” Aye Ma Ma Myo, a member of the dissolved parliament belonging to Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy, rejected the claim. “It is no longer uncommon to see slander against politicians and efforts to crush the party while innocent young people are killed in public,” she said. The army has justified taking power by saying that a November election, overwhelmingly won by Suu Kyi’s party, was marred by fraud — an assertion rejected by the electoral commission. Zaw Min Tun also reiterated that the military would only be in charge for a certain period before holding an election. “We are on the road to authentic democracy,” he said. The junta has previously promised a new election within a year, but has not set a date.  The UN Security Council on Wednesday condemned violence against protesters and urged the army to show restraint. But language that would have denounced the military takeover as a coup or threatened possible further action was removed from the British-drafted text, due to opposition by China, India, Russia and Vietnam.

Myanmar’s major trade unions have called on members to shut down the economy from today to back a campaign against last month’s coup, raising pressure on the junta as its forces fired weapons and occupied hospitals in the main city Yangon after a day of massive protests. Witnesses reported sounds of gunfire or stun grenades in many districts of the commercial capital after nightfall, as soldiers set up camp in hospitals and university compounds, local media reported. It was not clear whether anyone was hurt. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, a non-profit, said the army was “intentionally terrorising residents” in Yangon. The show of force came after some of the largest nationwide protests since the February 1 coup, and an alliance of nine unions said they planned a “full extended shutdown” of the economy. “To continue economic and business activities as usual ... will only benefit the military as they repress the energy of the Myanmar people,” they said in a joint statement. “The time to take action in defence of our democracy is now.” A spokesman for the military did not answer calls seeking comment and Reuters was unable to reach police for comment. The army has said it is dealing with protests lawfully. Meanwhile, an official from the party of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi died overnight in police custody. National League for Democracy (NLD) official Khin Maung Latt had worked as a campaign manager for one of two Muslim MPs elected in 2020. Ba Myo Thein, a member of parliament’s upper house which was dissolved after the coup, said reports of bruising to Khin Maung Latt’s head and body raised suspicions that he had been tortured. “It seems that he was arrested at night and tortured severely,” he told Reuters. “This is totally unacceptable.” Police in Pabedan, the Yangon district where Khin Maung Latt was arrested, declined to comment. Yesterday saw some of the biggest protests in recent weeks. Police fired stun grenades and tear gas to break up a sit-in by tens of thousands of people in Mandalay, the Myanmar Now media group said. At least 70 people were arrested. Police also launched tear gas and stun grenades in the direction of protesters in Yangon and in the town of Lashio in the northern Shan region, videos posted on Facebook showed. A witness said police opened fire to break up a protest in the historic temple town of Bagan, and several residents said in social media posts that live bullets were used. Video posted by Myanmar Now showed soldiers beating up men in Yangon, where at least three protests were held despite overnight raids by security forces on campaign leaders and opposition activists. Sithu Maung, the NLD MP who worked with Khin Maung Latt, said that soldiers and police detained his father last night. “They broke into the house … and point with guns, I was told,” he said in a Facebook post, adding that his father was also beaten. The United Nations says security forces have killed more than 50 people to quell daily demonstrations and strikes since the military overthrew and detained Suu Kyi on February 1. “They are killing people just like killing birds and chickens,” one protest leader said to the crowd in Dawei, a town in Myanmar’s south. “What will we do if we don’t revolt against them? We must revolt.” State-run Global New Light Of Myanmar newspaper quoted a police statement as saying security forces were dealing with the protests in accordance with law. It said the forces were using tear gas and stun grenades to break up rioting and protests that were blocking public roads. Well more than 1,700 people had been detained under the military junta by Saturday, according to figures from the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group. The killings have drawn anger in the West and been condemned by most democracies in Asia. The United States and some other Western countries have imposed limited sanctions on the junta. China, Myanmar’s giant neighbour to the northeast, said yesterday that it is prepared to engage with “all parties” to ease the crisis and is not taking sides. Australia said it suspended a bilateral defence co-operation programme with the military following the coup, and its development programme would engage only with non-government organisations. Protesters demand the release of Suu Kyi and respect for November’s election – which her party won in a landslide but which the army rejected. The army has said it will hold democratic elections at an unspecified date.

The Southeast Asian country has been plunged in turmoil since the military overthrew and detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb 1, with daily protests and strikes that have choked business and paralysed administration. Sporadic protests were staged across Myanmar yesterday and local media reported that police fired tear gas shells and stun grenades to break up a protest in the Sanchaung district of Yangon, the country’s biggest city. There were no reports of casualties. More than 50 protesters have been killed since the coup, according to the United Nations – at least 38 on Wednesday alone. Protesters demand the release of Suu Kyi and the respect of November’s election, which her party won in landslide, but which the army rejected. “How much more can we allow the Myanmar military to get away with?” Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener told a closed meeting of the 15-member UN Security Council on Friday, according to a copy of her remarks reviewed by Reuters. “It is critical that this council is resolute and coherent in putting the security forces on notice and standing with the people of Myanmar firmly, in support of the clear November election results.” A junta spokesman did not answer calls requesting comment. The army says it has been restrained in stopping the protests, but has said it will not allow them to threaten stability. Several hundred people gathered in Sydney on Saturday to protest against the coup, singing and holding up three fingers, a salute that has come to symbolise solidarity and resistance across Myanmar. “We would like to urge the Australian government to work closely with the US, UK and EU governments and take strong action against these Myanmar military dictators,” said protest organiser Thein Moe Win. In Myanmar’s southern town of Dawei, protesters chanted “Democracy is our cause” and “The revolution must prevail”. People have taken to Myanmar’s streets in their hundreds of thousands at times, vowing to continue action in a country that spent nearly half a century under military rule until democratic reforms in 2011 that were cut short by the coup. “Political hope has begun to shine. We can’t lose the momentum of the revolution,” one protest leader, Ei Thinzar Maung, wrote on Facebook. “Those who dare to fight will have victory. We deserve victory.” On Friday night, authorities disturbed the grave of a 19-year-old woman who became an icon of the protest movement after she was shot dead wearing a T-shirt that read “Everything will be OK”, a witness and local media said. One witness said the body of Kyal Sin, widely known as Angel, was removed on Friday, examined and returned, before the tomb was re-sealed in Myanmar’s second city of Mandalay. The independent Mizzima news service also reported the event. A military spokesman did not answer calls seeking comment. Reuters was unable to contact police for comment. The killing of protesters has drawn international outrage. “Use of violence against the people of Myanmar must stop now,” South Korean President Moon Jae-in said in a tweet, calling for the release of Suu Kyi and other detainees and for the restoration of democracy. The United States and some other Western countries have imposed limited sanctions on the junta and the independent UN human rights investigator on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, has called for a global arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions. The army took power over allegations of fraud in last year’s election which had been dismissed by the electoral commission. It has promised to hold a new election at an unspecified date. That plan is rejected by protesters and by a group representing lawmakers elected at the last election that has begun to issue statements in the name of a rival civilian administration. On Friday, it listed four demands – the end of the junta, the release of the detainees, democracy and the abolition of the 2008 constitution which left significant political representation and control in the hands of the military. A civil disobedience campaign of strikes running parallel with the protests has been supported by many government workers including a trickle of policemen. Authorities in Myanmar have asked India to return eight policemen who sought refuge across the border to avoid taking orders from the junta, an official in northeast India said on Saturday. India’s foreign ministry responded to a request for comment by referring to a statement given at a media briefing on Friday which said the ministry was still “ascertaining the facts.”

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Hassan Diab threatened yesterday to stop performing his duties to pressure politicians to form a new government, citing an incident in which shoppers fought over milk to illustrate the parlous state of the economy. Diab’s cabinet resigned on the back of the Aug 4 Beirut port explosion that devastated swathes of the capital. Prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri was nominated in October but has failed to form a new cabinet since due to political deadlock between him and President Michel Aoun. An ongoing financial crisis, which erupted in 2019, has wiped out jobs, raised warnings of growing hunger and locked people out of their bank deposits.  A new cabinet could implement reforms needed to trigger billions of dollars of international aid.  “If seclusion helps with cabinet formation then I am ready to resort to it, although it goes against my convictions for it disrupts the entire state and is detrimental to the Lebanese,” Diab said in a televised speech. “Doesn’t the scramble for milk constitute a sufficient incentive to transcend formalities and roughen out the edges in order to form a government?” Diab said referring to the recent incident at a Beirut supermarket in which shoppers fought over powdered milk. A video of the squabble went viral on social media, leaving many people shocked at the desperate state of the economy. Groups of protesters have been burning tyres to block roads across the country on a daily basis since the Lebanese currency tumbled to a new low on Tuesday, enraging a population long horrified by the country’s financial meltdown. The collapse of the Lebanese pound, which fell to 10,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, was the last straw for many who have seen prices of consumer goods such as diapers and cereals nearly triple since the financial crisis erupted.  On Saturday demonstrators protested in front of the banking association, demanding access to their deposits, and then walked to the parliament building in downtown Beirut to express their frustration at the deteriorating economic conditions. “Social conditions are aggravating, financial conditions are putting a severe strain on the country, political conditions are increasingly complex,” Diab added in his speech. “The country is confronted with enormous challenges that a normal government cannot face without political consensus so how can a caretaker government face these challenges?”

United Nations special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said 38 people had been killed in the southeast Asian nation yesterday. Myanmar security forces opened fire on protests against military rule yesterday leading to the casualties, a human rights group said, a day after neighbouring countries called for restraint and offered to help Myanmar resolve the crisis. The security forces resorted to live fire with little warning in several towns and cities, witnesses said, as the junta appeared determined to stamp out protests against the February 1 coup that ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. “It’s horrific, it’s a massacre. No words can describe the situation and our feelings,” youth activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi said via a messaging app. A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment. In the main city Yangon, witnesses said at least eight people were killed, one early in the day and seven others when security forces opened sustained fire in a neighbourhood in the north of the city in the early evening. “I heard so much continuous firing. I lay down on the ground, they shot a lot,” protester Kaung Pyae Sone Tun, 23, said. A protest leader in the community, Htut Paing, said the hospital there had told him seven people had been killed. Hospital administrators were not immediately available for comment. After nightfall, Yangon residents lit candles and held prayers for the dead. Another heavy toll was in the central town of Monywa, where six people were killed, the Monywa Gazette reported. Others were killed in the second-biggest city Mandalay, the northern town of Hpakant and the central town of Myingyan. Save the Children said in a statement four children were among the dead, including a 14-year-old boy who Radio Free Asia reported was shot dead by a soldier on a passing convoy of military trucks. The soldiers loaded his body onto a truck and left the scene, according to the report. The violence took place a day after foreign ministers from southeast Asian neighbours urged restraint but failed to unite behind a call for the release of Suu Kyi and the restoration of democracy. Pope Francis said on Twitter: “Sad news of bloody clashes and loss of life...I appeal to the authorities involved that dialogue may prevail over repression.”  The European Union said the shootings of unarmed civilians and medical workers were clear breaches of international law.  It also said the military was stepping up repression of the media, with a growing number of journalists arrested and charged. “There must be accountability and a return to democracy in Myanmar,” the EU said. Security forces breaking up protests in Yangon detained about 300 protesters, the Myanmar Now news agency reported. Video 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. Images of a 19-year-old woman, one of the two shot dead in Mandalay, showed her wearing a T-shirt that read “Everything will be OK”. Police 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 US-funded Radio Free Asia showed. Reuters was unable to verify the video independently. Democracy activist Esther Ze Naw told Reuters that the sacrifices of those who died would not be in vain.

Ousted Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday appeared at a court hearing via video conferencing as supporters marched in several towns and cities in defiance of a crackdown after the bloodiest day since the February 1 military coup. Police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse hundreds of protesters in the main city of Yangon yesterday, witnesses said. They later combed through side streets firing rubber bullets and at least one person was hurt, media reported. In an evening address on state television, army chief senior general Min Aung Hlaing said protest leaders and “instigators” would be punished. The army was also investigating financial abuse by the civilian government, he said. Suu Kyi, 75, looked in good health during her appearance before a court in the capital Naypyidaw, one of her lawyers said. Two more charges were added to those filed against her after the coup, she said. “I saw Amay on the video, she looks healthy,” lawyer Min Min Soe said, using an affectionate term meaning “mother” to refer to Suu Kyi.” She asked to meet her lawyer.” The Nobel Peace laureate, who leads the National League for Democracy (NLD), has not been seen in public since her government was toppled and she was detained along with other party leaders. She was initially charged with illegally importing six walkie-talkie radios. Later, a charge of violating a natural disaster law by breaching coronavirus protocols was added. Two more charges were added yesterday, one under a section of a colonial-era penal code banning publication of information that may “cause fear or alarm”, the other under a telecommunications law stipulating licences for equipment, the lawyer said. The next hearing will be on March 15. Critics of the coup say the charges were trumped up. Myanmar has been in chaos since the military seized power after alleging fraud in a November election that the NLD won in a landslide, with daily protests getting increasingly violent as police and troops try to stamp them out. In his speech, read out by a newsreader on state-run MRTV, senior general Min Aung Hlaing said action would be taken against civil servants refusing to work for the junta. He said the military was investigating what he called corruption by the civilian government, accusing the authorities of misusing money meant for Covid-19 prevention efforts. “The respective ministries are working to find out such financial abuse,” he said, adding that action would be taken against organisations where foreign currency funds were found. He said a committee formed by ousted lawmakers from the civilian government, which has announced the formation of a government-in-exile, was illegal and anyone associated with it would be punished. The junta has promised a new election but not set a date. The Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, whose name uses the Burmese word for the Myanmar parliament, yesterday declared the junta a terrorist group and condemned the violence against protesters as a “declaration of war on unarmed civilians”. On Sunday, police fired on crowds in several places, killing 18 people, the United Nations human rights office said. A committee representing lawmakers elected last year said 26 people were killed but Reuters was unable to verify that. “We have to continue the protest no matter what,” Thar Nge said after tear gas volleys from the police forced him and others to abandon a barricade in a Yangon street. The military has not commented on Sunday’s violence and police and military spokesmen did not answer calls. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper warned that “severe action will be inevitably taken” against “anarchic mobs”.

Myanmar’s junta fired its United Nations ambassador yesterday for breaking ranks to denounce the military’s ouster of civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, as police stepped up a crackdown on protesters across the country.  The country has been shaken by a wave of demonstrations since a coup toppled civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. Authorities have ramped up the use of force to suppress dissent, deploying tear gas, water cannon and rubber bullets to disperse some protests. Live rounds have been used in isolated cases. In justifying its seizure of power, the military has alleged widespread fraud in the November elections, which Suu Kyi’s party won in a landslide, and promised fresh polls in a year. But its ambassador to the United Nations on Friday broke ranks and made an emotional appeal to the international community for “the strongest possible action... to restore democracy”. Kyaw Moe Tun also pleaded with his “brothers and sisters” in Burmese to keep fighting. “This revolution must win,” he said, flashing the three-finger salute that has become a symbol of resistance against the junta. By Saturday night, state-run TV announced that Kyaw Moe Tun was no longer Myanmar’s UN ambassador.  “(He) didn’t follow the order and direction by the state and betrayed the country,” according to a MRTV broadcast. “That is why he is revoked from his position starting from today.”  News of Kyaw Moe Tun’s removal follows a day of crackdowns and mass arrests by Myanmar’s security forces as the country enters its fourth week of daily protests against the generals’ grip on power. Chaos unfolded across commercial hub Yangon, with police closing in early on peaceful demonstrators and deploying rubber bullets to disperse them from Myaynigone junction. Protesters scattered into residential streets and started building makeshift barricades out of stacked tables and trash cans to stop the police.  Many wore hard hats and gas masks, wielding homemade shields for protection. “What are the police doing? They are protecting a crazy dictator,” the protesters chanted angrily. Local reporters broadcast the chaotic scenes live on Facebook, including the moments when the shots rang out, which AFP reporters on the ground also witnessed. “We want to fight until we win,” said protester Moe Moe, 23, who used a pseudonym. At nearby Hledan junction several rounds of stun grenades were fired, according to AFP reporters. At least three media workers were detained, including an Associated Press photographer, a video journalist from Myanmar Now, and a photographer from the Myanmar Pressphoto Agency. Another protest near a shopping centre in nearby Tamwe Township was broken up by police. Aye Myint Kyi, a distraught mother of one shopper, said she reached her daughter briefly on the phone, who said she was being taken. “I don’t know where she was taken,” she told AFP, crying. “She was unjustly arrested.” In the central city of Monywa, a rally had barely started before police and soldiers moved in on demonstrators, said a medic with a local emergency rescue team. Htwe Aung Zin said his team had been “sent a man who was severely injured in his leg from the police crackdown”, adding that they treated 10 others with minor injuries.  He declined to say what kind of bullets caused the man’s injury. Another medic – who did not give their name – told AFP that a woman with severe injuries had been sent to the intensive care unit. Meanwhile, two local media outlets saw their journalists arrested as they attempted to broadcast live video of protests on Facebook.  Monywa Gazette’s Kyaw Kyaw Win was beaten and arrested by plainclothes police, while Hakha Times’ Pu Lalawmpuia was nabbed as he was filming authorities fanning out around him. More than 770 people have been arrested, charged and sentenced since the putsch, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) monitoring group, with some 680 still behind bars. But Saturday is expected to push the number up, said AAPP’s Bo Gyi. “More than 400 were arrested (today),” he said, adding that only a fraction will make it into the group’s daily updated list as they were not able to confirm the names of everyone. Earlier in the day, MRTV also broadcast the arrival of more than 1,000 Myanmar nationals deported from Malaysia despite a court order halting the repatriation. The migrants – whom activists say include vulnerable asylum seekers – received a hero’s welcome at Yangon’s navy port, attended by military families and officials.  Some of the returnees include ethnic minorities from Rakhine and Kachin state who may have “protection concerns”, said John Quinley of Fortify Rights. “The military has been on an all-out campaign to crack down on protesters, journalists, activists, and anyone calling for democracy,” he said.  Since the coup, at least five people have been killed – four of them from injuries sustained at anti-coup demonstrations that saw security forces open fire on protesters. The military has said one police officer has died while attempting to quell a protest.