The "Falling Stars" of Myanmar

"Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them."

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews 

"While we are singing the revolution song for him [the deceased at a funeral], security forces just arrived and shot at us."

"People, including us, run away as they opened fire."

Aye, funeral mourner, Yangon

 

"An 11-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, two 13-year-old boys, a 13-year-old girl, three 16-year-old boys and two seventeen-year old boys, all reportedly shot and killed."

"A one-year-old baby girl gravely injured after being struck in the eye with a rubber bullet. These were the latest child casualties on the bloodiest day in Myanmar since the military takeover."

"Millions of children and young people have been directly or indirectly exposed to traumatizing scenes of violence, threatening their mental health and emotional well-being."

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore

Anti-coup protesters run around their makeshift barricade they burn to make defense line during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo)

 Once again, using live ammunition, and according to some eyewitnesses, even machine guns, Myanmar security forces opened fire on civilians protesting the takeover of the military junta now controlling Burma, after the ouster of the duly elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Even while promising the protesters that the junta planned to restore democracy at some point, they haven't hesitated to use raw munitions against their own civilian population determined to restore democracy even at the steep price of loss of life.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar stated that the army was conducting "mass murder", calling on the world to isolate the junta and halt its access to weapons. This, when a member of the UN Security Council, Russia, has committed itself to supporting the military junta and will continue providing it with the military arms deemed a necessity to pursue its goal of dominating the country by force. The junta should be cut off from funding, from oil and gas revenues, repeated the UN Special Rapporteur.

Sunday was the day for funerals as people gathered to mourn 114 protesters killed the day before in the most disastrous crackdown on protesters since the February1 coup. At a service for 20-year-old student Thae Maung Maung in Bago, close to the capital Yangon, the military opened fire and mourners fled for their lives. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group spoke of another 12 people killed on Sunday bringing the total death toll since the coup to 469.

In Yangon and Mandalay where the brunt of the casualties took place on Saturday large-scale protests were no longer in evidence after the Armed Forces Day celebrations and subsequent killing of 114 people. In Mandalay people surrounded a police station accusing the security forces of arson after five houses were burned down. Six children between ten and 16 years of age were among those killed on Saturday. They were, said the protesters, "Falling Stars".

 

Family members and relatives attend the funeral ceremony of 13 year-old Sai Wai Yan, who was shot dead while playing outside his house in Yangon, Myanmar on March 28

 

"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 posted on Facebook. Two dozen ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country took part in heavy fighting against the army, resulting in 3,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Thailand after military jets bombed areas controlled by the Karen National Union militia.

The Kachin Independence Army fought on Sunday with the military in Hpakant, a jade-mining area of the north where Kachin forces attacked a police station and the military responded in an aerial assault. During the parade marking Armed Forces Day, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing assured the country that the military would protect the people while striving toward democracy.

Mourners attend the funeral of Tin Hla, 43, who was shot dead by security forces during a protest against the military coup in Thanlyin township, outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar on March 27.