Medical student (17) among dozens mourned in Myanmar after killings by junta

The families of dozens of people killed in demonstrations against military rule in Myanmar attended their funerals as more protesters defied the security forces and at least one man was shot dead.

The political and economic crisis over the February 1 overthrow of Aung San Suu Kyi’s government could also force the poor into hunger as food and fuel prices rise, the United Nations food agency said.

Security forces shot dead at least 20 people on Monday after 74 were killed a day earlier, including many in a suburb of Yangon where Chinese-financed factories were torched, according to advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Yesterday, a crematorium in Yangon reported 31 funerals, a mourner at one of the ceremonies said.

Hundreds of young mourners spilled out on to the street at the funeral of medical student Khant Nyar Hein (17) who was killed in Yangon on Sunday, the bloodiest day of the protests.

“Let them kill me right now, let them kill me instead of my son because I can’t take it any more,” the student’s mother was seen saying in a video clip posted on Facebook.

Mourners, including many fellow medical students in white lab coats, chanted: “Our revolution must prevail.”

Some families told media the security forces had seized the bodies of victims, but they would still hold a funeral.

France said the European Union would approve sanctions against those behind the coup next Monday.
The military junta, meanwhile, charged the international envoy of the ousted government with treason for encouraging the civil disobedience campaign and calling for sanctions, army-run television said. The charges carry a possible death sentence.

At least 184 people have been killed by the security forces in the weeks of protests, the AAPP said, with the toll rising as one protester was shot dead in the central town of Kawlin, a resident there said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the international community to help end the repression, his spokesman said, while the United States also denounced the bloodshed.

“The military is attempting to overturn the results of a democratic election and is brutally repressing peaceful protesters,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference in Tokyo.

Online Editors