Myanmar suffered its deadliest day since last month’s military coup, as an army rampage across the country left more than 100 people dead and drew rebukes around the world and accusations of “mass murder”.
At least 114 people were killed on Saturday, according to local media, the most in a single day since the military seized power and deposed the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1.
In a rare joint statement, the defence chiefs of 12 countries, including the US, UK, Germany and Japan, condemned the junta’s brutality. “A professional military follows international standards for conduct and is responsible for protecting — not harming — the people it serves,” the statement said, urging Myanmar’s military to “cease violence and work to restore respect and credibility . . . it has lost”.
Tom Andrews, UN special rapporteur for Myanmar, called for an emergency international summit, accusing the country’s military of committing “massacres” and “mass murder”.
“It is past time for robust, co-ordinated action,” he said.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken said the violence demonstrated that “the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few”.
On Thursday, the US and UK imposed sanctions against two military-linked conglomerates in an attempt to squeeze the junta’s sprawling and opaque business interests.
More than 400 people have been killed in the military crackdown, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, an advocacy group. Another 2,428 have been detained. Among those killed have been more than 20 children, according to local media, including a six-year-old girl, the youngest known victim, on Tuesday.
The US embassy confirmed that shots were fired in an incident at the American Center Yangon, an education and cultural centre it runs, on Saturday. No one was injured in the incident, the embassy said.
The junta freed almost 1,000 prisoners in two releases last week. Yet at the same time, the regime has intensified pressure to smother the protests that have persisted for almost two months, bringing economic activity across much of the country to a halt.
On Friday, a broadcast on state-run MRTV warned that protesters could be “shot in the head” for defying the army.
The World Bank has revised its 2021 forecast for Myanmar’s economy to a 10 per cent contraction from a previous estimate of 5.9 per cent growth, citing “ongoing disruptions in essential public services”.
Amnesty International accused the military of attempting to “kill their way” out of the crisis. “The cost of international inaction is being counted in bodies,” Ming Yu Hah, the group’s deputy regional director for campaigns, said in a statement.
The latest bloodshed came on Armed Forces Day, a national holiday that commemorates the resistance to Japanese occupation during the second world war.
Photos of Myanmar’s military brass, including junta chief Min Aung Hlaing, attending a gala in white dress uniforms stoked outrage online among opponents of the coup.
The festivities included a military parade, which was attended by Russia’s deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin, who arrived in Myanmar on Friday in the most high-profile show of support for the junta since the coup. At least seven other countries sent representatives, including China, India and Thailand.