At least eight people have been killed in protests against the military rulers in Myanmar today. According to the news portal Myanmar Now, seven people were killed in the city of Aungpan. One wounded person died after being hospitalized in the nearby town of Kalaw.
The junta’s brutal crackdown on critics of the military coup in Myanmar has meanwhile led to a large movement of people fleeing the trading metropolis of Yangon.
Another prominent member of Aung San Suu Kyi’s ruling party, the spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD), was arrested. Observers fear that Kyi Toe, who has informed the country’s media about the NLD and developments since the coup, could be tortured. In the past few weeks two NLD members had died shortly after their imprisonment.
A total of over 220 dead since the protests began
According to the prisoners‘ aid organization AAPP, more than 2,200 people have been arrested since the coup in early February and at least 224 have been killed. The de facto Prime Minister Suu Kyi, who clearly won the November parliamentary election, was taken into custody and charged with several offenses. The actions of the military junta against the demonstrators have become increasingly brutal in the past few weeks.
In the Thai province of Tak bordering Myanmar, the authorities prepared emergency shelters for refugees. Around 90,000 refugees from Myanmar already live in the border region, and tens of thousands more refugees are expected.
