DM Monitoring
NAYPYIDAW: Security forces killed at least nine opponents of Myanmar’s Feb. 1 coup on Friday, a funeral service and media said, as Indonesia urged an end to violence and Western ambassadors condemned what they called the military’s immoral, indefensible actions.
Police and soldiers have used increasingly violent tactics to suppress demonstrations by supporters of detained elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but that has not deterred the protesters and crowds turned out again on Friday. Security forces opened fire in a confrontation in the central town of Aungban as they tried to clear a protesters’ barricade, media and a witness reported.
“Security forces came to remove barriers but the people resisted and they fired,” the witness, who declined to be identified, said by telephone.
An official with Aungban’s funerary service, who declined to be identified, told reporters eight people were killed, seven on the spot and one wounded person who died after being taken to hospital in the nearby town of Kalaw.
The spokesman for the junta was not immediately available for comment but has previously said security forces have used force only when necessary.
One protester was killed in the northeastern town of Loikaw, the Myanmar Now news portal said. One person was shot and killed in the main city of Yangon, social media posts showed.
