Myanmar junta accuses Suu Kyi of taking bribes as eight killed in protests

Myanmar’s military government accused deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday of accepting illegal payments, while eight people were killed when security forces opened fire on protests against the coup, witnesses said.

Rights group Amnesty International accused the military of adopting battle tactics against demonstrators.

Six people were killed in the central town of Myaing when forces fired on a protest, a man who took part in the demonstration and helped carry bodies to hospital told Reuters by telephone. A health worker there confirmed all six deaths.

“We protested peacefully,” the 31-year-old man said. “I couldn’t believe they did it.”

One person was killed in the North Dagon district of the biggest city of Yangon, witnesses said. Photographs posted on Facebook showed a man prone on the street, bleeding from a head wound. One death was reported in Mandalay.

Before Thursday’s deaths, an advocacy group, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, had said more than 60 protesters were killed and about 2,000 people detained by security forces since the Feb. 1 coup against Suu Kyi’s elected government.

Amnesty International accused the army of using lethal force against protesters and said many killings it had documented amounted to extra-judicial executions.

“These are not the actions of overwhelmed, individual officers making poor decisions,” said Joanne Mariner, the group’s director of crisis response.

“These are unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and murderous methods in the open.”
(Reuters), 11 March, 2021