Security forces defy call for restraint, use of lethal force.
Residents of a protest flashpoint district in Myanmar’s biggest city fled on small vehicles and motorbikes on Tuesday as security forces defied global calls for restraint and maintained their use of lethal force against anti-coup rallies.
Much of the country has been in uproar since the military ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last month, with hundreds of thousands taking to the streets to demand a return to democracy.
Police and soldiers have used tear gas, rubber bullets and live rounds to subdue crowds in near-daily crackdowns, along with blanket nightly internet shutdowns to stop protesters from mobilising.
The junta has also throttled mobile data nationwide, delaying news of crackdowns against demonstrations.
On Tuesday, one protester was killed in the central Sagaing region before noon when security forces opened fire.
The deadliest day so far in the six weeks since the Army deposed Ms. Suu Kyi’s government was on Sunday, with the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) reporting 74 killed after the violent suppression of anti-coup unrest across Myanmar.
The majority of those killed Sunday came from the impoverished Hlaing Tharyar township in Yangon, a garment-producing area in the commercial hub with mostly Chinese-owned factories — several of which were razed on the same day.
Tuesday morning saw its residents — many of whom are migrant workers — pile onto flat-bed trucks and cars, which inched forward on a traffic-clogged road.
The mass exodus comes after the junta imposed martial law over the Hlaing Tharyar and five other townships, home to about two million people — more than a quarter of the sprawling city’s population.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Myanmar’s military on Tuesday for its lethal use of force against protesters, accusing it of “brutally repressing” them.
