Despite army crackdown with rubber bullets, protesters returned to protest in Myanmar

Protesters took to the streets in Myanmar again on Tuesday to protest last month’s military coup., while the foreign ministers of the countries of Southeast Asia prepared for a meeting in which they will discuss the political crisis. In the country’s main city, Yangon, police used tear gas against protesters.

Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) extraordinary summit follows escalating violence in Myanmar. Over the weekend, the new military government stepped up the use of lethal force and mass arrests to curb protests against the February 1 uprising that toppled the elected government led by Aung San Suu Kyi.

The United Nations estimates that at least 18 people were killed in several cities on Sunday when security forces opened fire to disperse the massive protests.. The funerals of several of the victims will take place on Tuesday.

Authorities also detained more than 1,000 people over the weekend, according to the Association for the Assistance of Political Prisoners, an independent group.

Among those arrested were at least seven journalists, including Thein Zaw, from The Associated Press. Authorities have detained at least two dozen journalists since the military uprising.

Hundreds of people gathered in Yangon’s Hledan neighborhood on Tuesday, where police fired tear gas the day before. Protesters, many wearing construction helmets, dragged bamboo poles and rubble to erect barricades and prevent any advance by authorities and arrests, and chanted songs and chants in front of police lines.

Authorities used tear gas again on Tuesday. First, the protesters, mostly young, fled in panic but quickly returned to their barricades.

“If we are oppressed, there will be an explosion. If they hit us, we will retaliate “protesters said before police fired stun grenades to disperse the crowds in four different parts of the city.

No injuries were reported in Yangon, but four people were injured in the northwestern town of kale, where security forces fired live ammunition to disperse a crowd after protesters threw objects at police, witnesses said.

“They acted like they were in a war zone”, said a teacher during the protest against the actions of the police. “I feel very angry and sad at the same time,” he added.

Protesters also took out their flags and posters and gathered to march through the streets of Dawei, a small town in the southeast of the country that has seen large protests almost daily.

Some of the participants wore metal shields, apparently in response to the use of tear gas and rubber bullets by the police.. Dawei was the scene of a violent crackdown on Sunday, with up to five dead after authorities shot a crowd.

The coup reversed years of slow progress towards democracy after five decades of military rule and came on the same day the newly elected parliament was due to begin its session.. Suu Kyi’s party, the National League for Democracy, should have taken power for a second five-year term, but instead she, President Win Myint and other senior officials were arrested.

The military junta has charged Suu Kyi with various criminal offenses which critics say are politically motivated and designed to keep her in detention. If she is found guilty of one, she could be barred from participating in elections scheduled by the military at the end of her one-year term.

Following her arrest, Suu Kyi, 75, was under house arrest at her home in the capital Naipyidó., but members of his party said they did not know where he was now.

(With information from AP and Reuters)

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