Five more killed in Myanmar protests

Myanmar security forces opened fire on anti-coup protesters in the commercial capital Yangon on Sunday and at least three people were killed, witnesses and domestic media said.

Video taken at the site showed protesters holding handmade shields and wearing helmets as they confronted security forces in the Hlaing Tharyar district of the city.

Plumes of black smoke rose over the area and one report said two factories in the district had been set on fire.

The Irrawaddy media group said three people had been killed.

At least two people were killed elsewhere in the Southeast Asian nation, a day after the acting leader of the parallel civilian government said it would seek to give people the legal right to defend themselves.

A young man had been shot dead in the town of Bago, near Yangon, witnesses and domestic media said.

The Kachin Wave media outlet said another protester had been killed in the town of Hpakant, in the jade mining area in the northeast.

More than 80 people had been killed as of Saturday in widespread protests against the military’s seizure of power in February, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group said.

More than 2,100 people had been arrested, it said.

Mahn Win Khaing Than, who is on the run along with most senior officials from the ruling National League for Democracy Party, addressed the public via Facebook on Saturday, saying, “This is the darkest moment of the nation and the moment that the dawn is close.”

He said the civilian government would “attempt to legislate the required laws so that the people have the right to defend themselves” against the military crackdown.

The Monywa township in central Myanmar declared it had formed its own local government and police force.

In Yangon, hundreds of people demonstrated in different parts of the city after putting up barricades of barbed wire and sandbags to block security forces.

In one area, people staged a sit-in protest under sheets of tarpaulin rigged up to protect them from the harsh midday sun.

“We need justice,” they chanted.

At least 13 people had been killed on Saturday, one of the bloodiest days since the February 1 coup, witnesses and domestic media said.

“They are acting like they are in a war zone, with unarmed people,” an activist in the city of Mandalay, Myat Thu, said.

A spokesperson for the junta did not answer phone calls seeking comment.

Junta-run media MRTV’s evening news broadcast on Saturday labelled the protesters criminals, but did not elaborate.