More than 60 people were killed in Myanmar's Bago division Friday after security forces removed barricades set up by pro-democracy demonstrators at around 3:00 a.m. and began firing live ammunition and grenades at the crowd. Sources told RFA that the shooting continued until noon.
In Sagaing region’s Taze township, more troops and police were deployed to the area after at least six villagers were killed when soldiers violently dispersed protesters a day earlier. Locals said more than 100 troops arrived in five military trucks with a bulldozer and removed makeshift barricades constructed by residents. They also reportedly searched the homes of people charged with “defamation against the state.”
Since Myanmar’s Feb. 1 coup, the country’s economy has tanked, with businesses across industries taking a hit amid violence and military retaliation. The new regime has regularly closed off major roads and cut communications, leaving food delivery workers effectively unemployed for the last two months.
Rickshaw and taxi drivers have also seen a significant loss of income. A young man helping a rickshaw driver to find shelter said problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic have been compounded by the unrest. “Some squatters do not even have a place to live,” he told RFA.
Additionally, government employees who opposed the coup and joined the nationwide Civil Disobedience Movement (CDM) are no longer receiving pay and have been evicted from government housing.
Hlaingthayar township, west of Myanmar’s former capital Yangon, has seen some 500,000 people leave to stay with relatives as factories closed down amid the violence, while nearly half of Yangon’s population of more than six million people are out of work.
Photos: RFA Burmese
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