“Piles of corpses” were seen in a city in Myanmar after another horrific attack by the country’s security forces against its own people.
Dozens of people were killed in Bago on Friday, “leaving piles of corpses in pagodas and on school grounds” in Myanmar’s deadliest incident since a coup overthrew the elected government on February 1, according to Radio Free Asia and other reports.
Security forces attacked protesters with rifles, heavy weapons and hand grenades. The number of deaths nationwide has now exceeded 700 people, including more than 80 in Bago, according to various reports, the Burmese group’s Political Prisoners Assistance Association said.
Myanmar news has been difficult to follow in recent days, as the military junta has cracked down on internet access and confiscated satellite dishes.
The ongoing violence comes amid recent domestic outrage and international condemnation after the nation’s government was overthrown in a coup led by senior General Min Aung Hlaing, the commander-in-chief of Myanmar’s defense forces.
Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize, who was elected in 2011, remains detained by the junta.
“Every day, Burmese security forces continue to kill people – including children far too young to even know what a protest is,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Friday.
“And, unfortunately, this open conversation cannot be seen by those whose views are most important – the people of Burma themselves. The military has destroyed its internet. By cutting off its people from the outside world, the army is trying to hide its terrible actions and stifle protests and unleash even more horrors with impunity. And we can’t allow them to succeed. ”
