Ottawa funds development of First Nations-owned B.C. geothermal project

FORT NELSON, B.C. — Ottawa has committed more than $40 million to fund the development of geothermal power from a diminishing natural gas field in northern British Columbia.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"It will serve as a model for other geothermal facilities across the country, particularly in the North and rural communities," Natural Resources Minister Seamus O'Reagan said Friday.

The money will be spent on the Clarke Lake field near the community of Fort Nelson, which is nearing depletion after nearly 60 years of production. That, combined with low natural gas prices, have reduced investment and employment from the resource.

The first full size geothermal well will be drilled early this year and commercial operation is expected by late 2024. The project is expected to generate up to 15 megawatts of green energy, which is enough to power up to 14,000 households and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25,000 tonnes.

The project is entirely owned by the Fort Nelson First Nation, with involvement from the Saulteau First Nation. Fort Nelson Chief Sharleen Gale said the project will use the skills local workers already have, redirecting them from fossil fuels to geothermal.

"We are accomplishing all of this by using existing skill sets," she said. "This is a fast-forward for us to lead the energy transition."

A government press release said the Clarke Lake project will be one of Canada's first commercially viable geothermal electricity production facilities.

ALBERTA DIVERSIFICATION 

O'Reagan said Ottawa is also involved in other geothermal projects.

It has invested more than $25 million in a five-megawatt geothermal power plant near Estevan, Sask., and about the same for a similar facility near Grande Prairie, Alta.

It has also spent nearly $7 million for a project in Alberta near Rocky Mountain House and about $5 million for another one near Swan Hills.

"It's a great opportunity," said O'Reagan.

"It provides almost a safe harbour for a lot of workers who are currently displaced by the ups and downs of the oil and natural gas industries. Their skills in drilling and exploration are almost perfectly transferable to geothermal."

— By Bob Weber in Edmonton.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2021

ALL THE GEOTHERMAL PROJECTS ARE TO COME ONLINE IN 2024

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Men linked to Canada-based company indicted in major U.S. drug investigation

SAN DIEGO — A federal grand jury in San Diego has indicted two men linked to a Canadian company on racketeering and drug charges over allegations they helped import and distribute narcotics around the world through the sale of encrypted communications devices.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The U.S. Justice Department says the indictment alleges that devices from Canada-based Sky Global are designed to prevent law enforcement from monitoring the communications between members of transnational criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and money laundering.

The indictment alleges that Sky Global installs sophisticated encryption software in cellphones that allow users to communicate with each other in a closed network through encrypted servers in Canada and France.

It alleges that Sky Global used the system to facilitate the importation, exportation, and distribution of heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine into Australia, Asia, Europe, and North America, including the United States and Canada.

The indictment also alleges the system was used to help launder the proceeds of drug trafficking and obstruct investigations.

The U.S. Justice Department says Jean-Francois Eap, Sky Global’s chief executive officer, and Thomas Herdman, a former distributor of the devices, are charged with conspiracy to violate the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.

Warrants were issued for their arrests Friday following an investigation that included the RCMP.

"The indictment alleges that Sky Global generated hundreds of millions of dollars providing a service that allowed criminal networks around the world to hide their international drug trafficking activity from law enforcement," Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman said in the release.

"Companies who do this are perpetuating the deadliest drug epidemic in our nation's history."

The U.S. Justice Department says on March 10, Europol announced that judicial and law enforcement authorities in Belgium, France and the Netherlands had wiretapped Sky Global’s servers and monitored hundreds of millions of messages by Sky Global’s users.

It says the investigation in Europe resulted in hundreds of arrests, the seizure of thousands of kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamine, hundreds of firearms, and millions of euros.

RCMP Assistant Commissioner Dwayne McDonald said in the release that technological advancements can lead to increased levels of criminal sophistication, but also new tools for police to combat crime.

"The RCMP will continue to adopt new technologies and strategies to keep our communities safe," he said.

"Collaboration with our international policing partners, such as in this case with the FBI and DEA, has become an integral part in the ever-evolving fight against organized crime."

Sky Global Inc. has corporate offices in Vancouver.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 12, 2021

The Canadian Press

USDA conservation program seen as way to help battle climate change

Alexandra Marquez 3/12/2021

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden’s administration passed its 50th day in power this week and, with just a few exceptions, the Senate confirmation process for his Cabinet is nearing completion. Now many federal agencies are turning their attention toward pursuing one of the president’s primary agenda items: battling climate change.

© Provided by NBC News

At the Department of Agriculture, a decades-old program could be key to engaging farmers in this fight, if Congress and industry groups can get on board.

The Conservation Reserve Program was established in 1985 to combat soil erosion and allows farmers to apply for funding in exchange for taking their land out of crop production and planting organisms that improve soil and air quality instead. Since its establishment, the program has been reauthorized in Congress’ federal farm bill every four or five years.

Last year, the program saw an under-enrollment by more than 4 million acres compared to the target established by Congress. But Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is confident that the department can bolster enrollment and use the program to tackle climate change, too.

“We think we can do some things that will increase the incentives and make it more likely that we can get farmers to enroll,” said Robert Bonnie, a senior adviser on climate and the deputy chief of staff for policy at the USDA.

Increasing the financial incentives is the best way to encourage farmers to sign up for the program, industry groups say.

“The incentive payments are probably going to have to be stronger, in order to get the farmers to sign up, and that’s what we would like to see,” said Chuck Conner, CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives and a former deputy agriculture secretary.

But, not everyone thinks that more farmers should be enrolled in the program, even if incentives are increased.

The Conservation Reserve Program, or CRP, “encourages farmers to relinquish productive land while demand is not decreasing," and that "leads to higher costs for the consumer, hurts local agriculture suppliers and is an opportunity for foreign competitors to take our place in the market,” Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in a statement. “We should be focused on encouraging producers to join the market and expanding opportunities for them, not asking them to engage in a restrictive buyout they might later regret.”

Still, the environmental benefits of the CRP could be key to helping the USDA work toward the Biden administration’s climate goals, and Conner says farmers are eager to take on climate change with the existing program.

“My sense among our co-ops and their members who are farmers is that there’s becoming more and more of an awareness of their practices, particularly as they relate to climate,” Conner said. “And, you know, there is a desire, I think, to be proactive among many, many of the producers that we represent through cooperatives.”

One of the ways the CRP already helps mitigate the impact of climate change is by requiring farmers who take land out of agriculture production to plant cover crops on their land. These cover crops, often native trees and grasses, were originally intended to increase wildlife habitat and prevent soil erosion.

The climate benefits of the program are two-fold. First, the cover crops improve carbon sequestration, the process by which plants capture and hold onto carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. This reduces the total amount of carbon in the atmosphere, which helps mitigate the effects of climate change.

Second, on CRP lands where cover crops are planted, farmers don’t use the same fertilizer or industrial machinery that they use on crop lands, which contribute heavily to climate change by emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In 2018, the USDA estimated that agriculture and forestry accounted for 10.5 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that year.

“We think if we target the right lands and target those environmentally sensitive lands and put the right practices on those lands that have the most benefit for the public and to the environment, that there’s a lot more that this program can do,” Bonnie said.

It seems easy enough to increase incentive payments and enroll more land in the CRP to combat agriculture’s effect on climate change, but even those generally supportive of the program have their reservations about increasing enrollment.

“Our members recognize that if we take an acre of land out of production here in this country, there’s going to be an acre of land put into production somewhere else in the world that would produce the same food,” and increasing competition for U.S. farmers, said Don Parrish, the senior director for regulatory relations at the American Farm Bureau Federation, one of the agriculture industry’s largest trade groups.

Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., has some of his own farmland enrolled in the CRP. He applied to enroll 145 of his total 1,800 acres into the CRP in 1986 and that land remains in the program.

Tester says he recognizes the potential positive impacts of combating climate change from the program, but hopes that any increase in enrollment doesn’t adversely affect the local economies in his state like it did when the program began in the 1980s.

“What happened in the '80s was an unintended consequence, but it dried up rural America big time. And when that land came out of the CRP, most of it has either been farmed or bought up by the big guys,” Tester said. “So those little farms ain’t never coming back. We have to be careful not to do that again.”

Learning ancient Mi'kmaq game is helping Cape Breton Indigenous women improve well-being

SYDNEY — Heidi Marshall from Membertou First Nation remembers watching her father play the game of waltes when she was a child.

She says he was known as one of the best waltes players in Unama’ki and would often bring her along to elders’ homes for a game. But she says because of the way Mi’kmaq cultural traditions were perceived then, she never learned to play.

“I grew up in the '60s, so you have to remember the ban on traditional ceremonies was just lifted in 1951, so people were probably still scared because (the federal government) considered it witchcraft and we weren’t allowed to play it for so long," said Marshall.

An 1895 amendment to The Indian Act, originally written by the federal government in 1876, banned all Indigenous ceremonies and cultural practices including waltes.

This provision was in place for close to 75 years and amounted to a disruption in the passing down of cultural knowledge, traditions and oral history. The government confiscated the waltes games and people were sometimes charged for possessing them illegally, so people would keep their waltes bowls hidden.

The residential school system and Indian day schools further repressed Indigenous cultures and the children were punished if they were caught speaking their own language or practising their traditions.

“Colonization really had a big effect on our people at that time. You look at, like Membertou had Indian day school, there were residential schools so when I grew up that was still so close so I’m here to learn (waltes) now. I’m reaching 60 so it’s important for me to start learning this so I can pass it down to my grandkids,” said Marshall.

She sits quietly, watching two other women play the game. The women take turns raising a wooden bowl (waltestaqnoqwan) into the air and slamming it down onto the table.

The six small white dice (waltestaqank) inside the bowl fly into the air and land with either their patterned side or blank side facing up. The women burst into laughter and yelling as they count up the score from that round.

Cindy Poulette is leading the group through the game, pausing to explain the rules especially the complicated counting. The score is kept using wooden sticks — 51 plain straight sticks, three sticks with three notches on one side called the "old women" (kisikui’skaq) and one "old man" (kisiku) with three notches on both sides.

RESILIENCY PROJECT

These waltes lessons are part of the Waltes Resiliency Project, a 10-week program at the Jane Paul Indigenous Resource Centre in Sydney.

It is the first time Poulette has taught waltes. She has been playing the game since she was a child. She learned from her mother Madeline Poulette, who's taught thousands of people how to play waltes over the years. Now that her mother is getting older, she says it’s her turn and she’s happy to do it.

“I think it’s really important to bring our games back, bring our culture back and to pass it down, pass down our traditions and culture and what was lost to us, what we weren’t able to do and instil that pride in our people," said Cindy Poulette.

Krissy Cabot from Wagmatcook First Nation wants to learn the rules so that she can teach her 17-month-old grandson how to play. She’s already given him his own hand drum and says she’s trying to immerse him in Mi’kmaq culture as much as she can.

All 10 participants in the Waltes Resiliency Project will go home with a waltes game — the dish, the six dice and the counting sticks. Cabot is most excited about this aspect of the program. She learned the basics of waltes a few years ago but hasn’t had much opportunity to practise because she doesn’t have a board at home.

Normally, waltes is played — and learned — at powwows and other cultural ceremonies but under COVID-19 restrictions social gatherings, something fundamental to Mi’kmaq culture, have been severely limited so these lessons offer a chance to learn in a small group setting.

Karen Bernard is the director of the Jane Paul Indigenous Resource Centre in Sydney. She says the centre received $10,000 from the Nova Scotia Health Authority for the Waltes Resiliency Project as part of the community health board’s wellness funding.

“The reason I chose waltes is because it has wellness, mental and physical fitness," said Bernard. "You’re getting excited, your brain is releasing those endorphins and you’re getting a cardio workout and it’s empowering.”

RELIEVE STRESS

Cindy Poulette agrees and says it’s a good way to relieve stress in a light-hearted way.

“When you play it’s fun and you laugh and you forget about everything because you want to win and it’s really competitive and there’s no judgment here."

That’s especially important at the Jane Paul Centre, which provides supports and services primarily for off-reserve Mi’kmaq women living in Sydney, away from the supports of their home communities. These circumstances can put the women at a higher risk for experiencing violence, homelessness, poverty, addictions and mental health issues.

Bernard says this project is just one of the ways that the centre is trying to help the women heal and grow.

“The project is for women that are directly impacted by generational trauma and that’s everyone in our communities, there’s no one that hasn’t been impacted by the history of colonization, the history of residential schools, the Indian day schools, we’ve all survived that," said Bernard. "How we’re dealing with that varies, some of us are stronger and some of us are having a harder time and need some help getting through life.”

This workshop is part of the Jane Paul Centre’s revitalization after being closed down for close to a year. The centre reopened at the end of September, in the midst of COVID-19, and Bernard has had to figure out how to make the centre a welcoming, open place for women while also following social distancing regulations and limiting gatherings to a maximum of 10 people.

The solution has been, in part, a more structured organization with a full calendar of programs such as this one.

Bernard says when she was planning out the programming she knew elders, “the grandmothers” as she calls them, would be at the heart of everything they do.

“Every time we do something cultural, we have a grandmother present and so when they come in and talk to the women, what they’re teaching is experience, life stories and how they survived.

"Some of these grandmothers had wicked lives, some of them have been shot at, some of them have been addicts, some of them have been abused, but then at the same time, they become this wonderful elder with all this knowledge.”

Bernard says the centre is planning to host another waltes program once this one is finished since the response was so positive.

She hopes that the women will take what they learn and run with it and that with 10 new waltes games — and women that know how to play — there will soon be plenty of opportunities for people to play and learn.

Ardelle Reynolds, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Cape Breton Post

Mi'kmaw Daily Life - The Game of Waltes

www.muiniskw.org/pgCulture1f.htm

Waltes is a kind of dice game thought to be of pre-Columbian origin. Although it is still played today, skilled players are increasingly rare. The game is played on a circular wooden dish called a waltestaqn ('wall tess stah ahn') which is about twelve inches in diameter, hollowed to three-quarters of an inch at its centre. It is usually made from a hardwood burl, whose non-directional wood ...

The Game of Waltes - Cape Breton University : Cape Breton ...

https://www.cbu.ca/.../miscellany/the-game-of-waltes

The Game of Waltes. Waltes, also called woltestakun or altestakun is a kind of dice game thought to be of pre-Columbian origin. It is played on a circular wooden dish (usually of rock maple) about twelve inches in diameter, hollowed to three-quarters of an inch at its centre. There are six dice made of caribou bone with flat faces and rounded sides; one face being plain, and the others bearing ...

Waltes Game - Hudson Museum - University of Maine

https://umaine.edu/hudsonmuseum/education/curriculum/waltes-game

Waltes: A Northeastern Native American Bowl Game Waltes was a traditional game played by the Passamaquoddy, Penobscot, Maliseet and Micmac. This version of the game is adapted from information found in Frank G. Speck’s Penobscot Man (1940) and Stewart Culin’s Games of the North American Indians (1907). The game rules have been simplified to allow …

WOMEN PROTEST THE POLICE AND STATE WITH SMART PHONE FLASH

 

BURMA MYANMAR

           LONDON, UK

Myanmar security forces continue deadly crackdown on coup protesters

Protests in Myanmar (AP)

SAT, 13 MAR, 2021 - 
ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTERS

Security forces in Myanmar have shot dead at least seven people protesting against last month’s military takeover.

Four deaths were reported in Mandalay, the country’s second-biggest city, two in Pyay, a town in south-central Myanmar, and one in Twante, a suburb of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city.

Details of all seven deaths were posted on multiple social media accounts, some accompanied by photos of the victims.

A candlelit rally in Yangon (AP)

The actual death toll is likely to be higher, as police apparently seized some bodies, while some of those injured in the crackdown suffered serious gunshot wounds that doctors and nurses working at makeshift clinics will be hard-pressed to treat.

Many hospitals are occupied by security forces, and as a result are boycotted by medical personnel and shunned by protesters.

The independent UN human rights expert for Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said on Thursday that “credible reports” indicated security forces in the Southeast Asian nation had so far killed at least 70 people, and cited growing evidence of crimes against humanity since the military ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.

Other unofficial but carefully compiled tallies put the total number of deaths since the coup at around 90.

A protest takes place in Copenhagen, Denmark, against the military coup in Myanmar (Martin Sylvest/Scanpix/AP)

Saturday’s killings did not faze demonstrators in Yangon who crowded a commercial area past the official 8pm curfew to hold a mass candlelight vigil and to sing about their cause.

The mostly young protesters rallied at an intersection where they usually gather for daytime protests.

After-dark rallies were also held in Mandalay and elsewhere.

Reports on social media also said three people were shot dead on Friday night in Yangon, where residents for the past week have been defying the curfew to come out onto the streets.

Two deaths by gunfire were reported in Yangon’s Thaketa township, where a protest being held outside a police station was dispersed.

 

Police arrested several protesters and dismantled 

their barricades in Yangon (AP)

A crowd had gathered there to demand the release of three young men who were seized from their home earlier on Friday night. Photos said to be of the bodies of two dead protesters were posted online

The other reported fatality on Friday night was that of a 19-year-old man shot in Hlaing township.

Police had been aggressively patrolling residential neighbourhoods at night, firing into the air and setting off stun grenades in an effort at intimidation.

They have also been carrying out targeted raids, taking people from their homes with minimal resistance.

Anti-coup protesters in Mandalay (AP)

In at least two known cases, the detainees died in custody within hours of being taken away.

Another possible indication of heightened resistance emerged on Saturday with photos posted online of a railway bridge said to have been damaged by an explosive charge.

The bridge was described in multiple accounts as being on the rail line from Mandalay to Myitkyina, the capital of the northern state of Kachin. The photos show damage to part of a concrete support.

No-one took responsibility for the action.

In Washington on Friday, President Joe Biden’s administration announced it is offering temporary legal residency to people from Myanmar, citing the military’s takeover and ongoing deadly force against civilians.

The coup reversed years of slow progress toward democracy in Myanmar, which for five decades had languished under strict military rule that led to international isolation and sanctions.

Ms Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party led a return to civilian rule with a landslide election victory in 2015, and an even greater margin of votes last year.

It would have been installed for a second five-year term last month, but instead Ms Suu Kyi and President Win Myint and other members of the government were placed in military detention.

Myanmar coup: She was shot dead, her body dug up and her grave filled with cement

THIS WAS NOT A RANDOM SHOT IT WAS A HEAD SHOT BY A SNIPER

By Sandi Sidhu, Helen Regan, Ivan Watson and Salai TZ,

 CNN 3/12/2021

Hours after her family, friends and thousands of mourners laid Angel's body to rest, Myanmar's security forces entered the cemetery under the cover of darkness, dumped the carefully placed flowers and wreaths, and dug up her grave.

© Instagram/@ jia_xi/Reuters Angel is seen in an unknown location in this picture uploaded on social media December 19, 2019.

© Stringer/Reuters Angel lies on the ground before she was shot in the head as Myanmar's forces opened fire to disperse an anti-coup demonstration in Mandalay, on March 3.

The following morning, in footage shared to CNN and from witness accounts, among the detritus left scattered around the desecrated grave were razor blades, rubber boots, surgical gowns, shovels, and a bloodied plastic glove.

© Stringer/Reuters People display a poster of Angel

during her funeral on March 4.

Angel's grave had been filled with cement -- a thick gray slab in place of flowers and tributes.


Outrage and grief followed for a second time.

Angel, whose real name was Ma Kyal Sin, died after she was shot in the head in the city of Mandalay on March 3, during a demonstration against the military coup that forced Myanmar's elected government from power.

Wearing a T-shirt with the slogan "Everything will be OK," the 19-year-old quickly became a symbol of the country's deadly fight for democracy -- her image carried high on signs at protests and in artwork shared online.

Her struggle was emblematic of a generation fighting for freedom and democracy against a brutal and unrelenting junta that has launched a systematic attack against peaceful demonstrators. At least 80 people have been killed and hundreds injured since the coup, according to the United Nations. More than 2,000 have been detained, with allegations of torture and enforced disappearances. Many have not been heard from since.

The pain of a generation of young people cut down in the streets by armed police and soldiers is fueling a white-hot anger and determination that activists say will not be extinguished so easily.

"We will fight till the end, we will never step back, we will not be scared," said Min Htet Oo, a friend of Angel's who was with her when she died.

© STR/AP Angel's body is transported from the Yunnan Chinese temple in Mandalay, during her funeral on March 4.


Bloodiest day

The day of Angel's death, March 3, was one of the bloodiest since protests against the military coup broke out, as security forces opened fire on crowds of people across the country, killing at least 38. Images and footage, captured by bystanders, local reporters and citizen journalists, showed bodies lying in the streets surrounded by pools of blood as protesters ran to take cover.

© Obtained by CNN An x-ray of Ma Kyal Sin's skull after she was killed. The primary cause of death was brain injury caused by gunshot wound, said the doctor, who didn't want to be named for security reasons.

Angel had joined the protests in Mandalay and was part of a core group of activists on the front lines that shielded other protesters from police advances, snuffed out tear gas canisters with wet cloths or led crowds in chanting, according to her friend Min Htet Oo.

© Htun Aung Kyaw/Reuters A glove is seen on the freshly-cemented grave of 19-year-old protester, Angel, also known as Ma Kyal Sin, on March 6, in Mandalay, Myanmar, after authorities exhumed her body.

"It was very dangerous as we are at the front line and Angel was with us, she was the only girl in the group. She was the bravest, she was the most active one and commanding everyone at the front line," he said.

Around noon, demonstrators faced off with security forces down Mandalay's 84th street. Footage shows Angel shouting: "I'm afraid, but we will fight for our freedom" and "we won't run."

About half an hour later, activist videos show Angel and the other protesters retreating and crouching, as the sound of gun shots rings out. In one video before her death, she can be heard yelling: "People at the front, please sit down. You cannot be allowed to die."

In the moments before she was killed, photographs showed the back of her head turned toward the line of security forces. In a short video, activists say Angel's arm is visible before she falls to the ground.

Fellow protesters can be seen carrying her to a motorcycle, which races to a makeshift clinic. A doctor pronounced her dead on arrival. The primary cause of death was brain injury caused by gunshot wound, said the doctor, who didn't want to be named for security reasons.

© Stringer/AP People flash a three-finger sign of resistance during Angel's funeral on March 4.

"She was ready to risk her life way before that day," said Min Htet Oo.

A few days before her death, Angel had posted a message on Facebook offering to donate her blood and organs to anyone who might need it.

"Her last words were that she was ashamed that she won't be a dutiful citizen for the country. I asked her what if she died, and she said its worth it if she risks her life to end this system," said Min Htet Oo.


Concerns of a cover up

Thousands of people attended Angel's funeral or followed the hearse procession to the cemetery on their motorcycles. Many held up the three-finger salute from the "Hunger Games" movies that has become a symbol of resistance among protesters.

© Htun Aung Kyaw/Reuters Objects are seen strewn around Angel's grave on March 6.

But just hours after she was buried, Myanmar police dug up Angel's body to perform what they claimed was an autopsy required to investigate the cause of her death.

An eyewitness, who CNN is not identifying for their safety, said between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., about 20 people arrived at the cemetery gates.

"They got here with a car first and a motorcycle and they pointed with guns and asking to open the gate. There was another car from military at the back," the witness said.

"I saw a guy opened the gate for them ... They said we are not allowed to enter, not allowed to come see, and do not inform anyone about it."

The witness said they could not see what the group were doing in the cemetery once they entered, but the following morning saw they had "rebuilt the grave," referring to Angel's plot.

Footage taken by a passerby showed litter strewn around the grave site, including shovels, a bloody plastic glove and razors, apparently left by police from the night before.

News of the exhumation has shocked many, including the doctor who received Angel's body after her death.

"In previous cases that we have dug the body for autopsy we need a lot reasons, like there is a complaint or the family allowed to do it or and so on. For this case I think it is disregard with rules and regulations," said the doctor, who did not want to be named for fear of safety.

Activists had previously raised concerns the military would attempt to cover up how Angel died.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch said, "People are hardly ever exhumed in Myanmar to start with, so there was shock the authorities would go this far."

"But going without notice, in the middle of the night, is a symbolic recognition of the changing rules of the game, because the soldiers and police didn't want to be filmed doing their dirty work," he added.

The Myanmar Police Force said it needed to investigate Angel's death but her family had not consented to an autopsy. In a statement in state media, police said her body was exhumed "with the permission of a judge, district police chief officials, forensic pathologists and witnesses."

The military junta has sought to distance itself from her death, saying security forces used "minimum force" to disperse protesters that day. The conclusion from the police's autopsy on March 4 was that the 1.2 centimeter (0.48 inch) long and 0.7 centimeter (0.28 inch) wide piece of lead lodged in Angel's head, just behind her left ear, did not come from a police bullet.

"The lead piece found in the head was a type of ammunition that can be fired with a shotgun with 0.38 round of ammunition," the police statement said, adding that it "is different from the riot control bullets used by the Myanmar Police Force."

The police appeared to further distance themselves, saying although their forces were "in a face-to-face position to the crowd, the injury was in the back of the deceased person."

"Those who do not want stability in the country are attempting to escalate the conflict," the police said.

But an activist video, filmed moments after Angel's shooting and on the same street where she was fatally wounded, shows a member of the military, firing what appears to be a rifle at the protesters.

Human rights observers raised concerns the junta went to the lengths they did over Angel to try and conceal their actions and to avoid turning her into a martyr.

"The Tatmadaw is willing to kill scores of protesters but they are afraid of making martyrs, and they saw Kyal Sin was rapidly becoming one. So in typical ham-fisted, military style they did their midnight exhumation to justify a coverup medical finding that no one believes," said Robertson.

"The only people out on the street that day with guns were the army and the police, and there were plenty of people who saw her shot and die. By desecrating her grave and her memory, all the authorities did was further stoke the justifiable outrage at her death, and raised her profile even more."

Angel's family has not spoken to the media since her death. When CNN reached out, a family member said they would not comment on her death or graveside autopsy for fear of repercussions.

'Vast arsenal and notorious troops'

The desecration of Angel's grave is part of a pattern of increasing violence against Myanmar civilians by the military.

On Thursday, a top UN official lay the blame squarely on the security forces and said the military's "brutal response" to peaceful protests is "likely meeting the legal threshold for crimes against humanity."

"The people of Myanmar need not only words of support but supportive action," UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. "They need the help of the international community, now."

This apparent disregard for human life has been cataloged by rights group Amnesty International, which said the military had deployed a "vast arsenal and notorious troops" during a nationwide "killing spree."

Myanmar's military, it said, is using increasingly lethal tactics and weapons normally seen on the battlefield against peaceful protesters and bystanders, and that troops -- documented to have committed human rights abuses in conflict areas -- have been deployed to the streets.

By verifying more than 50 videos from the ongoing crackdown, Amnesty's Crisis Evidence Lab confirmed security forces appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies including the ramped-up use of lethal force, indiscriminate spraying of live ammunition in urban areas, and that many of the killings documented amount to extrajudicial executions.

But still, the young protesters continue to return to the streets each day across the country.

"The Tatmadaw never anticipated that once people enjoy basic freedoms, as the Myanmar people have over the past decade, they will fight doubly hard to keep them. The military also clearly underestimated the resilience and ingenuity of young Burmese who have grown up connected to the world by internet and will not agree to be dragged back to the past, to the nightmares of military rule that their parents all told them about," Robertson said.

Angel's friends have called her a martyr. But scores of others have died similar deaths at the hands of junta forces.

The teenager -- who loved to dance, film Tik Tok videos and train in taekwondo -- will be remembered as a symbol of defiance, her friends say.

"She liked to live freely, she was a good-hearted girl," said Min Htet Oo. Like many protesters, he is in hiding -- protesting by day and trying to evade security forces who come patrolling at night.

"She has fallen by helping others. She risked her life for the democracy of Myanmar," he said.

Myanmar: Streets of blood in Myaing as UN fears 'crimes against humanity'

By Helen Regan, CNN 3/12/2021

© Stringer/Getty Images YANGON, MYANMAR - MARCH 11: People pay tribute by laying flowers and lighting candles next to dried blood at the spot where Chit Min Thu, 25, was killed in clashes on March 11, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar. Myanmar's military Junta charged deposed de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi with accepting bribes and taking illegal payments in gold, as it also continued a brutal crackdown on a nationwide civil disobedience movement in which thousands of people have turned out in continued defiance of tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition. (Photo by Stringer/Getty Images)© STR/AP Anti-coup protesters retreat from the front lines after riot policemen fire sound-bombs and rubber bullets in Yangon, Myanmar, on March 11

Bloodshed continues in Myanmar after another violent day Thursday saw at least 12 people killed by the ruling junta, according to a watchdog group, prompting a top UN official to say the crackdown on peaceful protests is "likely meeting the legal threshold for crimes against humanity."

In the small, central town of Myaing, police shot into a crowd of unarmed people, killing at least eight, according to advocacy group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). Images posted on social media showed the town's roads streaked with blood and bodies laying crumpled and lifeless in the street.

In one unverified graphic image, a body can be seen with the head blown apart and brain remnants spilled onto the road.

The shootings in tiny Myaing are further evidence the military junta, which seized power in a coup on February 1, is attempting to crush peaceful opposition to its enforced rule in every corner of Myanmar, not just the big towns and cities.

In the biggest city, Yangon, Thursday, protester Chit Min Thu was killed in North Dagon area, according to Reuters. His wife, Aye Myat Thu, told the news agency he had insisted on joining the protests despite her appeals for him to stay home for the sake of their son.

"He said it's worth dying for," she said. "He is worried about people not joining the protest. If so, democracy will not return to the country."

At least 80 people have been killed since the military invalidated the results of the country's democratic election, the United Nations human rights office said, and hundreds more injured. At least four of the deaths in recent days were individuals arrested and detained by the junta, including two officials with the ousted National League for Democracy (NLD) party. All four died in custody, according to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.© Stringer/Getty Images People pay tribute by laying flowers and lighting candles next to dried blood at the spot where Chit Min Thu was killed in clashes on March 11 in Yangon, Myanmar.

More than 2,000 people have been arbitrarily detained since the coup, according to AAPP, many of them kept out of contact from family and friends, their condition or whereabouts unknown.

CNN cannot independently verify the arrest numbers or death toll from AAPP.

Myanmar's state run daily newspaper published a notice on Wednesday reinforcing the military's narrative that it is using minimum force against protesters.

On Thursday, the UN special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Tom Andrews, said in a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that a "growing body of reporting" indicates the junta's security forces are committing "acts of murder, imprisonment, persecution and other crimes as part of a coordinated campaign, directed against a civilian population, in a widespread and systematic manner, with the knowledge of the junta's leadership."

The "brutal response," he said, is "thereby likely meeting the legal threshold for crimes against humanity."

He called on UN member states to stop the flow of revenue and weapons to the junta, saying multilateral sanctions "should be imposed" on senior leaders, military-owned and controlled enterprises and the state energy firm, Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise.

His statement came after rights group Amnesty International released a report saying the military were embarking on a "killing spree" in Myanmar, using increasingly lethal tactics and weapons normally seen on the battlefield against peaceful protesters and bystanders.

By verifying more than 50 videos from the ongoing crackdown, Amnesty's Crisis Evidence Lab confirmed security forces appear to be implementing planned, systematic strategies, including the ramped-up use of lethal force, indiscriminate spraying of live ammunition in urban areas, and that many of the killings documented amount to extrajudicial executions.

"These Myanmar military tactics are far from new, but their killing sprees have never before been livestreamed for the world to see," said Joanne Mariner, director of crisis response at Amnesty International. "These are not the actions of overwhelmed, individual officers making poor decisions. These are unrepentant commanders already implicated in crimes against humanity, deploying their troops and murderous methods in the open.


Fleeing to India

There is evidence the violence is forcing people to flee the country. Between 200 and 300 people have crossed the border from Myanmar into India's northeastern state of Mizoram, fleeing the unrest, Mizoram's chief minister told CNN.

That number includes police, civil servants, their family members, and other civilian and the number of people fleeing increases daily, according Chief Minister PU Zoramthanga.

"We (the Mizoram government) are not sending them back as a humanitarian point of view. When somebody enters the land, the country's border, for fear of their lives we cannot simply send them back. They are not criminals. It is a political issue," he said.

Zormanthanga added that people are given food and shelter, and many have family in Mizoram. He said it is up to the Indian central government on how to deal with people crossing the border.


Suu Kyi accused of bribery

Ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi was accused of bribery and corruption by the military Thursday, adding to four charges already against her that could result in a years-long prison sentence.

Military spokesperson Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said in a news conference that Suu Kyi accepted illegal payments worth $600,000, as well as gold, while in government, according to Reuters.

The spokesperson added that the information had been verified following a complaint from a former Yangon regional minister, and an anti-corruption committee was investigating.

Suu Kyi's lawyer, Khin Maung Zaw told CNN "the allegations are a complete fabrication."

"I have been in politics in Myanmar for nearly 40 years, and in all these years I have not witnessed such shameless allegations" he said. "We are in a country where the people have seen lots of corruption in the past and many misbehaviors, but Aung San Suu Kyi is not in that sphere of corruption."

He added that while he has had "many disagreements" with Suu Kyi, "when it comes corruption, bribery, greed -- this is not her, she is not that kind of woman."

Along with Suu Kyi, ousted President Win Myint, his wife, and several cabinet ministers were being investigated for allegedly asking for and accepting "money from some entrepreneurs," the spokesperson said, without clarifying, according to Reuters.

Suu Kyi and Win Myint remain under house arrest.

The military, headed by coup-leader Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, took full control of the country last month, ousting Suu Kyi's democratically elected government, which had won a landslide in November 2020 elections.

The army justified its action by alleging widespread voter fraud in that poll -- only the second democratic vote since the previous military junta began a series of reforms in 2011.

In a video statement played to the UN Human Rights Council, Myanmar's permanent secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Chan Aye said: "In recent days, authorities concerned have been paying attention to maintaining law and order in the country," and "authorities have been exercising utmost restraint to deal with the violent protests."

Chan Aye also said the military leadership remains committed to "free and fair multiparty democratic elections."

But speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, Kyaw Moe Tun, Myanmar's ambassador to the UN, said the country doesn't need fresh elections as the last poll was free and fair.

His comments came after the 15 countries of the UN Security Council unanimously backed the strongest statement since the coup, saying it "strongly condemns the violence against peaceful protestors" and called on the military to "exercise utmost restraint."

UN diplomats told CNN that China, Russia, and Vietnam objected to tougher language calling events "a coup" and in one draft forced the removal of language that would have threatened further action, potentially sanctions.

In a statement, China's ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said "it is important the Council members speak in one voice. We hope the message of the Council would be conducive to easing the situation in Myanmar."

Kyaw Moe Tun said the message "does not meet the peoples' expectation," saying up against the brutality of the military "we all feel helpless" and called on the international community for protection.

            

‘A sea of blood in the church’: Survivors recount Myitkyina’s lethal crackdown

Eyewitnesses describe how protesters were killed or maimed in the Kachin Sate capital on March 8 right after a Catholic nun knelt and implored security forces not to harm them.

"Please, don’t shoot or beat the children. They are young and very afraid of you," Catholic nun Sister Ann Rosa Nu Tawng tells security forces, shortly before they open fire on protesters at Myitkyina's St Columban’s Cathedral on March 8. (Myitkyina News Journal | AFP)

KACHIN STATE IS MAJORITY CHRISTIAN

MARCH 13, 2021

By NU NU LUSAN and EMILY FISHBEIN | FRONTIER

On the morning of March 8, protesters in the Kachin State capital, Myitkyina, reached a standoff with the police and army in front of Saint Columban’s Cathedral in the city’s Aung Nan Yeik Thar ward. In what has quickly become one of the iconic images of the protests, a Roman Catholic nun stood between the police and protesters and begged for mercy. Tragically, security forces opened fire moments later; by day’s end, two lay dead and another two were seriously injured.

Frontier spoke to the nun, as well as three young protesters, to piece together what happened that day and the context surrounding it. As well as the shootings, eyewitnesses described beatings, looting and mass arrests. Although deeply shaken by the violence, they said the experience had made them more determined to bring down the military regime.

“Young people in Myitkyina are frustrated. We will continue going out on the street. We will not stop until we get what we want,” said Htu Mai, the pseudonym of a young Kachin woman.
A plea for restraint

On March 8, hundreds of supporters of the three main protest movements in Myitkyina – involving a multi-ethnic student and youth group, a Kachin youth group, and a teacher-led group of striking public servants – gathered in the streets by the cathedral at around 9am.

Within an hour, the crowd had swelled to thousands. Police and soldiers barricaded the area with their vehicles and began chasing the protesters, who fled in different directions. Some sought refuge in the cathedral compound and others hid in nearby houses.

Brang Ja, a young Kachin who asked that his real name not be used, was among hundreds of protesters who sought refuge in the cathedral. “We quickly locked the church doors,” he said. “They surrounded the church from all sides, so we were only peeking out.”

Htu Mai hid in an alley behind the cathedral as security forces fired rubber bullets, stun grenades and slingshots. Anyone filming the crackdown was targeted for arrest and some had their phones confiscated, she said.

With roads leading out of the area blocked by security forces, Htu Mai jumped a barbed wire fence and from the vantage point of another alley, watched as they beat protesters, sometimes whipping their heads with slingshot straps, before arresting them.

“They dragged out women who were hiding in other people’s houses,” she said. In one house, there were mass arrests, including of people hiding in the toilet, said Htu Mai. “They beat arrested protesters badly. They didn’t even leave the women alone,” she said. A total of 91 people were arrested that day, and most remain in custody

.

A protester sustains a rubber bullet injury in front of St Columban’s Cathedral during a crackdown on March 8 that saw two killed and two seriously injured. (Supplied)

On nearby streets, separate protest groups made their way toward the church compound and converged. Having escaped, Htu Mai joined them.

Htu Mai said that with many police and soldiers blocking all sides of the church compound, she and other protesters stood on a nearby street and chanted. “They threw stun grenades at us but we chanted that we, the people, had to unite; we didn’t run away but continued to chant our slogans,” said Htu Mai. As protesters were enveloped by clouds of teargas, shopkeepers threw bags of ice to them so they could soothe their irritated eyes.

Inside the cathedral, Brang Ja and the other protesters communicated with the different protest groups by phone. Meanwhile, the protests outside intensified and some began throwing water bottles and rocks.

At about 11am, Sister Ann Rosa Nu Tawng, a nun and the head nurse at the Mali Gindai clinic in the cathedral compound, walked out and knelt in front of the police, as she had also done on February 28.

“I told them, ‘Please, don’t shoot or beat the children. They are young and very afraid of you … Whatever the command from above, please do not shoot, beat or arrest them,’” she said, while some protesters left the church compound to gather behind her. The police knelt in return, and according to Ann Rosa Nu Tawng, told her they were just following orders and asked her to return to the church.

“They asked me, ‘Aren’t you afraid? If you keep doing this, we are going to take action under the law.’ I replied, ‘You can kill me or arrest me; I will not move,” the nun said. Her efforts to avert further bloodshed were to no avail, however. Soon after noon, the security forces opened fire with live and rubber bullets and tear gas.

“There was no way to escape,” she said. “I didn’t know what to do; I just stood there and prayed to God for help.”

‘This is how they torture the people’

Brang Ja, who had also left the cathedral compound to confront the police line, attempted to run back inside but was blinded by tear gas and smoke. “At that time, we heard, ‘Someone got hit! Someone got hit!’ When we looked back, a man had fallen down and his brain was coming out. We carried him into the clinic [in the cathedral compound],” he said.

Ann Rosa Nu Tawng also came out to help. “I ran toward [the victim]. [Police] threw tear gas and it was very smoky,” she said. “I called some of the protesters to help me carry him inside but when I looked at him, his brain was coming out and he was bleeding badly.”

Moments later, Brang Ja and other protesters helped her carry a second victim, a young man also shot in the head, into the cathedral.

Next to Htu Mai, a woman fell to the ground after a bullet entered her arm, and protesters carried her inside. Htu Mai kept running and hid in another alley.

Protesters carry an injured person during the March 8 crackdown in Myiktyina’s Aung Nan Yeik Thar ward. (Supplied)

In the cathedral, Ann Rosa Nu Tawng and two other nuns tended the wounded. “There was a sea of blood in the church,” she said. “I was coughing, dizzy, nauseated and couldn’t see properly because of the tear gas … I felt like it was the end of the world.”

As they waited for an ambulance, the nuns tried to staunch the victims’ bleeding. “We gave first aid to the two patients who had been shot in the head, but we weren’t really sure whether they were already dead because their heads had burst open,” she said.

The number of police cars patrolling the area delayed by 30 minutes the arrival of the volunteer ambulance crew that picked up the two men shot in the head, and it was another half hour before an ambulance collected the woman who had been shot in the arm. The patients were taken to the private Malizup Hospital in Myae Myint ward, about three kilometres from the cathedral, and a man shot in the stomach while protesting near the railway station a few blocks from the cathedral was admitted to the same hospital shortly after.

Back at the cathedral clinic, Ann Rosa Nu Tawng and her team were treating protesters who had been wounded by rubber bullets and police batons. “Our minds were everywhere; so many people were in the church, and some were crying. It was chaotic,” she said.

Outside the cathedral, eyewitnesses watched as authorities looted vehicles.

“They broke the car [windows] and took purses and all the valuable things,” said Htu Mai. “I saw live bullet shells on the street … they were gold and bronze in colour. They used both live and rubber bullets and shot us with slingshots. This is how they torture the people.”

By 2pm, the two men who had been shot in the head were pronounced dead. That afternoon, police hosed blood off the streets, while in the evening residents gathered for interfaith candlelight vigils for the victims.

Shells from bullets fired near St Columban’s Cathedral on March 8. (Supplied)

On March 9, funerals were held in Radha Gaung ward on the outskirts of the city for U Cho Tha, 62, a Muslim retired primary school teacher who had worked in a remote border area, and for Ko Zin Min Htet, 23, a Buddhist who worked at a goldsmith shop and lived with his mother and two older sisters.

Thousands attended from across the city’s diverse ethnic and religious communities. Mourners waved three-finger salutes, a pro-democracy gesture, chanted “Military dictatorship must fall!” and “Let the Civil Disobedience Movement succeed!”, and placed colourful flowers on the caskets, said Brang Ja, who attended the funeral of Zin Min Htet.

An interfaith memorial service was planned on March 10 at the site where the men were gunned down, but was cancelled due to a heavy police presence.

After the violence, some media outlets including Radio Free Asia reported that the Kachin Independence Organisation had said it would protect Kachin State residents protesting peacefully against the coup if security forces continued to violently suppress them.
Weeks of tension

The crackdown on March 8 marked the culmination of weeks of building tension in Myitkyina since protests began there a month earlier.

On the evening of February 14, police and soldiers fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds demonstrating outside a Tatmadaw-occupied power plant. On February 18, police cracked down on protests in front of the city’s teacher training college, beating one teacher and breaking her hand, and the next day stormed downtown protests with batons and slingshots, arresting 10. With the Tatmadaw now in control of the city’s power supply, Brang Ja said electricity was cut in alternating wards on a daily basis and he heard from friends that police were stopping people and searching their bags, and arresting them if they found evidence of participation in protests, such as flags or hardhats.

But there had been few violent confrontations before March 8. Htoi Shawng, the pseudonym for a protest leader, told Frontier that three or four people had suffered slingshot injuries to the head prior to the deadly crackdown. He estimated that about 200 people had been arrested in Myitkyina, but many had been released following mediation facilitated by the Peacetalk Creation Group, comprised of Kachin businesspeople who have long negotiated between conflict actors in the state.

Thousands wave the three-finger salute as they attend the March 9 funeral of Ko Zin Min Htet, 23, who was killed during the crackdown on protesters the previous day. (La Beng)

Htoi Shawng said that despite the repeated use of force by security forces, protesters would continue to demonstrate peacefully.

In common with other ethnic nationality areas, the protesters in Kachin seek not only the reversal of the coup, but also the abolition of the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and its replacement by a charter that grants federal rights to the seven ethnic states.

Htoi Shawng said there had sometimes been disagreements among the ethnically diverse protesters in Myitkyina, with some protesters pushing the interests of their own communities, and he hoped they could unite around the goal of a federal democratic union.

The March 8 violence has left many protesters with deep emotional scars.

“I was traumatised because I have never seen anything like it,” said Brang Ja, adding that he could not sleep on the night of March 8. “Now, when I think about it, I still remember it clearly,” he told Frontier on March 9.

Ann Rosa Nu Tawng said her courageous appeal to police that day had left her badly shaken.

“I am a human being, too, so I also wanted to run away to somewhere safe, but I thought about it and realised I should not run away; I have to stand up for these young people,” she said. “When we [sisters] see the brutality of the military and the killing, we cannot sleep at night.”

However, Ann Rosa Nu Tawng and the other interviewees remain undeterred in their resolve to stand against dictatorship.

“Everyone has a responsibility to promote peace in our country. We must all come together in unity to solve this crisis,” she said. “This is not the time to discriminate based on our background, beliefs, race or ethnicity; everyone should join hands.”

Brang Ja said the violence had only made him more motivated to continue being involved in the protest movement, which he predicted would only grow stronger.

“I try to be strong and tell others that we cannot cry too much; we have to keep going. We still have many things to do,” he said. “I cannot stay quiet.”

Frontier Myanmar | In-depth coverage of news, business and current events in Myanmar.

Five killed after police launch deadly crackdown on Mandalay sit-in


A volunteer medical worker frantically tries to save a person shot by security forces in Mandalay's Maha Aung Myay Township this afternoon. (Frontier)

MARCH 13, 2021

At least five people have been killed in Mandalay today when security forces fired live rounds at peaceful protesters, after three more people died in Yangon overnight.

By FRONTIER

At least five people have been killed and 20 injured in Mandalay today, social welfare groups told Frontier, after police violently dispersed peaceful protesters.

Three men and two women were killed when police fired live rounds at protesters on several occasions in Maha Aung Myay Township, between the city’s commercial district and the Ayeyarwady River.

Three people were killed and at least 10 injured in the morning when police used live rounds to disperse a sit-in against military rule staged by teachers, healthcare workers, students, monks and residents at the corner of 13th and 91st streets.

Images seen by Frontier show that one woman who died had been struck by a bullet to the forehead.

The protests continued through the afternoon, and security forces killed two more demonstrators.

Teachers join the peaceful sit-in in Maha Aung Myay this morning. (Frontier)

Volunteer medics treat an injured protester. (Frontier)

The toll may have been higher had local rescue teams not managed to evacuate at least 100 young protesters who were trapped in a residential neighbourhood between 41st and 42nd streets.

Many of them had taken refuge in local homes, from where they contacted rescue teams and friends for help. Using a network of scouts and lookouts, the rescue teams managed to evacuate the protesters in small groups through the narrow backstreets of the area.

Security forces have so far killed close to 80 protesters in the wake of the February 1 military coup and detained more than 2,000, forcing even Myanmar’s staunchest allies to express concern at the regime’s bloody crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.

Yesterday, a spokesperson for the Kremlin said it was “concerned” by rising civilian casualties.

“We assess the situation as alarming, and we are concerned about the information coming from there about the growing number of civilian casualties,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow. “This is a matter of worry for us. We are very closely monitoring what is happening there.”

Peskov said Russian authorities are also weighing the possibility of suspending military cooperation with Myanmar.

A memorial for Ko Aung Paing Oo, who was killed by security forces near Sein Gay Har on Parami Road in Hlaing Township last night. (Frontier)

Yangon night protests turn deadly

Meanwhile in Yangon overnight, two men were shot dead in eastern Thaketa Township and an 18-year-old man was killed by security forces in northern Hlaing Township as after-curfew protests against the military regime turned deadly.

About 200 people gathered today in Hlaing at a makeshift memorial near Sein Gay Har on Parami Road, where Ko Aung Paing Oo was killed last night. Although police and military personnel were sighted nearby, they made no attempt to disrupt the gathering.

Aung Paing Oo had been among a group of residents who, alarmed at the presence of police and soldiers in their neighbourhood, left their homes to protest.

“Residents did not want them to come into the area at night to arrest people … We wanted to drive them out,” one resident said, adding that residents deployed Molotov cocktails against security forces.

“Police and soldiers used stun grenades to disperse us… Altogether four people were injured,” he said.

His account was confirmed by another resident who saw the melee, while footage shared on social media showed residents hiding behind cars as loud bangs could be heard before they retrieved Aung Paing Oo, who had been shot in the head.

His brother, Ko Wai Lin Kyaw, confirmed he died hours later, after struggling to breathe through the night.

“The doctors could not do much for him as his head was burst,” he said, sobbing.

Two people were also killed in Thaketa Township after police shot into a crowd of demonstrators just after midnight.

The crowd had gathered at the Thaketa Township police station to demand the release of protesters detained during a 10pm demonstration residents had staged in defiance of the nightly 8pm to 4am curfew.

At around 12:45am, police used sound bombs and live rounds to disperse the crowd, leaving two dead.

Ko Sithu was shot in the head. The 37-year-old trishaw driver was a husband and a father of two ­– one son and one daughter ­– a relative told Frontier.

Ko Aung Aung Zaw, 41, was shot in his torso. He was also a trishaw driver, a husband and the father of a 15-year-old son.

“His wife does not work. His son is a student and is waiting to attend Grade 10,” a neighbor said.

Witnesses said three people were also arrested. – with AFP

Frontier Myanmar | In-depth coverage of news, business and current events in Myanmar.