PROTESTERS DEFY MYANMAR COPS, UN MULLS STRONG ACTION

Demonstrators defied growing violence by Myanmar security forces and staged more anti-coup rallies Friday, while the UN special envoy for the country called for urgent Security Council action, saying about 50 peaceful protesters were killed and scores were injured in the military’s worst crackdowns this week, the latest fatality was 26-year-old Zaw Myo, the Associated Press (AP) reported.

While the UN Security Council heard reports on the atrocities in Myanmar, China and Russia are expected to veto any strong resolution against the junta, which is to be prepared to send in the army’s 77th Light Infantry Division that fired on anti-junta protesters in 2007, and the 99th Light Infantry Division which has been used in counterinsurgency campaigns against ethnic minorities, including spearheading the response that led to a brutal crackdown that caused more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee from Rakhine state to Bangladesh.

It also has been accused of war crimes in Shan state, another ethnic minority area, in 2016 and early 2017.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has urged a halt to violence and the start of talks on a peaceful solution in Myanmar.

The 10-member regional group, which includes Myanmar, is constrained from enacting serious measures by a tradition of acting by consensus and reluctance to interfere in each other’s internal affairs.

However, one member, Singapore, was outspoken Friday in criticizing Myanmar’s coup. “It is the height of national shame for the armed forces of any country to turn its arms against its own people,” Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said in Parliament.

But he also warned that the approach favored by some Western nations of pressuring Myanmar’s generals with sanctions would not be effective. “Despite all our fervor and earnest hopes of reconciliation ... the keys ultimately lie within Myanmar. And there’s a limit to how far external pressure will be brought to bear,” he said.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in also tweeted that the use of violence against the people of Myanmar must stop.

“There should not be any more loss of lives. We condemn the violent suppression of protests by the military and the police forces and strongly call for the immediate release of all those detained including State Counsellor Aung San Suu Kyi,” he said.

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