NAYPYIDAW (MYANMAR) – Myanmar police opened fire to avert protesters on Tuesday, said witnesses, as foreign ministers of neighbouring countries are likely to conduct talks with the military in an attempt to contain violence and to find a way out of the impasse.
The talks will be held two days after the bloodiest day of unrest since the military removed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government.
“If we’re oppressed, there will be explosion. If we’re hit, we’ll hit back,” demonstrators chanted before police moved in firing stun grenades to scatter crowds in at least four different places in the city.
Though there were no reports of any injuries in Yangon, several people were wounded in the northwestern town of Kale when police levelled live ammunition to ward off a crowd, according to a democracy activist and a reporter in the town.
“Several are injured, two are in critical condition,” activist War War Pyone said.
Singapore Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan said his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) would be take an open stand when they meet by video call on Tuesday and will tell a representative of Myanmar’s military the violence has shocked them.
In a television interview late on Monday, Balakrishnan said ASEAN would appreciate a dialogue between Suu Kyi and the junta.
“They need to talk, and we need to help bring them together,” he said.
ASEAN comprises countries such as Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.
Junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in remarks read on state television by a newscaster, said protest leaders and “instigators” would be subjected to punishment. Civil servants refusing to work might would also have to face stringent actions.
Min Aung Hlaing has taken vows to conduct new elections and hand power to the winner, however, he has not given any timeframe.
ASEAN’s effort to have talks or any form of engagement with Myanmar’s military has been criticised by supporters of democracy. A committee of ousted Myanmar lawmakers declared that the junta was a “terrorist” group and said ASEAN’s engagement will give it legitimacy.
Sa Sa, the committee’s anointed envoy to the United Nations, said ASEAN should have no dealings with “this illegitimate military-led regime”.
The alumni of ASEAN youth programmes in Myanmar said the bloc must be in talks with the international representatives of Suu Kyi’s administration, not to the regime.
“ASEAN must understand that the coup or the re-election promised by the military junta is utterly unacceptable to the people of Myanmar,” it said it a letter to ASEAN.
Philippine Foreign Minister Teodoro Locsin indicated on Twitter that ASEAN would continue to have a firm stand with Myanmar and said the bloc’s policy of non-interference in members’ internal affairs “is not a blanket approval or tacit consent for wrong to be done there”.
Suu Kyi, 75, made an appearance at a court hearing via video conferencing on Monday and looked in good health, one of her lawyers said, though her whereabouts are not known. The lawyer said that two more charges have been imposed, along with those filed against her after the coup.
The United States gave warning to Myanmar’s military on Monday that it would take left with no option but to take action if security forces kill people without any arms and attack journalists and activists, which State Department spokesman Ned Price called “abhorrent violence”.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the Biden administration was readying further costs on those responsible for the coup.