Myanmar protests and crackdown intensify, U.S. imposes trading curbs

March 5 ------ Police broke up demonstrations with tear gas and gunfire in several cities across Myanmar on Thursday, as protesters returned to the streets undeterred by the bloodiest day yet in a crackdown on opponents of last month’s military coup. The United Nations said 38 people had been killed during Wednesday’s demonstrations, far more in a single day than the 23 believed to have been killed up until March 1.

U.N. human rights chief Michelle Bachelet demanded the security forces halt what she called their “vicious crackdown on peaceful protesters.” Bachelet said more than 1,700 people had been arrested, including 29 journalists. The U.N. human rights investigator on Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, urged the Security Council - which meets to discuss the situation on Friday - to impose a global arms embargo and targeted economic sanctions on the ruling junta.

States should impose sanctions on the Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, now controlled by the military and its largest source of revenue, he said in a report. Sources told Reuters that Myanmar’s military rulers attempted to move about $1 billion held at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York days after seizing power on Feb. 1. U.S. officials froze those funds indefinitely, according to three people familiar with the matter, including one U.S. government official.

Separately, the U.S. Commerce Department on Thursday designated trading curbs on Myanmar’s Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Home Affairs and military conglomerates MEC and MEHL, effective on March 8, according to a federal registry filing. U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price had said that Washington would take further action in response to the rising violence in the aftermath of the coup, which overthrew elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

In Myanmar, activists said they refused to accept military rule and new elections promised by the junta, voicing determination to press for the release of the detained Suu Kyi, 75, and recognition of her Nov. 8 election victory. “We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta,” activist Maung Saungkha told Reuters.

Police opened fire and used tear gas to break up protests in Yangon and the central town of Monywa, witnesses said. Police also opened fire in the town of Pathein, west of Yangon, and used tear gas in Taunggyi in the east, media reported. Big crowds gathered peacefully for rallies elsewhere, including the second city of Mandalay and in the historic temple town of Bagan, where hundreds marched carrying pictures of Suu Kyi and a banner saying: “Free our leader”, witnesses said. A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.

Source: reuters.com