‘We have to win’: Myanmar protesters persevere as forces ramp up violence

Ye Swan Htet, 23, had joined a sit-down protest on a bridge in west Yangon when he saw police approaching. Officers were carrying guns, he remembered, but he didn’t expect them to actually shoot. The protest was peaceful; crowds were singing and clapping.

Then, gun fire rang out all around him. Bricks burst open and a branch snapped from a tree. “There was a guy who got hit in his thigh by a rubber bullet, so I carried him to an ambulance,” he said.

Ye Swan Htet saw five protesters run frantically towards him. They were carrying his cousin, Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, who had been shot in his lower abdomen.

Doctors in a nearby neighbourhood desperately tried to help, said Ye Swan Htet, but they were unable to save him. A video posted by news outlet Myanmar Now showed his last moments, as he laid motionless outside a school before other protesters, still seemingly under fire, lifted him away.

Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing, 23, was one of at least 18 people killed in violence by security forces on Sunday, according to UN estimates. Police, reinforced by notorious military troops, launched their most violent crackdown yet in an attempt to quash protests against the junta.

Streets in downtown Yangon resembled a war zone; the sound of security forces opening fire echoed as live ammunition and stun grenades were deployed against protesters. Footage from various points in the city, shared on social media, showed panicked crowds fleeing to safety. Protesters struggled to breathe as clouds of teargas spread.

World Opinions News / theguardian.com