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US President Joe Biden condemned the violence unleashed by the Myanmar military on protesters who have returned to the streets of Yangon and Mandalay in further defiance of the junta as at least 100 people have been killed in a single day. Joe Biden said, “It’s absolutely outrageous, and based on the reporting I’ve gotten, an awful lot of people have been killed totally unnecessarily,” reported DW news.
He further added that the US government is working on imposing sanctions in the coming days. Nations including Germany and the US jointly decried the military violence which resulted in over 100 deaths in one day.
According to DW news, “defense chiefs from 12 different countries had earlier condemned violence in Myanmar, which saw military forces open fire on anti-coup protesters, killing at least 100 people.” The US, Britain, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Japan issued the statement, a day after Myanmar’s deadliest day of protests since the military coup in February, read the DW news.
“We condemn the use of lethal force against unarmed people by the Myanmar Armed Forces and associated security services,” the statement read. The military chiefs called on Myanmar’s armed forces to cease violence and work to “restore respect and credibility with the people of Myanmar that it has lost through its actions.”
Taking to Twitter the German FM Heiko Maas said, “It is the task of security forces to protect the population. Instead, the military killed peaceful protesters and even children. My thoughts and sympathy are with the families of the victims.” In the United States, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet that his country was “horrified by the bloodshed perpetrated by Burmese security forces, showing that the junta will sacrifice the lives of the people to serve the few,” as reported by DW news.
A bloody Armed Forces Day celebration Myanmar’s military celebrated Armed Forces Day on Saturday with parades and speeches, despite the non-stop protests against its seizure of power last month read the DW news. Estimated death tolls of Saturday’s bloody events, which also saw several children killed, are difficult to independently verify. The total death toll since the coup is now over 420, according to the local monitoring group Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
“Junta forces shot machine guns into residential areas, resulting in many civilians, including six children between ten and sixteen years old, killed,” AAPP said. “The fact the illegitimate military regime is targeting children is a grave act of inhumanity.” “This movement against the military coup is not going to stop,” DW News reported citing sources. “They are just furious at the nighttime raids and the way this military is trying to terrorize the civilian population,” the DW news read.
On February 1, Myanmar’s military overthrew the civilian government and declared a yearlong state emergency, while detaining civilian leaders. The coup triggered mass protests which were met by the Junta’s deadly violence.
