JAKARTA, Indonesia Myanmar’s security forces movedin and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Huddled inside her homein Yangon, 19-year-oldShwedared to peek out her window. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look. Two gunshots rang out. Then a man’s scream: “HELP!”When […]
Published Wednesday, May 5, 2021 7:04AM EDT JAKARTA, Indonesia Myanmar s security forces movedin and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block. Huddled inside her home in this neighbourhood of Yangon, 19-year-old Shwe dared to peek out her window into the inky night. A flashlight shone back, and a man s voice ordered her not to look. Two gunshots rang out. Then a man s scream: “HELP!” When the military strucks finally rolled away, Shweand her family emerged to look for her 15-year-old brother, worried about frequent abductions by security forces. “I could feel my blood thumping,” shesays. “I had a feeling that he might be taken.”
This handout from Kachinwaves taken and released on May 5, 2021 shows people standing beside a portrait of Wai Phyo, also known as Thiha Thu, during his funeral after he was shot dead during a crackdown by security forces on demonstrations by protesters against the military coup in Hpakant in Myanmar s Kachin state. - AFP JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP): Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights.
Huddled inside her home in Yangon, 19-year-old Shwe dared to peek out her window. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look.
May 5, 2021 Share
Myanmar’s security forces moved in and the street lamps went black. In house after house, people shut off their lights. Darkness swallowed the block.
Huddled inside her home in this neighborhood of Yangon, 19-year-old Shwe dared to peek out her window into the inky night. A flashlight shone back, and a man’s voice ordered her not to look.
Two gunshots rang out. Then a man’s scream: “HELP!” When the military’s trucks finally rolled away, Shwe and her family emerged to look for her 15-year-old brother, worried about frequent abductions by security forces.
“I could feel my blood thumping,” she says. “I had a feeling that he might be taken.”
Anti-coup demonstrators are abandoning peaceful protest for armed resistance as the deposed civilian government appeals to ethnic rebels to join the fight. The United Nations warns of a ‘bloodbath.’
It is a technique that Myanmar’s military has long used to instill fear and crush pro-democracy movements. The boys and young men are taken from homes, businesses and streets. Some end up dead. Many are imprisoned and sometimes tortured. Many more are missing.
“We’ve definitely moved into a situation of mass enforced disappearances,” said Matthew Smith, cofounder of the human rights group Fortify Rights, which has collected evidence of detainees being killed in custody. “We’re documenting and seeing widespread and systematic arbitrary arrests.”