SOLDIERS RAID SUU KYI PARTY HQ
YANGON—Myanmar’s military tightened its post-coup grip on power, stepping up a campaign of intimidation against the ousted civilian leadership while pushing harsher tactics as a fifth consecutive day of nationwide demonstrations began on Wednesday.
Soldiers raided and ransacked the headquarters of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s party on Tuesday night, after police shot water cannon, tear gas and rubber bullets in a sudden escalation of force against the protests sweeping the country.
A National League for Democracy member Soe Win told AFP Wednesday that a guard saw the raid conducted by security forces via remote CCTV, but was unable to intervene due to the imposed curfew.
In the morning, they found door locks broken, computer equipment missing, and electrical wiring and server cables cut. Bank documents from a safe box were gone.
Soe Win said the party is planning to file a police complaint.
A doctor in Naypyidaw confirmed the use of live rounds that left two people critically injured, but footage showed protesters in the capital were undeterred, returning to a blockade on a major highway on Wednesday morning.
‘They can’t steal hope’
Condemning the use of force, UN special rapporteur Tom Andrews said the police fire had injured a young woman, images of whom have spread like wildfire online alongside expressions of grief and fury.
“They can shoot a young woman but they can’t steal the hope and resolve of a determined people,” the human rights envoy wrote on Wednesday. “The world stands in solidarity with the protesters of Myanmar.”
The woman, who was shot in the head, remains “in critical condition” at the ICU, the doctor told AFP.
Protesters had returned to the streets of Yangon on Wednesday morning, where the day before a large crowd faced off against water cannon and a phalanx of riot police near Suu Kyi’s residence.
The military justified last week’s power grab by claiming widespread voter fraud in the November polls, which saw a landslide for Suu Kyi and her party.
In the 10 days since army chief Min Aung Hlaing ousted the Nobel laureate from power and ended a decade of civilian rule, Myanmar has been roiled by a burgeoning civil disobedience campaign and massive street protests.