Police use force as agitators in Myanmar break rules

Protesters hold signs demanding the release of detained Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during a demonstration against the military coup in Yangon on Tuesday. PIC/AFP

Police cracked down on demonstrators opposing Myanmar's military takeover, firing warning shots and shooting water cannons to disperse crowds that took to the streets again on Tuesday in defiance of rules making protests illegal.

Water cannons were used in Mandalay, Myanmar's second-biggest city, where witnesses said at least two warning shots were fired to try to break up the crowd. Reports on social media said police arrested more than two dozen people there. They also used water cannons in the capital, Natpyitaw, for a second day and fired shots into the air. Police were widely reported to have also shot rubber bullets at the crowd in Naypyitaw, wounding several people. Photos on social media showed an alleged shooter - an officer with a short-barrelled gun - and several injured people.

Unconfirmed rumours circulated widely of shootings with live rounds and deaths among the protesters, with the potential of sparking violent retaliation against the authorities, an outcome proponents of the country's civil disobedience movement have warned against. The protesters are demanding that power be restored to the deposed civilian government and are seeking freedom for the nation's elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other ruling party members detained since the military took over and blocked the new session of Parliament from convening on February 1.

The growing defiance is striking in a country where past demonstrations have been met with deadly force and are a reminder of previous movements in the Southeast Asian country's long and bloody struggle for democracy. The military used deadly force to quash a massive 1988 uprising against military dictatorship and a 2007 revolt led by Buddhist monks.

‘Foreign policy will not change'
Myanmar will conduct friendly cooperation with all countries while the country's foreign policy will not change, Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing said. In his first televised message to the public after the declaration of a one-year state of emergency, he said that during the period, there will be no change in foreign, executive and economic policies, and Myanmar will continue its current political path, the Xinhua news agency reported on Monday.

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