Myanmar police fire stun grenades at protesters ahead of regional talks

Demonstrators flee from teargas launched by security forces in Yangon, Myanmar, on Tuesday. Photograph: Lynn Bo Bo/EPA

Myanmar police have fired stun grenades to disperse protesters in the city of Yangon, witnesses said, as foreign ministers of neighbouring countries were due to hold talks with the military in an effort to quell the deadly violence.

The talks on Tuesday will come two days after the bloodiest day of unrest since the military removed Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government a month ago, unleashing anger and mass street protests across Myanmar.

Protesters – many wearing hard hats, thick gloves and goggles and holding makeshift shields – had gathered behind barricades in different parts of Yangon to chant slogans against military rule.

“If we’re oppressed, there will be explosion. If we’re hit, we’ll hit back,” the crowd chanted at one Yangon protest before police moved in to break up it up with stun grenades, witnesses said. There were no reports of any injuries.

“There is an anxious feeling,” said a 24-year-old demonstrator in a hardhat at Myaynigone Intersection. “No one knows what’s going to happen.”

Publish : 2021-03-02 14:08:00

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