Protests spread across Myanmar on Wednesday after the most violent day in demonstrations against a coup that brought to a halt a tentative transition to democracy under elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The United States and United Nations condemned the use of force against protesters who are demanding the reversal of the Feb. 1 coup and the release of Suu Kyi and other detained leaders of her National League for Democracy (NLD) and activists.
“We cannot stay quiet,” youth leader Esther Ze Naw told Reuters. “If there is blood shed during our peaceful protests, then there will be more if we let them take over the country.”
Thousands of people joined demonstrations in the main city of Yangon. In the capital, Naypyitaw, hundreds of government workers marched in support of a growing civil disobedience campaign.
A group of police in Kayah state in the east joined the protesters and marched in uniform with a sign that said “We don’t want dictatorship”, according to pictures published in media.
A clinic that had been treating wounded protesters in Naypyitaw on Tuesday was taken over by soldiers, a doctor there said.
Another doctor said a woman protester was expected to die from a gunshot wound to the head sustained during a confrontation with police in Naypyitaw on Tuesday.
