The mother (centre) of teenage protester Aung Kaung Htet reacts by the coffin at his funeral in Yangon on Sunday, a day after he was killed by security forces at a demonstration against the military coup. AFP
Security forces in Myanmar shot dead an anti-coup protester on March 21, as the Australian government confirmed it is assisting two nationals who were detained after trying to leave Yangon.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since soldiers ousted civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi last month, triggering nationwide protests demanding a return to democracy.
Security forces have responded with lethal force, using live rounds along with tear gas and rubber bullets in an effort to bring the demonstrations to heel.
One man was killed on March 21 in the central city of Monywa and at least two people were injured in a clash with security forces at barricades, two witnesses said.
“I saw people carrying a man who was shot and killed,” a local resident said, adding that the body was taken to a local hospital.
“They used stun grenades and tear gas . . . later they started shooting. I don’t know if the man, who died on the spot after he was hit on his head, was killed from rubber bullets or live rounds.”
Australians in custody
Australia’s foreign ministry confirmed on March 21 it was providing consular assistance to two of its nationals in Myanmar.
“Due to our privacy obligations we will not provide further detail,” a spokeswoman said.
It is understood business consultants Matthew O’Kane and Christa Avery, a dual Canadian-Australian citizen, are under house arrest after trying to leave the country on a relief flight on March 19.
The couple run a bespoke consultancy business in Yangon.
Canada’s global affairs department said it was aware of a case involving a Canadian citizen and was “providing consular services”.
A third Australian, economist Sean Turnell, an adviser to Suu Kyi, who was arrested a week after the putsch also remains in custody.
Weekend violence failed to deter hundreds of doctors and nurses donning hard hats and brandishing posters of Suu Kyi as they marched at dawn through Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city and cultural capital.
Later other demonstrators placed protest signs in pot plants along a street.
By afternoon there were barricades set on fire, gunfire in the streets and at least four people injured, a doctor in Mandalay said.
Mandalay has been the scene of some of the worst violence from police and soldiers since the coup.
The protests came a day after a local monitoring group confirmed the killing of four protesters at the hands of security forces around the country.
Two of the deaths were in Yangon, the country’s commercial hub, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.
