Many of the protests on Tuesday were staged in a way that avoided confrontations with authorities, who have not hesitated to use lethal force to break up demonstrations
Anti-coup protesters use an oversized slingshot to launch concrete pellets on Monday in Myanmar. Pic/AP
Myanmar’s military junta on Tuesday took the offensive to justify last month’s coup and subsequent actions against those opposed to it, even as street demonstrations continued against the takeover. At a news conference in the capital Naypyitaw, the military presented a video of a former political colleague of ousted national leader Aung San Suu Kyi claiming he had handed over large amounts of cash and gold to her personally, in what the military has characterised as corruption. Such allegations were previously denied by her lawyer.
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Many of the protests on Tuesday were staged in a way that avoided confrontations with authorities, who have not hesitated to use lethal force to break up demonstrations. Some marches were held before dawn in Yangon, the country’s biggest city, and elsewhere and went unmolested. Other protests adopted the tactic of having signboards or other inanimate objects lined up in the street to serve as proxies for human demonstrators.
The independent Assistance Association for Political Prisoners has verified 261 protesters’ deaths nationwide but says the actual total, including cases where verification has been difficult, is probably much higher. It said 2,682 people have also been arrested or charged since the coup, with 2,302 still detained or sought for arrest.
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