Violent suppression of Myanmar demonstrations killed 15 people Thursday, raising the death toll from five weeks of street protests to 73, as the military junta announced a corruption investigation of leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other top officials from the deposed civilian government.

Accusations by the military regime that Aung San Suu Kyi had accepted U.S. $600,000 and more than 25 pounds of gold, swiftly dismissed as “totally baseless” by an MP from her National League for Democracy (NLD), add to a list of charges imposed on the 75-year-old leader since she was ousted and detained on Feb. 1.

While the military pressed its case against Aung San Suu Kyi and other top NLD figures at a news conference in Naypyidaw, violent crackdowns by police and soldiers killed at least 15 protesters in the cities of Yangon, Myaing, Mandalay, Myingyan, and Bago. The confirmed death toll tis now 73, according to an RFA tally.

Police and soldiers in Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay killed one man and wounded 30 others when they cracked down on protesters near the Koe Lone Dagar Pagoda, witnesses said. At least 20 protesters were arrested in the incident.

In Myingyan, in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, residents said a man shot during a protest Wednesday died of his injuries Thursday.

In Bago region, one man died by police gunfire and another was hit in the leg, though his wound was not life-threatening, a witness said.

Residents in Kalaymyo, Sagaing region, continued protest marches despite a police crackdown on Wednesday. Five people there already have been arrested, including one who was taken from his home during the night, locals said.

The Myanmar junta’s response to peaceful protests likely meets the legal threshold for crimes against humanity, the U.N.’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar told the Human Rights Council on Thursday.

“The people of Myanmar need not only words of support but supportive action,” said Tom Andrews in a statement. “They need the help of the international community, now.”

The appeal came a day after the U.N. Security Council issued its strongest statement since the Feb. 1 coup.

“The Security Council strongly condemns the violence against peaceful protestors, including against women, youth and children,” the statement said.

It also called for the “immediate release of all those detained arbitrarily” in a statement that was agreed after accepting the objections of China, Russia, and Vietnam to language calling the takeover “a coup.”

On Wednesday, U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned the two adult children of coup leader and commander-in-chief of the military forces, Min Aung Hlaing, as well as six companies of his two adult children. Min Aung Hlaing was placed on the U.S. blacklist on Feb. 11.

“The indiscriminate violence by Burma’s security forces against peaceful protesters is unacceptable,” said Andrea Gacki, director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, in a statement.

“The United States will continue to work with our international partners to press the Burmese military and police to cease all violence against peaceful protestors and to restore democracy and the rule of law in Burma,” she added.