Uwazi

Myanmar security forces killed 14 people Monday during demonstrations in towns across the country following the deadliest weekend since the February military coup, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

The group, which has been monitoring the violence, said Monday’s toll brings the total number of deaths since the February 1 coup to at least 510.

Eight of the deaths that took place Monday occurred in Myanmar's main city, Yangon, according to AAPP.

Protests took place Monday throughout the country, including in Sagaing Region, where hundreds of mourners lined the street to pay tribute to a 20-year-old nursing student who was shot and killed Sunday while helping provide aid to injured protesters.

SANTA ROSA, Laguna – Exactly three weeks after the Bloody Sunday killings, another labor leader was shot dead, March 28.

Dandy Miguel was the vice president of Pagkakaisa ng Manggagawa sa Timog Katagalugan (PAMANTIK-KMU) and the president of the Lakas ng Nagkakaisang Manggagawa sa Fuji Electric union (LNMF-OLALIA-KMU). According to PAMANTIK-KMU, he was on his way home from work when he was shot at least eight times near Asia 1, Brgy. Canlubang, Calamba.

“While Duterte was having his birthday party, his minions were busy following his order to kill Leftists,” KMU said in a statement in Filipino.

On March 5, Duterte ordered the police and military to kill all communists.

Miguel was among those who filed a complaint on March 15 before the Commission on Human Rights, a week after the so-called Bloody Sunday. On March 7, nine activists were killed in simultaneous police operations conducted with the support of the military and six were arrested on charges of illegal possession of firearms and/or explosives.

Miguel is the tenth activist killed in the Southern Tagalog region in one month.

Among those killed were Emmanuel Asuncion of Solidarity of Cavite Workers. Two of those arrested were Mags Camoral, former president of Nagkakaisang Lakas ng Manggagawa sa F. Tech (NLMF-OLALIA-KMU), and Steve Mendoza, executive vice Ppresident of OLALIA-KMU.

Two more labor leaders were also arrested this month; on March 4, Arnedo Lagunias of Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Engklabo (AMEN) and Ramir Corcolon of Water System Employees Response (WATER) were both arrested on illegal possession of firearms and explosives.

PAMANTIK-KMU has stated before that the Duterte administration is specifically targeting labor activists and unionists. These attacks, the group claims, intensified since the start of lockdown due to COVID-19 on March 17, 2020.

Several labor leaders have also received threats and harassment from unknown perpetrators. These include Hermenegildo Marasigan, president of OLALIA-KMU, and Efren Arante, an organizer for the same labor federation. Both of them. Arante, in particular, received threats through text messages sent to his son.

Red-tagging against workers and union-busting also intensified under the lockdown. In Coca-Cola Santa Rosa, batches of workers were repeatedly forced to “surrender” as members of the New People’s Army. In Fuji Electric, where Miguel worked, barangay Canlubang officials once tried to summon workers to “have a talk,” roughly a week following Bloody Sunday.

Miguel is the latest victim of these attacks against workers in the Southern Tagalog region. He is the second in Laguna under the Duterte administration, following the murder of Reynaldo Malaborbor in Cabuyao under similar circumstances.

As of press time the assailants are still unknown. PAMANTIK-KMU is currently investigating the situation.

Canlubang, Calamba.

On Sunday afternoon, a 38-year-old ethnic Chin woman, Ah Khu a leader of civil society group Women for Justice based in Sagaing Region’s Kale township, was slain by security forces during a crackdown against an anti-regime protest in the town. Another three men were also killed by the junta’s forces.

A resident told The Irrawaddy on Sunday that Ah Khu was deliberately shot by two security forces dressed in civilian clothes.

The Women's League of Burma described her as "a woman with a dedicated spirit and hopeful mind".

"We salute her courage, her commitment and her cause," it said.

On March 28, longtime activist Ah Khu was shot dead at a protest in Sagaing Division. While security forces started out by policing protests with non-lethal weapons, by mid-March they were armed with assault rifles, sniper rifles and submachine guns, according to Amnesty International, which said troops had adopted “shoot to kill tactics to suppress the protests”. Of those who were shot, about a quarter were shot in the head, according to the AAPP data. A military spokesman had no comment on Amnesty’s report. The women’s rights leader and activist

In Kale, a small town perched on the mountainous India-Myanmar border, many knew Ah Khu, an activist who promoted the rights of women.

For over a decade the 37-year-old had been a director of Women for Justice, a nonprofit that campaigned to stop violence against women and help victims, especially from the ethnic Chin, mostly Christian, minority group she belonged to. She led workshops on gender equality and traveled across the country to collaborate with other organizations and raise funds, sometimes going to India to help refugee Chin women.

“So many people knew her name as women’s rights activist Ah Khu,” said her colleague Ju Jue.

After the coup, Women for Justice – like many civil society groups across the country – turned to organizing protests. Ah Khu was a regular at demonstrations in Kale, often alongside her husband, Lahphai Laseng. Naturally shy, he said he had gained confidence by marrying her.

“I have lost everything,” he said.

On March 28, Ah Khu was at a protest with her friend and colleague Ju Jue when at around 3 pm, soldiers began opening fire. Explosions resounded around them; they thought the security forces were throwing grenades.

As the two women were urging others to flee – small children were among the crowds – Ah Khu fell to the ground. “At first I thought she fell accidentally, so I tried to pick her up, but she said she had been shot in the chest,” Ju Jue said. “She couldn’t believe it. How was it possible? We were too far from the place they were shooting. She could only say, ‘I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.’”

They took her to hospital on a motorbike, but doctors were unable to resuscitate her. Fearful of retribution for treating a protester, the doctors urged her family to take her body away quickly. Her husband and friends drove 15 hours to her birthplace deep in the Chin hills. On the way, questioned by security forces three times at check points, they gave an alternative name for Ah Khu and said she had died of high blood pressure.

Kale police did not answer phone calls from Reuters seeking comment.

On arrival, villagers greeted them with revolutionary songs and the anti-coup movement’s signature three-finger salute, Ah Khu’s husband said. But the family was not allowed to put her name on her grave because locals were afraid the soldiers would cause trouble over it. On a cold morning, a small crowd gathered in a clearing in the forest as her coffin was lowered, video of the funeral showed. A priest read from the Bible, and a colleague at Women for Justice read out a declaration releasing her from her work on earth.

Myanmar’s military regime marked its Armed Forces Day on Saturday by slaughtering more than 100 people across the country, making it the bloodiest single day since the generals seized power on Feb. 1.

As of evening, The Irrawaddy has recorded at least 102 people, including at least four children ranging in age from 5 to 15, killed on Saturday in 41 locations in 10 out of Myanmar’s 14 states and regions.

Most of the victims were shot dead by trigger-happy soldiers and police during crackdowns on anti-protesters. One child was hit with a randomly sprayed bullet while playing.

Since early February, the junta has staged fatal assaults on protesters across the country who are opposed to military rule. A total of 429 have been slain so far.

While Saturday marked the seventh week of protest against the regime, it was also the 76th anniversary of Armed Forces Day, an annual celebration for the military to mark Myanmar’s resistance against the Japanese fascists in 1945.

However, protesters across the country viewed Saturday as “Revolutionary Day” against the regime and poured into streets. True to form, the regime’s soldiers and police responded with a burst of bloodshed, as if the heightened violence was a way of commemorating their special occasion.

The bloodshed came to Dala Township, a small town across the Yangon River, just after midnight. Eight people were shot dead about 12:30 a.m. Saturday as a crowd besieged a police station demanding that security forces release two women detained after a protest on Friday morning.

“They [security forces] kept shooting until 3 a.m. Several people were injured. Some of them are still critical condition,” a witness said.

A woman mourns for her family member killed by the regime’s troops on Saturday. In northern Yangon’s Insein Township, residents took to the streets at 2:30 a.m. to set up roadblocks, taking advantage of the absence of security forces in the small hours. Deadly crackdowns came about 6 a.m. and continued on into the day, resulting in four deaths.

A nurse from a local professional medic team that provided medical assistance in the area throughout the day said that not only protesters were slain. People like a drinking water deliveryman and other bystanders were either shot dead in the head and abdomen or wounded as attacks continued in neighboring areas and townships.

“They are devils. How can a human being behave like this? I can’t even find any proper words to describe their brutality,” said the nurse who gave her name as “Soe” for security reasons.

While Insein residents ran for their lives and fought back with whatever they could find—from broken bricks to slingshots to Molotov cocktails to burning piles of tires—coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing celebrated Armed Forces Day on a grand scale in the capital 200 miles away.

In his lengthy and cliché-ridden speech to a gathering of troops, he said the military has historically prioritized the safeguarding of the nation and its people and repeated his worn out excuse on staging the takeover by saying, “There was massive electoral fraud.”

A few hours after of his boast about how the military safeguards the nation and its people, his troops killed four civilians, including a 13-year-old girl, in Meiktila in Mandalay Region. The deaths occurred when security forces fired shots into a housing estate in an effort to disperse protesters.

It’s worth asking why the people of Myanmar are still taking to the streets, risking their lives to the violence of the regime’s troops.

A 26-year-old protester in Yangon’s Thaketa Township said he keeps protesting because he’s afraid of losing his future in the regime’s hands.

“We are not lambs to the slaughter. But if we stayed quiet, it would be the same as dying. So we fight for our hope and our future,” he said.

In northern Shan State’s Lashio, three more protesters including a lawyer were killed. They were shot in the head and chest when police and soldiers opened fire on anti-coup demonstrators, according to a local charity group. It also reported that several people were wounded during the crackdown.

“We could not retrieve the dead bodies. They dragged the bodies and the injured people onto a military truck,” a volunteer from the charity group told The Irrawaddy.

Coup leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing inspects troops during the Armed Forces Day parade in Naypyitaw on Saturday. ( Commander-in-Chief Office) Not surprisingly, the record-breaking killings by soldiers and police on Armed Forces Day have shocked diplomatic missions in the country.

The European Union in Myanmar said, “This 76th Myanmar Armed Forces Day will forever stay engraved as a day of terror and dishonor.”

“The killing of unarmed civilians, including children, is indefensible,” the EU statement said.

US Ambassador Thomas Vajda condemned the security forces for “murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect” while calling for an immediate end to the violence and the restoration of the democratically elected government.

“This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force,” he said in a statement released on Saturday.

For the nurse Soe in Yangon, the regime’s brutality prompted her to question one of her professional ethics: neutrality.

“As professional health workers, we are supposed to help anyone whoever they are. But they even killed kids! They shot people living in their homes,” she said.

So, would she save a dying soldier or wounded policeman now?

“I would surely do it in the past. But, not now!” she vowed.

Almost two months after the military seized power, people across Myanmar doggedly continued the fight to topple the regime on Thursday with protests in towns and cities across the country.

Once again, the military responded with murderous attacks, killing at least six. Fatalities were confirmed in Shan State’s Taunggyi, Kachin state’s Mohnyin and Sagaing region’s Khin-U.

The regime has now killed 320 people, including 20 children, in its bid to crush the democratic uprising, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners.

Thursday’s renewed protests came a day after the country observed a “Silent Strike”. Businesses closed and people stayed in their homes as streets remained empty of pedestrians and cars.

The action was a show of strength and unity in response to the military’s hamfisted efforts to resume business as usual and force the economy to reopen after weeks of devastating strikes. It was also aimed at allowing people a chance to rest.

Here is a roundup of Thursday’s violence by region, as well as some additional details from Wednesday night that have now been confirmed:

Taunggyi, Shan state

Four people were killed and several, including a pregnant woman, were injured when soldiers opened fire on protesters in Taunggyi, locals said. The troops also used tear gas and rubber bullets during the attack.

Photos taken by locals and circulated on social media showed the regime’s forces beating residents and destroying their properties.

Residents said the army used drone cameras to watch over residential areas but Myanmar Now was unable to verify this.

Sources from the town said nearly 60 people were arrested during Thursday’s attacks and several people had their mobile phones seized.

Mohnyin, Kachin state

Forty-year-old Win Swe was shot in the abdomen and killed in Mohnyin when the junta’s forces opened fire on a crowd that had gathered in front of the police station to demand the release of nine protesters who were arrested on Thursday morning.

“At first, the police just said to disperse. Later a truck full of soldiers arrived and opened fire,” said a member of an aid group that is helping the injured.

Win Swe was a gasoline seller and a resident of the Aung Thabyay ward in Mohnyin.

Two other people in their 30s were severely injured during the attack, Mohnyin locals said.

hin-U, Sagaing region

In Khin-U, Sagaing region, troops from a battalion in nearby Shwebo attacked a pro-democracy demonstration and killed a 19-year-old demonstrator named Zaw Win Maung.

Two others were injured, according to a Khin-U resident.

“We had blocked main roads in town and troops from Shwebo came on foot to where we were at around midday. They started shooting as soon as they arrived,” the resident said.

Zaw Min Maung passed away at around 6pm while being treated at a local monastery. Soldiers then came and took his body as well as an injured teenager, whose whereabouts and condition is unknown.

On Wednesday night police arrested a group of 14 volunteer night guards in Aung Chan Thar ward. Residents then surrounded the police station to demand their release.

Police shot at the crowd outside the station but later released the night guards, a local said. Mandalay

A junta crackdown on a nighttime protest in Mandalay’s Kyaukpadaung township on Wednesday night left one person dead and three severely injured, a local rescue worker said. The protest was held to mark the end of the day’s Silent Strike.

Soldiers attacked the protest at around 8pm. Kyi Sett Hlaing, 23, was shot in the thigh and bled to death at around 11pm after he was unable to access medical treatment.

The rescue worker said his charity was delayed trying to reach injured protesters because there were soldiers patrolling the main road in the town in search of people who had left broken glass out to slow the advance of military vehicles.

“They were looking for those who shattered glass on the road, so we couldn’t go freely,” he said.

Also on Wednesday night, in Mandalay’s Chanmyathazi township, a 16-year-old boy was killed during an attack on residents who were banging pots at Sein Pan street near the intersection of 66th and 67th streets, a doctor who helped treat the injured told Myanmar Now.

The victim was identified as Phoe Hti. He was shot in the back by the junta’s troops, according to his relatives.The shootings started at 8:30pm and at least five other residents were injured, a rescue team said.

Before the shooting, soldiers shouted: “If you have courage, come out now!” a resident said.

“After we banged pots, they came in shouting ‘Who has the courage? Who was banging pots? Come out now!’ They then went around shooting. I’ve heard that some night watchmen were shot,” the resident added.

One person was shot in the abdomen and the other in the leg, she added.

“No rescue team has arrived, they have been left just like that,” she added, speaking at around 9pm on Wednesday. “We don’t dare to go out to look either.”

Ambulances were able to enter the area around 9:30pm that night and took the injured people to a clinic, a doctor said.

The junta’s armed forces shot and killed a protester in Monywa, Sagaing Region, on Sunday morning as a crowd of people set up preparations for an anti-coup demonstration.

Twenty-three-year-old Min Min Zaw was shot in the head while setting up street barricades on the frontline, a local doctor on strike told Myanmar Now.

Nine people were injured when police and soldiers shot live ammunition into the crowd, with four in critical condition at the time of reporting, according to the doctor.

As the regime’s forces took over the main roads in Monywa to deter civilians from protesting, locals instead used side streets to hold their rallies against the February 1 military coup, building makeshift barricades in the roads for protection.

Min Min Zaw was shot dead at the Bo Tayza Street in Monywa when the armed forces came to destroy these barricades.

Despite the killing of Min Min Zaw, Monywa residents continued to hold their rally against the regime for the 43rd day since February 7.

Twelve people have been killed in total in Monywa by police and soldiers.

Nationwide, the regime has killed at least 247 people since the military coup, according to advocacy group the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

However, medics and rescue workers believe that the actual number of protest-related deaths may be much higher than the AAPP’s estimates, as there are multiple reports of missing persons, and family members who say they have been unable to claim the bodies of their loved ones from the regime.

Despite the ongoing deadly crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations by the armed forces, defiant protesters in Myanmar continued to take to the streets on Sunday in towns and cities across the country.

The 31-year-old journalist received bullet injuries to the stomach, arm and knee as he waited in line for a barber shop on March 17 in Saleh Putt Sakhar, a town in interior Sindh province. According to the PFUJ, the assailants came by motorcycle and car and fled from the scene after the attack. The seriously injured journalist was rushed to Civil Hospital Sakhar for the treatment but died the next day on March 18.

According to police, an investigation team under the Deputy Superintendent of Police / Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) of Rohri, Hazoor Bux Solangi, was formed to investigate the case. Police also informed they were collecting evidence from the scene and recording statements from witnesses as part of the investigation.

Following the brutal murder of Lalwani, the journalist community in Pakistan held protests demanding the Pakistan government launch a probe on the case.

Lalwani was a vocal journalist and frequently raise issues of the Hindu minority in Pakistan. He also wrote critically that Pakistani Government policies were biased against minorities.

PFUJ Secretary General, Rana M Azeem, said: “Sindh government has failed to protect the journalists while the local police are not paying attention despite repeated requests. We demand the government to take action and arrest the killers otherwise a country wide protest will be launched.”

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger, said: “The IFJ urges the Pakistan government to carry out the impartial investigation into the murder of Ajay Lalwani.”

Chaunggyi, a village in Mandalay region’s Thabeikkyin township, was in a state of fear on Tuesday as regime forces continued to pressure residents a day after inflicting a deadly crackdown.

At least five people were reported dead in the village, located about 100km north of Myanmar’s second-largest city Mandalay, following Monday’s brutal assault.

The attack began in the afternoon, when soldiers in five army trucks heading south from the town of Thabeikkyin opened fire in Chaunggyi and other villages in the area.

“They mainly hit Chaunggyi and two nearby villages as they were passing through,” a member of a local aid group told Myanmar Now.

One of the five who died instantly was a 15-year-old girl.

“The girl was shot in the chest. She was killed in her own home,” said the aid worker, adding that around 25 others suffered injuries, some of them life-threatening.

Reinforcements sent

The soldiers who carried out the initial attack were soon joined by reinforcements sent north from Singu, according to local sources.

Residents of Nweyon, a village in Singu township, attempted to block the military vehicles as they headed towards Chaunggyi, but soon came under fire themselves, the sources said.

Those who had been shot in Chaunggyi remained in the village overnight without medical care amid fears of facing further violence.

“We were afraid to send the injured to the hospital last night. We were also afraid to go to Mandalay. We didn’t send them to a hospital in the city until this morning,” a resident of Nweyon told Myanmar Now on Tuesday.

“One person who was shot in the groin was in terrible condition,” she said, adding that the victim’s family had no money to pay for hospitalization.

There were also around 14 arrests in Chaunggyi and an unknown number in neighbouring villages, local sources said.

Threats and intimidation

A day after their unprovoked attack, the soldiers returned to Chaunggyi on Tuesday to recover some lost property.

“They said they came back to search for a gun and some bullets they left behind yesterday,” said a Chaunggyi villager.

“They found the gun, but not the bullets. They told us we had five hours. If we didn’t find the bullets in that time, they said they would shoot the entire village,” he added.

They found the bullets at around 5pm on Tuesday and returned them to the soldiers, who were stationed just outside the village.

Meanwhile, the villagers said that a monk who negotiated with the soldiers for the release of those who had been detained has not returned since he was sent to collect them.

“Our monk spoke with them and they promised to release those they had arrested from the village. But the car that went to fetch them hasn't come back,” said Chaunggyi resident Cho Tuu.

Although Singu and Thabeikkyin both have military bases, voters in the two townships overwhelmingly supported the National League for Democracy in last year’s election.

At least 25 people were shot dead Monday as anti-coup protesters in multiple cities braved increasing violence by security forces following a bloody weekend that killed scores of protesters in Myanmar’s largest city, witnesses said.

The junta that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s elected government on Feb. 1 also imposed a 24-hours shutdown of mobile internet service in an attempt to cut off lines of communication among protesters and other members of a nationwide civil disobedience movement (CDM) that has opposed military rule for six weeks.

The suspension of internet service forced court officials in the capital Naypyidaw to postpone the videoconference trial hearing of the 75-year-old deposed leader, who has been under house arrest since the coup and is facing a handful of what supporters say are spurious charges.

Aung San Suu Kyi faces charges of alleged incitement, violation of telecommunication laws, possession of “illegally” imported walkie-talkie radios, violation of the Natural Disaster Management Law for breaching COVID-19 pandemic restrictions during the 2020 election campaign, and corruption.

Eleven of the protesters killed Monday were slain in violent crackdowns in the cities of Mandalay, Yangon, and Magway, and in Shan state, witnesses said.

In Myingyan, a town in central Myanmar’s Mandalay region, five protesters died and 13 were seriously injured when police and soldiers sprayed tear gas and shot live rounds at crowds.

RFA has recorded at least 170 deaths as of Monday, including 60 deaths across the country on Sunday, the bloodiest day since the coup.

U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is "appalled by the escalating violence in Myanmar at the hands of the country’s military," his spokesman said in a statement.

"The killing of demonstrators, arbitrary arrests and the reported torture of prisoners violate fundamental human rights and stand in clear defiance of calls by the Security Council for restraint, dialogue and a return to Myanmar’s democratic path," said spokesman Stéphane Dujarric.

The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP), a watchdog group, said that as of Monday, 2,175 people had been arrested, charged, or sentenced in relation to the military coup, with 1,856 still being held or with outstanding warrants. More than 70 people are in hiding, it said.

In Myanmar’s second-largest city, Mandalay, two men died when police and soldiers fired at anti-junta protest column, witnesses said. Rallies were held in other parts of the city, with schoolteachers staging a sit-in protest and attorneys riding motorbikes on town streets in defiance of the military.

One column of about 3,000 protesters set out around 9 a.m. Monday from Thonzu Pagoda, but were confronted and shot at by 50 police officers and soldiers an hour later near the Electric Power Corporation office, said a protester in Mandalay’s Myingyan township.

“Three people died at the private clinics we sent them to,” he said. “An elderly Muslim woman from a nearby house who opened her doors to protesters to hide them also was killed by gunfire. The other two were middle-aged men.”

At least five people in all died amid the violence, including two from a university student union, and four of the many wounded protesters are in critical condition, he said.

Violence in Yangon townships

In Hlaingthaya township, a factory zone west of Yangon, a bystander died at a road intersection when police and soldiers fired indiscriminately, witnesses said. At least 50 people died near the same site on Sunday when police and soldiers positioned on a flyover fired at civilians on the streets below with live rounds.

In Yangon’s Tamwe township, groups of young people held an anti-junta rally on Kyaikkasan Road, where one man died by police gunfire Sunday afternoon. Similar protests were reported in three other townships in Yangon, the country’s former capital and commercial center.

In one a video that went viral on social media, policemen on Sunday were recorded dragging away Khant Nyar Hein, an 18-year-olf first-year medical student who was shot in the street during a protest in Tamwe. Authorities asked his family to retrieve his body Monday morning, said his father.

The military regime has declared martial law in six Yangon satellite townships — North Okkalapa, North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan, Hlaingthaya, and Shwepyitha — areas overseen by the Yangon region military commander.

The Chinese Embassy in Yangon said in a statement Monday calling for legal action after Chinese workers were wounded and trapped a day earlier when Chinese-funded garment factories were set ablaze in an industrial zone.

In Shwepyitha township, local residents tried to extinguish a fire at the Solamoda Garments Co. Ltd. factory and spread to a nearby backpack factory. But the buildings were still burning at the time of publication Monday.

RFA was unable to obtain first-hand details about the fires because of the growing number of arrests of or threats against journalists by local authorities.

Sunday’s factory zone protest deaths prompted an appeal for pressure on apparel manufacturers to support workers from Simon Billenness, executive director of the International Campaign for the Rohingya.

“The young, mostly female, garment workers are the forefront of the civil disobedience movement” and had launched a general strike on March 8 to support restoring democracy, he wrote.

“But the apparel factory owners are intimidating and even firing workers for going on strike and taking part in pro-democracy protests,” added Billenness.

He said major textile buyers sportswear maker Adidas, Zara clothing brand owned by Indetex Group, and Lidl supermarket chain are among the global brands that have “significant market power” to “support the garment workers by demanding that the factory owners stop intimidating workers who join CDM protests.”

Germany-based Adidas, the only one of the three firms to respond to an RFA request for comment, said on March 12 that six of its 525 suppliers are located in Myanmar.

“We are in close exchange with other brands, industry associations and civil society organizations about the current situation,” said Stefan Pursche, senior manager for media relations at Adidas.

Rubber bullets, live rounds

Also on Monday, two men were killed and four others were injured when security forces opened fired on a group in Aunglan township, Magwe region, a resident said.

“When people fled the scene, police took away five motorcycles left on the roads,” the local said. “A huge crowd later surrounded the police station and that was when they started shooting. They used both rubber bullets as well as live rounds, and six people got hit.”

In Pathein, the capital of Ayeyarwady region, police and military attacked residents as they prepared for nighttime protests, killing three people and critically injuring another five, a witness told RFA.

In Aungban, a major trading town in the southern Shan state, one protester died and two others were injured during a crackdown by police and soldiers, witnesses said.

The Naypyidaw hearings for detained State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi and President Win Myint, who faces similar charges, were rescheduled for March 24 because of the internet service shutdown.

The police notified Yuyu Chit and Min Min Soe, two junior attorneys from Aung San Suu Kyi’s defense team, that they would receive a signed transfer of power of attorney to represent the state counselor at the hearing, said defense attorney Khin Maung Zaw.

Aung San Suu Kyi’s legal team submitted applications for seven attorneys to represent her at court, but only two were approved, he added.

Now that military authorities have extended the internet service shutdown from nighttime to around-the-clock, companies and ordinary residents say they are having problems conducting business.

Phone lines and internet service were first shut down on Feb. 1, but available the next day. The services were suspended gain on Feb. 6-7, but resumed the following day. As of Feb 15, internet service has been cut off daily between 1 a.m. and 9 a.m.

Monthly internet service subscribers with fiber optic lines said they were able to go online Monday morning, but that Wi-Fi services provided by the companies Ooredoo and Telenor were not available.

An Ooredoo spokesperson said she did not know when the company would be able to make the service available. A computer-generated reply to phone queries said that internet service had been suspended temporarily in accordance with instructions from the Ministry of Transport and Communications.

“The military authorities want to control the communications between protesters of the Spring Revolution,” said a man from Yangon’s Insein township who declined to give his name. “Wi-Fi is not available everywhere, but with the mobile data, they can communicate very easily.”

Rural residents, women stuck

Others said they believed it was an attempt by the junta to stop people live-streaming violent acts committed by soldiers and police during protests.

Rural residents who depend on mobile internet service to transfer money and conduct business online said they were stuck, especially since nearly all banks have remained closed for weeks. Women whose husbands are migrant workers and routinely transfer remittances online also are in a bind.

“There are many women here who need to go to hospital for various reasons, and some of their husbands who are in Thailand, China or Malaysia now find it impossible to send money home,” said a man who works at a money transfer services in Yinmabin, Sagaing region.

RFA could not reach military regime spokesman Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun for comment on the shootings or internet shutdown.

The number of civilians killed by regime forces on Monday has now reached at least 20, according to the latest information received by Myanmar Now.

The week started with a fresh outbreak of deadly violence that came after the worst weekend so far in the junta’s efforts to crush opposition to its February 1 coup.

Killings were reported around the country, with the highest concentration occurring in Yangon, where at least 63 people died on Sunday after soldiers opened fire in several townships.

In Hlaing Tharyar, the scene of some of the deadliest violence over the weekend, six people were murdered, including a man in his 50s who was collecting trash near the Aung Zeya bridge when a soldier approached him and shot him in the head.

Two women in their 60s were also killed when they were hit by bullets fired into their homes on Da Bin Shwe Htee road.

A night of terror

Indiscriminate shooting continued well into the night, resulting in at least two more deaths in the township, according to local residents.

The night of terror began at around 4:30pm, when the military sealed off main roads between the Aung Zeya bridge and the fire station about 2km away and started shooting.

“They were on trucks and shot at anything that moved. They shot anyone they saw,” said one resident, describing the scene on Monday night.

“There were two crab sellers in the area that night. When the trucks came by, they poked their heads out for a look and got shot. Both of them died,” the resident said.

On the other side of Yangon, a crackdown on a peaceful vigil for fallen protesters in Dawbon township left two men dead and four others seriously injured on Monday, a member of a township-based aid group told Myanmar Now.

There was also another death on Monday in South Dagon, one of six townships in Yangon placed under martial law since the weekend as the regime moves to clamp down on protests.

The killing continued in South Dagon on Tuesday, with reports that a man in his 40s had been shot in the head by junta forces. No further details were available.

Shooting at ambulances

Monday’s death toll also rose outside of Yangon, as more of the injured died and earlier figures were revised to reflect the latest available information.

In Myingyan, a town in Mandalay region, six people, including three boys in their teens and a 20-year-old woman, were confirmed dead, doubling the previously reported death count.

At least 17 others were injured during the crackdown, including five who are in critical condition, according to a member of a team that is caring for the wounded protesters.

“We’ve had to hide the dead bodies because we’re worried [the military] might take them away,” the medical support worker said late Monday evening.

He added that soldiers shot into the houses of local people who hid the injured protesters and also at ambulances that transported the dead and wounded to a makeshift clinic.

There were also two confirmed deaths in Chanmya Tharzi, a township in downtown Mandalay, as well as at least five others in smaller centres to the north of the city.

A total of four deaths were also reported in Aunglan in Magway region, Gyobingauk in Bago region, and Monywa in Sagaing region, according to local aid groups.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, Myanmar’s military has killed at least 183 people in the six weeks since it seized power.

At least 59 people were killed and 129 injured in Sunday’s crackdown by security forces in Yangon’s suburban and industrial townships, according to sources at three area hospitals.

The junta’s armed personnel used live ammunition against civilians at demonstrations in what is being described as an effort to terrorise the population to submit to and accept military rule.

An official at a public hospital in Hlaing Tharyar Township told Myanmar Now on Monday morning that 34 people who had been brought to the hospital were pronounced dead, and 40 others had been admitted with gunshot wounds during a brutal weekend assault on unarmed protesters.

According to a senior official at the Yangon General Hospital, seven of the 56 people brought to the hospital were pronounced dead.

The casualties were from Hlaing Tharyar, Kyimyindaing and South Dagon townships, he added.

“Three people among the injured are in critical condition. There will be more casualties arriving from Shwepyitha and Hlaing Tharyar,” the official told Myanmar Now.

Meanwhile, Thingangyun Sanpya Hospital had received around 70 injured people. Medical staff declared 18 dead, according to a doctor who had been participating in the general strike, but stepped in to provide treatment to injured protesters.

She added that more doctors were needed on different rescue teams to attend to people injured by security forces during crackdowns.

Doctors and rescue workers said the actual death toll may grow as more injured people were sent to other hospitals throughout the city. Some others who were killed at the scene of protests have been immediately returned to their families instead of being brought to local morgues.

“We brought in four dead bodies of people who lived in South Dagon Township from Thingangyun Sanpya hospital this morning,” a labour rights activist in South Dagon told Myanmar Now on Monday.

“There were some people who were killed last night, but we can’t retrieve their bodies from the crackdown site. I saw two people had been shot and fell down, one male and one female. We can’t retrieve their bodies. It was already dark, too,” he added.

He said that he witnessed around 24 people getting injured during the security forces’ crackdown in South Dagon and believed the actual number of those wounded was much higher than what could be confirmed at the time of reporting.

A striking doctor treating injured civilians with an emergency team at Hlaing Tharyar’s hospital told Myanmar Now that four men he attempted to help had later died from their injuries. Three were shot in the head with live ammunition, and another in the chest.

The doctor said that he had transferred three bodies to the morgue at the North Okkalapa General Hospital and sent the fourth body to the respective family’s home.

Myanmar Now was still awaiting further information from North Okkalapa and Insein hospitals at the time of reporting.

Three protesters were also killed on Sunday night in Shwepyitha Township, north of Insein.

At least three factories in Hlaing Tharyar’s industrial zone were set on fire during the confrontation, but further details, including who started the fires, were unavailable.

According to a report published by China's state-run CGTN on Sunday evening, two of the factories in question were owned by Chinese nationals.

The weekend’s assault on protesters marks the deadliest crackdown by the junta’s armed forces on public resistance since the military seized power in Myanmar on February 1.

The regime also imposed martial law in Hlaing Tharyar and Shwepyitha townships on Sunday night, and in South Dagon, North Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa on Monday morning.

Tom Andrews, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar appealed to the UN member states to cut off supplies of cash and weapons to the Myanmar military.

“Heartbroken/outraged at news of the largest number of protesters murdered by Myanmar security forces in a single day. Junta leaders don’t belong in power, they belong behind bars,” he said on Twitter on Monday morning.

British Ambassador to Myanmar Dan Chugg also called for “an immediate cessation” of violence and for the military regime to hand back power to democratically elected civilian leaders.

“We have seen the violence today in Hlaing Thar Yar Township and in other places across Yangon and Myanmar. The British Government is appalled by the security forces’ use of deadly force against innocent people,” the ambassador said in a statement.

Six people were shot dead by security forces during a brutal crackdown on protests against the military coup in the town of Myaing in upper Myanmar’s Magwe Region at around 11:00 a.m. on Thursday.

While the regime’s armed personnel attempted to detain a group of demonstrators, a struggle broke out between them and the protesters. The scuffle was followed by live gunfire, killing six of those present.

“One of the protesters was shot near the groin. Another was shot in the head. The right side of his head was blown apart due to the impact of the bullet,” a protester who witnessed the shootings told Myanmar Now.

All six people killed were men, the oldest of whom was 36 and three of whom were under 30, according to residents who viewed their bodies at a local public hospital’s morgue. Two were from the town of Myaing, and four were from nearby villages.

Protests against the military dictatorship started in Myaing Township in early February, as they did throughout Myanmar. Locals noted that Thursday’s crackdown marked an escalation in security forces’ response tactics, and the first time since the resistance began that they had opened fire on the public.

“In previous days, the police negotiated with the protesters, [asking them] to not go out and protest today,” a Myaing resident told Myanmar Now. “They warned them that they were given the order to shoot. This is the first time there has been a crackdown with shooting in Myaing. They didn’t shoot or arrest anyone in the days prior,” the resident added.

He also said that immediately following Thursday’s fatal shootings, locals had been informed that military trucks were arriving in Myaing from Pakkoku, where Light Infantry Division (LID) 101 is based, along with Light Infantry Battalions (LIBs) 235 and 251.

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.

In Yangon’s North Dagon township, 25-year-old Chit Min Thu died instantly when police shot him in the head while defending fellow protesters with a homemade shield witnesses said. Two others were hit by gunfire, one of whom is in critical condition.

“We had to run because they were using live rounds, and he was shielding us from the front to protect other protesters behind,” said a demonstrator at the scene.

Supporters held an impromptu vigil for Chit Min Thu, who left behind a wife who is two months pregnant.

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.

The Myanmar military continued to terrorize peaceful anti-coup demonstrators with lethal force across the country on Monday, killing at least three protesters and severely injuring many others.

The attacks came after soldiers and police came out in force in Yangon on Sunday night in anticipation of another day of mass protests.

Security forces stationed themselves inside hospitals, pagoda compounds and universities in Yangon and other major cities.

Gunfire and stun grenade explosions were heard at night in numerous Yangon townships in what appeared to be a bid to terrorize the city’s population.

But anti-military demonstrators still took to the streets on Monday morning, rallying around yet another call for a general strike, this time to coincide with International Women’s Day.

At a women-led anti-coup demonstration in Sanchaung township, protesters used htameins as flags.

Many superstitious soldiers believe that walking beneath the sarong-like garment - or anything else worn by a woman below the waist - diminishes a man’s power.

Protesters have been hanging htameins above roads to delay the advance of security forces, a strategy that uses the military’s own misogyny against them.

At many protest sites in Yangon, security forces broke up demonstrations using teargas and stun grenades.

Protesters once again avoided confrontations with a cat and mouse strategy, retreating when security forces approached but gathering again whenever they had the chance.

Elsewhere in Myanmar, things were more violent.

Myitkyina, Kachin

Two were shot dead by security forces in the Kachin capital of Myitkyina, residents and a protest organizer said.

The two victims have been identified as 63-year-old Ko Ko Lay, also known as Cho Tha, and 23-year-old Zin Min Htet. They were both shot in the head.

Pyapon, Ayeyarwaddy

Thiha Oo, 30, was killed during a crackdown by security forces in Ayeyarwady region’s Pyapon township. Six others were injured, including two severely, during the attack, according to residents.

Thiha Oo was shot in his lower chest. “We don’t know if it was a live bullet or a rubber one,” a resident told Myanmar Now. “He died before arriving at the clinic.”

Aung Myat Lin, 23, was shot dead by security forces on Sunday night in northern Magway region’s Htilin township, according to a resident who witnessed the killing.

A group of Htilin residents, including Aung Myat Lin, gathered in front of the local police station on Sunday night demanding the release of a protest organizer before security forces fired live ammunition into the crowd, the resident told Myanmar Now.

Aung Myat Lin was shot in the chest and killed at the scene.

“They fired two rounds of bullets first and then threw stun grenades. And then they started shooting. The boy was shot. The bullet penetrated through his chest. He died near the police station,” the Htilin resident said.

The Observatory has been informed by Karapatan Alliance Philippines about the extrajudicial killing of nine human rights defenders and the arbitrary detention of four others in four provinces in Calabarzon region.

On March 7, 2021, the Philippines National Police (PNP) and the Philippine Army (PA) carried out raids into the houses and offices of several human rights defenders in Calabarzon region, southern Philippines as part of a joint operation against alleged members of “communist and terrorist groups”.

During the raids, the PNP and the PA killed Emmanuel “Manny” Asuncion, labour leader and Secretary-General of BAYAN-Cavite, in Dasmariñas, Cavite Province; fisherfolk leaders Ana Marie “Chai ”Lemita-Evangelista and Ariel Evangelista, in Nasugbu, Batangas Province; Melvin Dasigao, Mark Lee “Makmak” Coros Bacasno, Abner Esto, and Edward Esto, all members of the urban poor group Sikkad K3 in Montalban, Rizal Province; and indigenous rights defenders Dumagats Puroy and Randy de la Cruz in Tanay, Rizal Province.

Furthermore, the PNP and the PA arbitrarily arrested Esteban “Steve” Mendoza, Vice-President of the trade union Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU - May First Movement)-Olalia and Elizabeth “Mags”Camoral, spokesperson of BAYAN-Laguna, in Cabuyao, Laguna Province. Nimfa Lanzanas, paralegal of Karapatan and member of Kapatid-Families and Friends of Political Prisoners was arbitrarily arrested in Calamba, Laguna Province. Eugene Eugenio, member of the public sector union Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE)-Rizal was arbitrarily arrested in Antipolo City, Rizal Province.

At the time of publication of this urgent appeal, Mr. Mendoza and Ms. Lanzanas remain detained at Camp Vicente Lim in Calamba; Ms. Camoral at Canlubang City Jail, Laguna Province; and Mr. Eugenio at the Antipolo Police Station. All of them are being detained on charges of “illegal possession of firearms and ammunition”.

According to the information received, two other individuals were arrested during the raids. However, at the time of publication of this urgent appeal, their identities had not been disclosed by the PNP. Many more human rights defenders are in fear of being arrested or killed.

Two days before the above-referenced events, on March 5, 2021, President Duterte had ordered the PNP and the PA to “ignore human rights” and “kill” and “finish off” communist rebels in any armed encounter with them.

Aung Myat Lin, 23, was shot dead by security forces on Sunday night in northern Magway region’s Htilin township, according to a resident who witnessed the killing.

A group of Htilin residents, including Aung Myat Lin, gathered in front of the local police station on Sunday night demanding the release of a protest organizer before security forces fired live ammunition into the crowd, the resident told Myanmar Now.

Aung Myat Lin was shot in the chest and killed at the scene.

“They fired two rounds of bullets first and then threw stun grenades. And then they started shooting. The boy was shot. The bullet penetrated through his chest. He died near the police station,” the Htilin resident said.

Six other people were injured in the attack. Three of them were shot with live bullets and three with rubber bullets.

The recent deaths add to more than 50 killed by police and soldiers so far while resisting the military regime. The UN said last week the actual number of deaths is likely to be much higher than the toll it has been able to confirm.

An Assistance Association for Political Prisoners report on Sunday said nearly 1,800 people have been arrested, charged or sentenced following the February 1 coup.

At least 18 people were shot dead and dozens more injured in cities across Myanmar during lethal crackdowns by soldiers and police on anti-coup protesters on Wednesday, making it clear that the military regime is waging an all-out war against its own people in an effort to restore the full-blown Orwellian state it existed as for many decades.

It is tied with Sunday as being the deadliest day of demonstrations since protests began after the February 1 coup.

Myanmar Now spoke to sources in five cities, but there were also reports of shootings and arrests in towns and cities around the country.

Mandalay

In Mandalay, security forces killed a 37-year-old man and 19-year-old woman in a crackdown on demonstrations that used live ammunition and stun grenades.

The victims have been identified as Myo Naing Lin, who suffered a gunshot wound to the chest, and Kyel Sin, who was shot in the side of her head, emergency workers and family members told Myanmar Now.

At least 11 people were also injured in the shootings by security forces, according to medics on the ground. Of those injured, two are in critical condition, having suffered gunshots to the forehead and to the back.

Monywa

In the town of Monywa in Sagaing Region, seven people were killed and an estimated 70 were injured after security forces attacked them with live ammunition, stun grenades and tear gas.

The identities of four of the casualties were known at the time of reporting: 26-year-old Kyawt Nandar Aung, 23-year-old Moe Aung, 37-year-old Myint Myint Sein and 17-year-old Min Khant Kyaw. There was also a 45-year-old man who was shot and killed but whose name had not been released.

Two of the victims were shot in the head: Kyawt Nandar Aung and Moe Aung.

Further details of the victims were unavailable, as well as the identity of the remaining two.

One of the protesters told Myanmar Now in a phone interview that security forces in a police truck took away two bodies of people who had been shot dead in the attack.

“Two other dead bodies soaked in blood were taken away by dogs,” he said, referring to police and soldiers.

Myingyan

In the town of Myingyan in central Myanmar, 22-year-old Zin Ko Ko Thaw died from a gunshot wound to the head and at least 15 other people were injured during the crackdown on a protest of tens of thousands of local residents.

A Myingyan local told Myanmar Now that around 150 soldiers and police had violently broken up the demonstration without any warning.

“It was so sudden, like a military operation. No warnings for the crackdown at all,” he said.

Mawlamyine

The Mawlamyine-based Than Lwin Times reported that 19-year-old bystander Htet Wai Htoo was killed this afternoon after being shot in the head with a live bullet by security forces who entered his neighbourhood.

He was pronounced brain-dead and died of the injury, according to the Than Lwin Times.

Yangon

Meanwhile in Yangon, police and soldiers killed at least seven protesters with live ammunition during a crackdown in North Okkalapa township, some 18 kilometers from downtown Yangon.

Wednesday marked the first deadly crackdown in this area of the city by the security forces after similar attacks were carried out at other major protest sites, including Hledan and Sanchaung.

Two of the victims have been identified as 19-year-old Htet Aung and 20-year-old Min Oo, according to a doctor from a nearby private hospital who helped treat those wounded in the crackdown.

Htet Aung was pronounced dead from a gunshot to the chest upon arrival at the hospital, while Min Oo, who was shot in the lower abdomen, died of his injuries later in the afternoon. Four people were pronounced dead upon arrival at the North Okkalapa public hospital, and another person died after being admitted for treatment, according to an emergency room doctor from the hospital.

The doctor said that there had been a total of 16 people injured and admitted to the public hospital.

No further details were available at the time of reporting.

Even though there are reports of more deaths in Yangon, at the time of reporting, Myanmar Now could independently verify only seven deaths.

A 50-year-old dalit RTI activist, Amrabhai Boricha, was reportedly hacked to death in Sanodar village, Bhavnagar district, Gujarat on March 2. About 50 men belonging to the Darbar (Kshatriya) caste allegedly attacked Boricha with spears, iron pipes and swords after barging inside his house. He succumbed to his injuries en route the hospital in Bhavnagar city.

“Around 50 members of the Darbars from our village passed by our home playing loud music when my father and I were standing outside. A while later, they returned and started throwing stones at us. When my father ran inside (for protection), they barged in and started attacking him with swords, spears and iron pipes, despite us having police protection,” said Boricha’s daughter Nirmala, who got injured in attempts to save her father and was rushed to Sir Takhtasinji General Hospital in Bhavnagar city. Nirmala has broken fingers and injuries on her head.

Notably, Amrabhai Boricha, from the sole dalit family of Sanodar village in Ghogha taluka, Bhavnagar, has been the target of several attacks allegedly by the upper caste men of his village since 2013.

A month ago, Boricha, a farmer by occupation, had approached Ghogha Police Station to file a complaint after an attempt of attack on him by members of the Darbar community of the village. However, sub inspector PR Solanki, a Darbar by caste did not take his complaint, claimed his daughter Nirmala.

In 2013, Boricha was severely injured and broke his leg in another attack. Following which, he had filed a complaint under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989 against the Darbar men of his village. However, the accused got bail and had been harassing and pressuring Boricha to take back the case.

Following the attack on him in 2013, Boricha had also sought the right to keep arms for his protection but was instead granted two home guard personnel, who couldn’t prevent the attack that killed him, his daughter said.

After his daughter’s complaint was registered, 10 accused were booked and the sub-inspector of Ghogha Police Station, PR Solanki, was suspended. Two FIRs have been lodged – one against PR Solanki who has been accused of ignoring the victim’s concern regarding threat to his life and another against Bhailubha Gohil and 9 others.

The 10 accused have been booked under IPC sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 452 (house trespass after preparation for causing hurt, assault or wrongful restraint), 506 (2) (criminal intimidation), 324 (voluntary causing hurt with dangerous weapons or means), 294(b) (recital or singing abusive songs in public place), 120 B (unlawful assembly and rioting) and under SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.

It is to be noted that this is not the first time that a dalit RTI activist has been killed by upper caste men in Gujarat. In 2018, Nanji Sondarva was reportedly killed by men belonging to the Darbar caste in Rajkot. A year later in May 2019, his son, 20-year-old Rajesh Sondarva, a complainant in the murder case of his father, was killed by the family members of the accused.

Sondarvas were provided police protection at their home since the murder of Nanji Sondarva but the accused attacked Rajesh on his way back home from work.

In June 2019, Manji Solanki, a dalit deputy sarpanch, was brutally thrashed by men allegedly belonging to the Darbar caste in Botad district. He died on his way to the hospital in Ahmedabad. Manji, who had earned the ire of the upper caste men of his village for helping dalits file cases under SC/ST (PoA) Act, had been attacked multiple times and sought police protection but denied.

In October 2020, Devji Maheshwari, a dalit activist, lawyer and a member of All India Backward and Minority Communities (BAMCEF) and Indian Legal Professionals Association, was reportedly killed in broad day light in Kutch district.

Local police held that Maheshwari was killed for his social media posts against Brahmins. However, his wife claimed that Maheshwari was attacked because he was involved in fighting for land and property rights of dalits of the area.

In 2019, a response to an RTI filed by a Gujarat-based dalit activist had revealed that 1,545 cases of caste-based atrocities had been filed that year – the highest since the year 2001, and included 22 cases of murder and 104 incidents of rape.

At least 18 were killed and dozens injured and arrested on Sunday as Min Aung Hlaing’s regime intensified a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests across the country, marking the deadliest day since the start of the uprising against the February 1 coup.

Even after days of steadily escalating attacks by police and soldiers, protesters in Yangon, Dawei, Mandalay, Bago and other cities took to the streets in their tens of thousands.

The demonstrators, many of whom were in their 20s and 30s, have braved gunfire, stun grenades, water cannon and vicious beatings in recent weeks.

Myanmar Now has independently confirmed at least 10 of Sunday’s deaths but Ravina Shamdasani, a spokesperson for the UN Human Rights Office, said in a statement that at least 18 had been killed so far.

“Deaths reportedly occurred as a result of live ammunition fired into crowds in Yangon, Dawei, Mandalay, Myeik, Bago and Pokokku,” the statement said. Thousands poured into the streets even as the junta intensified its deadly attacks against protesters. (Myanmar Now)

Thousands rallied at Yangon’s Hledan junction on Sunday morning around 9am, with frontline protesters wearing goggles and gas masks. Within minutes police began attacking the crowd with stun grenades, and then began shooting their guns.

At least two protesters were killed in the morning in the area, which has been a major rallying point during three weeks of daily demonstrations.

Three Myanmar Now reporters witnessed one of the killings while sheltering in a building across the street.

They saw a young man get shot in the chest and fall to the ground, where he lay in a pool of blood until he was carried away by other protesters. He passed away at a nearby hospital.

He has been identified as 23-year-old Nyi Nyi Aung Htet Naing. The man’s blood-stained shirt had the words "Spring Revolution" printed on it, a reference to the Arab Spring and a name that many protesters have given to this month’s uprising.

Protesters in Yangon erect barricades to protect themselves against attacks by police and soldiers (Myanmar Now)

Another young man named Zin Lin Htet died from a gunshot wound during the attack at Hledan.

In Yangon’s Kyimyindaing neighbourhood, security forces broke up a protest led by school teachers and shot a female middle-school teacher dead.

Myo Thu, one of the teachers who joined the protest, told Myanmar Now security forces threw tear gas and shot live ammunition as the teachers were preparing to march.

“We were in front of the education office from 8am and people were still gathering to start marching,” he said. “We hadn’t even done anything yet, but they just came at us and did the crackdown.”

Mya_5856.Jpg

A protester was beaten up and detained by police on Bargayar Road in Sanchaung township in Yangon on February 28. (Myanmar Now)

Defiant

The middle school teacher was shot in her elbow and lost consciousness, her friends said.

“She had heart disease,” Myo Thu said. “She fainted after getting shot. An emergency team in the area helped us bring her to a place where she could receive treatment. But she died on the way.”

Her body was taken to the morgue at the Yangon General Hospital, he added.

Another death and five other injuries were reported in Thingangyun, but Myanmar Now was unable to confirm further details.

Security forces opened fire on the protesters on Bargayar Road in Sanchaung township on February 28.

Even as attacks against protesters intensified, thousands remained in the streets and regrouped wherever they were able to. Some blocked off roads with makeshift barricades.

Footage broadcast by Mizzima TV showed one man who appeared to have been shot in the leg flashing a three-finger salute as he was carried away by medics on a stretcher.

The Yangon General Hospital emergency department, which had been closed for weeks amid a nationwide general strike aimed at crippling the junta, was back in operation “out of necessity” on Sunday, a doctor said.

A man seen at a hospital in Mandalay after being shot in the head. He was pronounced dead shortly afterwards

Medics, who have been at the forefront of mass work stoppages, made a collective decision to reopen the hospital to treat Sunday’s wounded while continuing to disobey any orders from the military regime.

In the southern city of Dawei, three male protesters were killed during numerous attacks by police. One was shot in his lower right ribs, Dawei Watch reported.

Video footage showed security forces repeatedly shooting at protesters who were off screen.

At least 12 were injured by gunfire and admitted to different clinics and hospitals in the city, said Pyae Zaw Hein, an emergency worker there.

“At certain points we were trapped amid the crackdowns,” he told Myanmar Now. “It was terrible.”

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A woman with blood pooling around her head is seen lying dead on a street in Mandalay

Residents detain police

In Mandalay, at least three were killed, including two who were shot in the head. At least 10 others were shot by security forces and injured.

About 1,000 healthcare workers were preparing for a march inside a hospital in the city in the morning when they were trapped inside by security forces.

Residents who came to support the healthcare workers were attacked with tear gas. Doctors managed to escape from the hospital later in the afternoon.

At one point in the afternoon, residents detained five police officers who were riding in an unmarked car that was loaded with ammunition. Soldiers later showed up and took the officers away.

A man was injured after security forces shot protesters in the town of Dawei in southern Myanmar. (Myanmar Now)

No deaths have been confirmed so far in the capital Naypyitaw despite a heavy presence of police and soldiers and at least four arrests.

Those arrested on Sunday included at least six journalists. Shin Moe Myint, a 23-year-old freelance photojournalist, was beaten by several police officers before being taken away.

A reporter from the Myay Latt Voice news outlet in Pyay was injured by rubber bullets before being arrested.

At least seven journalists, including Myanmar Now’s multimedia reporter Kay Zon Nway, were arrested across the country on Saturday.

Two of them were briefly detained and later released. Another reporter from 7Day went missing on Saturday afternoon and it was later reported they had been arrested.

Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead a village chief of an indigenous people’s community in Tapaz town in Capiz on Sunday, two months after nine tribal leaders were gunned down in a police operation.

Julie Catamin, village chief of Roosevelt, died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Catamin, 49, was driving a motorcycle on his way home around 8:45 a.m. when two assailants wearing helmets on board a black motorcycle repeatedly fired at him at Barangay Malitbog Centro, according to an initial report of the Calinog police station.

The police launched pursuit operations against the gunmen who fled towards the town proper.

Investigators are still determining the identity of the assailants and the motive for the attack. They recovered four .45-caliber empty shells at the crime scene.

Pamanggas, a farmers federation in Panay decried the attack on Catamin accusing state forces of being behind the attack.

“(Catamin’s killing) is meant to silence him and sow fear among residents to stop them from telling the truth on the killing of nine Tumandok (indigenous people’s group) leaders and the arrest of 16 others,” according to a statement in Filipino.

In a post on his Facebook page on Dec. 30, Catamin accused policemen, who arrested four residents of his village, of planting firearms and explosives.

“They were arrested and handcuffed. Bullets and firearms were planted and their houses were destroyed. Where is justice? I am appealing for help from any government agency that can help me,” Catamin said in his post.

The nine tribal leaders, including three village council members, died when operatives from Metro Manila and Calabarzon of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group of the Philippine National Police (PNP) served search warrants for firearms and explosives in two villages in Calinog and six villages in Tapaz.

Police and military officials alleged that the nine died after they fired at the policemen. They also accused those who died and were detained, as leaders or supporters of the Communist Party of the Philippines and New People’s Army.

But relatives of those who died and were arrested and several village officials, including Catamin, have belied the police and military claims. They accused the police operatives of planting firearms and explosives and shooting those who died while they were begging for their lives.

Church leaders, including eight Catholic bishops in Western Visayas and Romblon Island, have called for impartial and transparent investigation.

The Jaro Archdiocese has assisted the families, including providing legal counsel.

Academics, researchers, artists, writers, and other cultural workers have called for an independent investigation and raised concern over the impact on the tribe.

The Regional Internal Service of the PNP and the Commission on Human Rights are conducting separate investigations on the incident.

Members of the tribe, also known as Panay Bukidnon or Sulodnon by scholars, are among those at the forefront in opposing an ongoing P11.2-billion mega-dam project in Calinog, which the tribe said would displace residents in at least 16 out of 17 indigenous communities.

The tribe, the biggest indigenous people’s group in Panay, is known for its rich oral tradition that provides insights into the history, psyche, and culture of the prehispanic Panay Bisayan, according to scholars.

The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) says that a Taliban commander killed three family members of a slain journalist in the central province of Ghor.

Journalist Bismillah Adel Aimaq, the editor-in-chief of a private radio station in Ghor Province, was shot dead by unknown gunmen on January 1.

On February 25, armed men attacked the house of Aimaq's father on the outskirts of the city of Firoz Koh. The motive for the attack was not immediately clear.

Alongside the three deaths, the AIHRC said on February 28 that Taliban gunmen involved in the attack also wounded four people and abducted three other members of the family.

The AIHRC has called on the authorities to investigate the case.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Aimaq's family. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on February 26 denied that the militant group was involved in the assault.

Attacks against journalists have increased in recent months.

According to Media in Afghanistan, a Kabul-based media watchdog and advocacy group, at least 11 media workers were killed in Afghanistan in 2020.

The Afghan government blames the Taliban. But the militant group denies involvement.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says Afghanistan is now one of the world's most dangerous places for journalists.

In a brazen daylight attack, masked terrorists shot dead four women vocational trainers and injured their driver near Mirali in North Waziristan tribal district on Monday.

Police said a vehicle carrying five women was driving through a village near Mirali when the gunmen opened fire on it, killing four of them on the spot.

The slain trainers were identified as Naheed Bibi, Irshad Bibi, Ayesha Bibi and Javeria Bibi. They belonged to the nearby Bannu district. The driver of the vehicle, Abdul Khaliq, suffered bullet injuries in the attack. He is under treatment at a local hospital.

District Police Officer Shafiullah Gandapur issued a press release after the killing of the four women trainers, stating that the four were targeted and killed by terrorists in Eppi village near Mirali.

The police statement said that the driver suffered injuries in the attack while one woman trainer, Mariam Bibi, survived as she took shelter in the village. Bodies of the four women were taken to the tehsil headquarters hospital in Mirali town.

Earlier, police had said that the women were working for an NGO to give vocational training to local women in Eppi village.

Later, the DPO changed his statement and said that the women were working for a technical institute based in Bannu to develop vocational skills of the local women. He said that the NGO had signed a memorandum of understanding with the institute to give vocational training to women of the area.

The NGOs office in Peshawar said that the women killed in the attack were not affiliated with the organisation. An official of the NGO told Dawn that the four women were attached to a technical college in Bannu.

He said that the women trainers had proceeded from Bannu to Eppi village to give vocational training to the local women. He said that his organisation had been working on a project for skill development of the womenfolk of the area.

In September last year, some unidentified gunmen had killed a lady health worker in Khaisur area near Mirali. Mirali was the bastion of local and foreign insurgents before operation Zarb-i-Azb was launched in June 2014.

A police official said that on Sunday night gunmen opened fire on a vehicle in Shewa area near Mirali and killed its driver named Wali Gul. The gunmen also kidnapped 10 people including six non-locals.

Unicef condemns attack

The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund has expressed shock over the killing of the four women.

“UNICEF condemns in the strongest possible terms this senseless attack on women and aid workers and joins the families in mourning this tragic loss of lives. The perpetrators must be brought to justice,” said Unicef Representative in Pakistan, Aida Girma.

“Unicef is saddened and shocked at the reported killing of four women who were reportedly staff members of Bravo College, Bannu, and they were travelling to North Waziristan, one of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s merged districts, earlier on Monday. Their driver was reportedly injured in the attack after unidentified assailants fired on their vehicle,” Unicef said in a statement issued in Islamabad.

At least four people—three anti-coup protesters and a member of a civilian neighborhood protection group—had been killed by security forces as of Saturday night and more than 100 wounded in nearly two dozen crackdowns by Myanmar’s military regime on demonstrations across the country over a two-week period beginning Feb. 7

The nationwide protests gain momentum each day.

During the crackdowns, police and military personnel have used water cannon, tear gas, slingshots, rubber bullets, live ammunition and deadly air guns firing lead pellets.

Several journalists covering the anti-coup protests have been deliberately attacked by police with batons and slingshots.

Crackdowns against peaceful anti-coup demonstrations have been launched in many cities, including Mandalay, Myitkyina, Bago, Myawaddy, Thandwe, Naypyitaw, Mawlamyine and Myaungmya.

Last night, a civilian from a quarter vigilante group was shot dead by police in a civilian van in Yangon’s Shwe Pyithar Township while the man tried to enquire why the vehicle was traveling during the nighttime curfew.

Security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at anti-coup protesters in Myanmar's capital on Tuesday (Feb 9), as demonstrators around the country defied a military ban on rallies.

Protests erupted for a fourth straight day against last week's coup to oust civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, despite a warning from the new junta that they would take action against demonstrations that threatened "stability".

In Naypyidaw, the remote capital purpose built by the previous military regime, witnesses said police fired rubber bullets at protesters after earlier blasting them with water cannon.

"They fired warning shots to the sky two times, then they fired (at protesters) with rubber bullets," a resident told AFP, adding that he saw some people injured.

An AFP reporter on the ground confirmed that shots had been fired.

In Mandalay, the country's second-biggest city, police fired tear gas to disperse protesters.

After watching hundreds of thousands of people rally in opposition to last week's coup, junta chief General Min Aung Hlaing made a televised speech on Monday evening to justify seizing power.

The military has banned gatherings of more than five people in Yangon, the nation's commercial hub, as well as Naypyidaw and other areas across the country where major rallies have erupted, including the second biggest city Mandalay.

A nighttime curfew has also been imposed at the protest hotspot sites.

But on Tuesday, fresh protests emerged in various parts of Yangon, including near the headquarters of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the party of deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained by the military.

On Tuesday, Myanmar's authorities extended areas where gatherings are restricted to more parts of the country, the military's information unit said

The areas where public gatherings of more than five people are banned and a curfew has been imposed include the commercial hub of Yangon, the capital Naypyidaw, as well as some towns in the Magwe region, Kachin state, Kayah state, Mon state and Shan State, the Facebook page of the military's True News information unit said.

One witness told Reuters that demonstrators ran away as guns were fired into the air, but not in the direction of the crowd.

The witness said police had initially used water cannon and tried to push a large crowd back, but demonstrators responded with projectiles.

Footage on social media showed people running, with the sound of several gunshots in the distance.

At least six anti-coup protesters were injured in police shooting in Naypyitaw on Tuesday and two of them are in a critical condition. A volunteer medic with the protest told The Irrawaddy that a man who was shot in the chest and a 20-year-old woman was shot in the head, the most serious injury.

Police shot 19-year-old student Mya Thwe Thwe Khine, also known as Myat Thet Thet Khaing in the head while she positioned herself with other protesters behind a protective barricade. A family member confirmed her death online.Mobile-phone footage of the incident shows police firing weapons in the direction of protesters, and a gunshot rings out as Myat Thet Thet Khaing drops to the ground. She was taken to a hospital in Naypyidaw where a doctor confirmed to Fortify Rights that she sustained an imminently fatal gunshot wound to the head with live ammunition. A doctor on the scene told Fortify Rights she was brain dead. Brain death is the complete loss of brain function and in most jurisdictions is regarded as legal death.

An Afghan journalist and human rights activist was shot and killed Friday by unidentified gunmen in western Afghanistan, the fifth journalist to be killed in the war-ravaged country in the past two months, a provincial spokesman said.

Bismillah Adil Aimaq was on the road near Feroz Koh, the provincial capital of Ghor, returning home to the city after visiting his family in a village nearby, when gunmen opened fire at the vehicle.

According to the provincial governor's spokesman, Arif Abir, others in the car, including Aimaq's brother, were unharmed. Aimaq worked as the head of the local Radio Sada-e-Ghor station and was also a human rights activist in the province.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the shooting. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid insisted the insurgents were in no way connected with the shooting.

Aimaq was the fifth journalist slain in attacks in the past two months. Last week, Rahmatullah Nekzad, who headed the journalists' union in eastern Ghazni province, was killed in an attack by armed men outside his home. Nekzad was well known in the area and had contributed to The Associated Press since 2007. He had previously worked for the Al Jazeera satellite TV channel.

Afghanistan's intelligence department said two perpetrators in that attack were subsequently arrested and it aired video recordings of the two, with their purported confessions to the slaying and to being Taliban members. However, the Taliban denied involvement in the killing, calling it a cowardly act. Large swaths of Ghazni province are under Taliban control.

The Islamic State group, blamed for a series of attacks on a variety of targets in Afghanistan in recent months, said it had killed another Afghan journalist earlier in December. Two assailants opened fire and killed TV anchorwoman Malala Maiwand as she left her house in eastern Nangarhar province. Her driver also was killed.

In November, two journalists were killed in separate bombings.

Rights groups react

The Committee to Protect Journalists has condemned the relentless attacks on journalists in Afghanistan. The international press freedom group Reporters Without Borders has called the country one of the world's deadliest for journalists.

Earlier this week, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission said the targeted killings of Afghan journalists have negatively impacted reporting in the country and led to self-censorship in the media community. The statement said several female journalists have left their jobs in the provinces because of ongoing threats.

The statement further said most journalists are not able to go out openly in some provinces, and that the government has been negligent when they reported the threats they were facing.

Targeted killings and violence have increased across Afghanistan even as the Taliban and Kabul government continue to hold peace negotiations that began in September. The talks, after some recent procedural progress, have been suspended until early January, and there is speculation the resumption could be further delayed.

A peasant activist was shot to death by still unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants in Antequera town, Bohol around 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

Lorenzo “Dodoy” Paña, 55, a resident of Barangay Bantolinao in Antequera town, was driving his motorcycle around 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday when two men on board another motorcycle drove alongside him.

The backrider then pulled out a gun and shot Paña, who succumbed to gunshot wounds on his body.

Lt. Victor Tagsa Jr, acting chief of Antequera Municipal Police Station, said Paña was supposed to deliver lunch to his son who worked at a construction site in Barangay Dorol, Balilihan town when the incident happened.

Scene-of-the-Crime Operatives recovered two spent shells of an M16 rifle and four empty shells of a .45-caliber gun.

Investigators have yet to identify the suspects as well as the motive behind the killing.

The Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon-Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (Humabol-KMP) said in a statement that Paña was a former officer of Hugpong sa Mag-uuma Dapit sa Kasadpan (Humanda Ka), a district formation of Humabol chapters in the first district of Bohol.

Paña, along with his wife and children, voluntarily worked in the construction of a coconut processing plant managed by farmers’ organizations in Barangay Tinibgan in Maribojoc town, which now produces virgin coconut oil.

Paña and his family have been repeatedly red-tagged and harassed by the police and the military even if he was no longer a full-time organizer of Humanda Ka.

Members of progressive groups on Thursday condemned the Rizal Day killings of nine members of an indigenous community that is opposed to a dam project on Panay Island and demanded justice for the victims of what they called a “massacre.”

The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives said it would seek a congressional investigation of the predawn raids on Dec. 30 by police and soldiers that led to the deaths of several leaders and members of the Tumandok, the largest ethnic group in the hinterlands of Panay.

“The year-end spate of killings in Panay is a chilling conclusion of a year marred by bloody attacks on rights defenders and ordinary citizens amid the pandemic,” said Rep. Arlene Brosas of Gabriela Women party list.

“These butchers in uniform have long been terrorizing communities since time immemorial. Now, under a bloodthirsty Commander in Chief, they have ramped up their efforts to silence the growing number of Filipinos calling for justice and opposing development aggression,” Brosas said.

She said the Gabriela Women’s Party and her colleagues in the Makabayan bloc would file a resolution to investigate the police and military operation.

The nine people were killed in separate raids in seven hinterland villages in Tapaz town, Capiz province, on Wednesday. One of them was Roy Giganto, chair of Tumanduk nga Mangunguma nga Nagapangapin sang Duta kag Kabuhi (Tumanduk), a former village chief and an incumbent village councilor of Barangay Lahug.

Tumanduk is an alliance of 17 indigenous communities in Tapaz and Jamindan towns in Capiz and Calinog in Iloilo. It is a member of Sandugo, an alliance of indigenous peoples organizations under Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan).

NPA rebels?

The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police said those killed were New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who fought back when the officers served search warrants and found firearms, ammunition and explosives in their houses.

Police said 16 other villagers in Tapaz and neighboring Calinog were arrested.

Lahug village chief Jobelyn Giganto, Roy’s sister-in-law and neighbor, said policemen barged into his house around 4 a.m. and “dragged his wife out [of the house] and shot him.”

“We are not armed and how can they say he fought back when all of us were asleep when they came,” Jobelyn told the Inquirer by phone on Thursday.

Another villager who was killed, Eliseo Gayas Jr. of Barangay Aglinab, was reportedly “tortured to the point of vomiting blood prior to his death,” according to Angelo Suarez, coconvener and spokesperson for Sama-samang Artista para sa Kilusang Agraryo.

Also killed in Lahug were Mario Aguirre and Reynaldo Katipunan. The other fatalities were Garson Catamin and Rolando Diaz of Nayawan village, Maurito Diaz of Tacayan, Artilito Katipunan of Acuña and Jomar Vidal of Daan-Sur. Fear on New Year’s Eve

Jobelyn said villagers were afraid to sleep in their own homes and planned to spend New Year’s Eve at the barangay day care center after most of their community and tribe leaders were killed.

“We fear that something will happen again while we are sleeping,” Jobelyn said.

“I have been telling the people here that despite what happened, we should continue to unite and face our situation together,” she said.

According to Danilo Ramos, chair of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas, the Tumanduk leaders were fighting against the construction of the multibillion-peso Jalaur megadam in Calinog, Iloilo province, which would submerge their homes and farmlands in their ancestral land.

Some of them were also previously harassed and put under surveillance by the military, and most were accused of being rebels, Ramos said.

A month before the raids, the Tumanduk leaders were told by the military to sign up as NPA surrenderers, said Defend Negros spokesperson Ariel Casilao. When they refused, he said, they were warned that they could be charged under the new antiterrorism law. ‘Killed Negros-style’

“True enough, they were killed Negros-style,” he added, referring to the brutal massacre of farmers in Negros Oriental in 2018 and 2019.

ACT Teachers Rep. France Castro condemned the killing of indigenous peoples who were just protecting their ancestral lands “from destructive projects that do more harm than good for the Filipino people.”

“The Tumandok indigenous community has been vocal in resisting the construction of the Jalaur Mega Dam in Calinog, Iloilo. Because of their resistance and voices of dissent, they have been victims of Red-tagging and now EJKs (extrajudicial killings) and arrests on trumped-up charges,” Castro said.

“The Tumandok massacre proves further how Red-tagging kills and how the Duterte administration is determined to silence all voices of dissent,” she said.

The National Union of Students of the Philippines (NUSP) said the Rizal Day killings showed that the Duterte administration “does not choose any time to sow terror” in rural communities.

“Innocent civilians and indigenous peoples continue to suffer due to the culture of impunity that remains even as the year is about to end,” the group said. Dam opponents

The activist science group Agham, which helped conduct an environmental investigation of the dam project, demanded justice for the Tumandok and the punishment of state forces for their “heinous crimes.”

The Jalaur River Multipurpose Project Phase II (JRMPP), locally called the Jalaur Dam, was designed to produce hydropower and supply water for irrigation in the province of Iloilo.

Agham said that in partnership with the Jalaur River for the People Movement, it found that the project proponent “failed to establish a detailed geological mapping and subsurface investigations that are crucial in determining the potential natural hazards that will affect the dam, particularly with regards to the stability of the structure and its foundation.”

It said that geologic hazards, such as earthquakes posed dangers to the dam, which may lead to massive flooding.

Agham said there also was no “free and prior informed consent” from the tribe, which is required by law for such projects in ancestral lands.

“Also, risks and possible negative impacts were still not addressed and were not communicated to the stakeholders. These key findings have validated the fears and concerns of the Tumandok people who are valiantly fighting for the protection of the people and the environment,” Agham said.

On 24 December, in Deh Naw village, Hesa-i-Awal Kohistan district, Kapisa province, gunmen shot and killed civil society activist Freshta Kohistani. Civil society and media indicated that Kohistani had previously posted on her social media account about threats received. There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. On 28 December, security officials reported having arrested suspects involved in the attack.

Afghan authorities must thoroughly investigate the killing of journalist Rahmatullah Nikzad and do everything in their power to ensure that members of the press can work safely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

This evening, in the central Afghan city of Ghazni, unidentified gunmen shot Nikzad, a freelance photojournalist who contributed to The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera, three times in the chest while he was leaving his home to go to a local mosque, according to the AP, Al-Jazeera, and other news reports. He was transported to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to those reports.

Nikzad was also the head of the Ghazni Journalists’ Union, which represented press workers in Ghazni province, those reports said.

“Rahmatullah Nikzad’s crucial work documenting the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan has been brought to a tragic end by this brutal killing,” said Aliya Iftikhar, CPJ’s senior Asia researcher. “The recent spate of killings of journalists in Afghanistan is unacceptable and the Afghan government must redouble efforts to ensure justice and safety for members of the media.”

Nikzad had received threats from different sources over the years, and had notified local and national officials about them, Abdul Mujeeb Khalvatgar, director of the Afghan press freedom organization NAI, told CPJ in a phone interview.

Khalvatgar said that many of the threats came from local Taliban members upset with Nikzad’s work for international outlets, as well as his work with the journalist union.

Khalvatgar and Najib Sharifi, director of the Afghan Journalist Safety Committee, another local press freedom organization, who also spoke to CPJ via phone, both said they believed Nikzad was killed because of his work.

The Taliban, which controls large parts of Ghazni province, denied responsibility for the attack, according to those news reports.

Ghazni Police Chief Khalid Wardak and a spokesperson for the president’s office did not immediately respond to CPJ’s requests for comment sent via messaging app.

In November, reporter Elyas Dayee was killed in a bomb attack in Helmand province, and on December 10, journalist Malalai Maiwand was shot and killed in Nangarhar province, as CPJ documented at the time.