(CNN) Myanmar's military junta chief Min Aung Hlaing threw a lavish dinner party Saturday while his troops reportedly shot dead more than 100 people in the streets and forced thousands of people to flee into neighboring Thailand, during a weekend of indiscriminate terror and bloodshed that was widely condemned internationally.
Images
posted on social media showed the coup leader dressed in a bow tie and a
white, medal-laiden jacket walking a red carpet, greeting attendees and
sitting down to a meal to mark Armed Forces Day.
The
annual holiday commemorates the beginning of the army's resistance
against Japanese occupation in World War II and the junta staged a show
of force with a military parade. Saturday was also the full moon day of
Tabaung, the end of Myanmar's lunar calendar and an important time in
Buddhism that should have been celebrated with festivals and visits to
pagodas.
Instead,
soldiers and police embarked on a rampage, killing at least 114 people
-- including children -- in 44 towns and cities across the country on
Saturday, according to a tally by the independent Myanmar Now news
outlet. It was the deadliest day since the army seized power in a coup and overthrew the country's elected government on February 1.
United
States President Joe Biden joined a chorus of international
condemnation Sunday, saying the situation in Myanmar was "terrible," and
described the actions of the military as "absolutely outrageous." The
US has imposed sanctions on several of the generals, including Min Aung
Hlaing, and two military-owned conglomerates. On Monday, the Biden administration announced the suspension of all diplomatic trade engagement with Myanmar.
Throughout
Monday, crackdowns and shootings continued across the country and at
least 14 people were shot dead, the Advocacy group the Assistance
Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said. At least 510 people
have been killed since the coup, according to AAPP.
"Amidst
crackdowns in Kyauk Myaung, Tamwe township, Yangon Region, people
banged pots and pans in protest," AAPP reported. "At that time, the
junta forces told people they will arson neighborhoods if people
continue."
CNN
obtained video showing military personnel coming into neighborhoods to
stop the banging of pots and pans, which have become a common form of
protest.
Meanwhile,
Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said his government has
prepared for a potential influx of refugees from neighboring Myanmar.
"We have prepared the areas if the influx happens (so we know) where to
keep them," Prayut said during a press briefing. "We don't want to have
any influx into our area, but we certainly have to take human rights
issues into our consideration."
Thailand
has hosted tens of thousands of refugees in nine main camps along its
border with Myanmar for three decades, following armed conflicts, human
rights abuses and persecution of ethnic minorities by the Myanmar
military.
About
3,000 people fled from Myanmar's southeastern Karen state over the
border to Thailand Sunday, after military jets carried out a bombing
raid, according to the Karen Women's Organization (KWO), which operates
within Karen state and refugee camps in Thailand.
As
well as indiscriminate killing of unarmed people, brutal acts were
widely reported over the weekend. A 40-year-old Mandalay resident was
shot and burned alive by military troops, according to Myanmar Now,
which quoted residents and a night guard in the victim's neighborhood.
There were also reports of security forces shooting into residential
buildings, nighttime raids and arrests, and looting and destruction of
private property.
In
a speech during a parade in the capital Naypyidaw Saturday, Min Aung
Hlaing said that the military would protect the people and strive for
democracy.
As
citizens tried to mourn their dead on Sunday, the killings and acts of
violence continued, however. Reuters reported that security forces
opened fire at the funeral service of 20-year-old student Thae Maung
Maung in Bago near the commercial capital Yangon. Mourners were forced
to flee, three people in the town told the news agency.
Children were not spared
from the carnage. At least six children between the ages of 10 and 16
were among those killed on Saturday, according to news reports and
witnesses, Reuters reported. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
said 35 children have been killed by junta forces since the coup.
"An
11-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, two 13-year-old boys, a
13-year-old girl, three 16-year-old boys and two seventeen-year old
boys, all reportedly shot and killed. A one-year-old baby girl gravely
injured after being struck in the eye with a rubber bullet. These were
the latest child casualties on the bloodiest day in Myanmar since the
military takeover," said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore in a
statement.
"Millions
of children and young people have been directly or indirectly exposed
to traumatizing scenes of violence, threatening their mental health and
emotional wellbeing."
The
AAPP said 13 people died on Sunday as junta forces used live ammunition
and grenades against civilians and opened fire outside a hospital in
the biggest city Yangon, injuring one staff member on Sunday.
"The
junta is using grenades, not just live rounds but machine-guns in urban
areas, to create a combat zone of peaceful residential homes," AAPP
said.
CNN cannot independently verify the reports.
In
the country's borderlands, three civilians were killed and 10,000 were
forced to flee their homes and go into hiding in the jungle, the KWO
said in a statement on its official Twitter page.
"Many
villagers are now hiding in terror in the jungle and more than 3,000
have crossed into Thailand to take refuge," the KWO said, adding that it
feared more attacks on villages in the state.
The
Karen National Union (KNU), the armed ethnic group that controls parts
of the southeastern region in Myanmar, told CNN that more airstrikes
were conducted by the junta Sunday.
Padoh Saw Taw Nee, a spokesperson for KNU, said the air strikes happened around 4 p.m., local time Sunday near the Thai border.
Armed
rebel groups have been fighting the military on and off for the past 70
years in the country's ethnic states but fighting in some areas has
increased since the coup.
Military
jets killed at least two members of the KNU's militia, said David
Eubank, founder of the relief organization Free Burma Rangers, adding
that it was the first time in 20 years that airstrikes had been carried
out.
The
weekend's bloodshed drew renewed Western condemnation, with countries
including the US, Britain and the European Union speaking out. The
military's actions were described as a "massacre," "mass murder" and "shameful, cowardly, brutal" attacks, by various UN officials.
Alice
Wairimu Nderitu, UN Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide, and
Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, urged
Myanmar's military to "immediately stop killing the very people it has
the duty to serve and protect."
The
officials also "strongly condemned the Myanmar military's widespread,
lethal, increasingly systematic attacks against peaceful protesters, as
well as other serious violations of human rights since it seized power
on 1 February 2021."
But
foreign criticism and the sanctions imposed by some Western nations
have failed so far to sway the military leaders, as have almost daily
protests around the country since the junta took power and detained
elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
UN
Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said it was time for the world to take
action -- if not through the UN Security Council then through an
international emergency summit. He said the junta should be cut off from
funding, such as oil and gas revenues, and from access to weapons.
"Words
of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of
Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them," he
said in a statement.
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