Hundreds have died since February’s coup. Civilians are defiant – but while their resistance persists, so does the military’s bloody grip on power
Eleven-year-old Aye Myat Thu was buried with her dolls at the weekend, hours after she was killed by security forces in Myanmar. The horror of her death is far from unique: more than 30 children have reportedly died in the brutal crackdown on protests against last month’s coup, including a five-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl who was shot dead in her home.
More than 100 people were killed on Saturday alone. More than 500 have died since the military seized control, arresting the civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, and other elected politicians from her National League for Democracy (NLD), and wresting back what power they had allowed the people. The deaths and arrests are only part of the damage. The economy of one of Asia’s poorest countries is now in desperate straits, with the coup’s fallout compounding the pandemic’s impact.
