In Burma, every day brings a new death toll from the repression of the armed forces. The United Nations estimated that 107, including seven children, were killed on Saturday March 27. This Monday 29th ...

Burma: the army continues to kill demonstrators, the impossible mourning of families

In Burma, at least 459 people have been killed since the putsch, with 13 dead on Sunday March 28, according to the latest report from the Association for Assistance to Political Prisoners (AAPP), a local NGO.

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Text by: RFI Follow

4 min

In Burma, every day brings a new death toll from the repression of the armed forces.

The United Nations estimated that 107, including seven children, were killed on Saturday March 27.

This Monday, March 29, the demonstrators are again in the streets, braving the repression.

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In Kachin State (North), at dawn, the population began to march, peacefully.

Students also took to the streets in Monywa in the Sagaing region in the center of the country and Mawlamyine (Moulmein) in Southeast Mon state, according to local media.

Hundreds of people also demonstrated in Plate, in the region of Mandalay (center), with banners which read: "

The people will never be defeated

The High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, called the day Saturday a "

day of horror and shame

", "

It is absolutely scandalous

", condemned US President Joe Biden to journalists, denouncing gratuitous deaths.

An unusual joint statement from the heads of the defense forces of 12 countries including the United States, Great Britain, Japan and Germany denounced the use of force by the Burmese army against "

unarmed

civilians

The local military-run Myawaddy TV reported 45 dead on Saturday, justifying the crackdown by saying protesters used guns and bombs against security forces.

► To read also: Burma: global outcry after the bloodiest day of repression since the putsch

Sometimes impossible mourning

The funerals of the missing continue across the country.

In the Sagaing region, hundreds of people paid tribute to Thinzar Hein, a 20-year-old student nurse who was shot dead.

She had gone to lend a hand to rescuers to treat injured demonstrators.

The soldiers often take with them the bodies of the killed demonstrators, which makes mourning impossible, says

Juliette Verlin,

our correspondent in Rangoon

Paing, he lost his son in unknown circumstances.

It is the first time that he has returned to work since the death of his son.

“

I told my wife I was going back to work.
And when I started driving my sidecar taxi again, I saw my son's face, I heard his voice.

One morning, his son Thura Oo left to join friends near a barricade in his neighborhood of Hlaing Thayar.

A few hours later, his father learned of his death.

Without a witness to tell him about the scene, unable to recover his body, Paing turned to a medium, who told him about the circumstances of his son's death.

He got up under the gunfire and he ran, he got a hit in his back, he fell - but he wasn't dead yet,

" the seer told him.

So they shot him in the head and his brain exploded.
People did not dare to assemble to pick up the corpse because the police were still there.
Then they ripped off his shirt and dragged him by the arms.
And they put it in their truck and rushed off.

Paing explains that a large number of bereaved families in the neighborhood have turned to this medium, whose name he will not mention, to try to get answers.

The psychic is now wanted by the police.

He has fled and can no longer help families, further proof of the psychological warfare waged by the armed forces against his own people.

Burma: the army continues to kill demonstrators, the impossible mourning of families

Burma: the army continues to kill demonstrators, the impossible mourning of families

Sometimes impossible mourning

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