The Philippines urged Myanmar’s military leaders to exercise restraint in dealing with peaceful protesters.
The Department of Foreign Affairs made the call after more than 500 Myanmar citizens were reported to have been killed for defying the junta’s forces, since the military launched a coup that toppled the elected government last February 1.
“We reiterate our call for security forces in Myanmar to exercise restraint and desist from resorting to disproportionate force against unarmed civilians,” a statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said.
The DFA said the country “remains steadfast in supporting Myanmar on its path to fuller democracy beginning with the immediate release of State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and duly-elected civilian leaders.”
“The Philippines if profoundly dismayed at reports of excessive and needless force against unarmed protesters in Myanmar on Armed Forces Day, which resulted in the worst violence since the military takeover,” the DFA said.
Foreign wire reports said 510 civilians have been killed in nearly two months of peaceful protests against the coup, as thousands took to the streets despite the growing toll.
“Another 14 civilians were killed on Monday, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said, as it also updated figures for previous days. The total killed on Saturday, the bloodiest day so far, had risen to 141, figures showed,” Reuters reported.
The White House condemned the killings of civilians as an “abhorrent” use of lethal force and renewed a call for the restoration of democracy, while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged Myanmar’s generals to stop the killings and repression of demonstrations.
Meanwhile netizens criticized the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for not intervening in the carnage.
“Hard to treat ASEAN as a success story when it can’t even stop one of its ten members, the Myanmar junta, from gunning down 114 protesters in a day,” tweeted a netizen, adding, “Does the worn-out line about “non-interference in internal affairs” really take precedence over human life?”
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. tweeted back, saying: “No intervention; just wise counsel and distancing if ignored because ASEAN principle of noninterference in others’ domestic affairs cannot be used to conceal crimes against humanity; that would be tantamount to ASEAN complicity and consent. Indonesia in the lead here.”
Another netizen said, “ASEAN’s policy of noninterference in its member countries “needs reinterpretation given the scale of human rights violations we are witnessing in Myanmar. The crisis should no longer be seen as internal affairs of a member country,” Tweeted Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
But Locsin replied, “In the sense that it marginalizes ASEAN in the moral esteem of the planet and thereby sidelines it from the centrality it has long sought and attained in the early strong stand of most of its members but which it may lose.”
Another netizen criticized Myanmar’s coup mastermind, Min Aung Hlaing, who was seen in social, immaculately attired in white with medals on his chest, while hundreds are killed during Myanmar’s Armed Forces Day.
“Literally months after the Rohingya crisis Min Aung Hlaing was awarded the “Rohingya Grand Cross First Class of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant” in Bangkok,” the netizen Tweeted.
Secretary Locsin, in a backhanded compliment said: “We had a lot of white elephants under the Marcos military-backed dictatorship which tends to breed pachyderms including a manufacturing plant (Batong Buhay) fully funded & paid for that was “located” in the middle of a river—not a dry riverbed—which was still running. Clean job.”
Reports coming from Myanmar, quoting state television said “security forces used ‘riot weapons’ to disperse a crowd of ‘violent terrorist people’ who were destroying a pavement and one man was wounded.”
Two people were also killed in shooting in the central town of Myingyan, student leader Moe Myint Hein, according to Reuters.
Despite the violence, crowds turned out in towns across the country, according to media and social media posts.