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The Myanmar Now news service reported that the Myanmar military fired crew-served heavy weapons at protesters against the coup on Thursday and Friday. (Twitter screenshot)

The Myanmar military reportedly fired mortars on the evening of Thursday to suppress protests against the coup that brought down the country's democratically elected government. Foreign media quoted the local press and human rights organizations as saying that 82 people lost their lives when security forces attacked protesters in the city of Bago, near Yangon, the country's biggest city, during the evening of Thursday and the early hours of Friday.

Witnesses said that security forces indiscriminately fired crew-served heavy weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades and mortars, at protesters. Such weapons, which are more powerful than rifles, are used by armies to overpower enemies on the battlefield. It's shocking even to think that such weapons would be aimed at protesters.

Protesters said that security forces were firing on anything that moved. While there aren't any images that directly show the use of heavy weapons, citizens posted evidence on social media, including photographs of shells that didn't explode and barricades that were knocked down by heavy weapons fire. If those claims are true, the Myanmar military is waging war on unarmed civilians.

While the Myanmar junta has denied allegations of massacres, its very comments suggest that it places little value on civilians' lives. A spokesperson for Myanmar's military government said during a press conference Friday that the security forces hadn't used heavy weapons in their crackdown but that if the military had really wanted to kill civilians, it could kill 500 in the space of an hour.

The spokesperson no doubt wanted to emphasize that the military was exercising the maximum restraint. Still, the comments reveal that the military could perpetrate mass slaughter of civilians if it chose to. We're horrified by the junta's indifference to killing innocent citizens and its menacing stance toward the democracy protests.

Such behavior is reminiscent of former South Korean president Chun Doo-hwan, who has never acknowledged that South Korean government troops fired on protesters from helicopters during the Gwangju Uprising, which began on May 18, 1980. If the government troops resorted to gunfire from helicopters, it would mean that the military was treating its own citizens as the enemy. That would demolish the self-defense claims made by Chun and other figures.

While denying the helicopter gunfire in his memoirs, Chun smeared a Catholic priest's reputation, leading to his conviction for defamation by a district court in November 2020. In the same way, the Myanmar junta needs to recognize that it can't cover up the truth forever.

The situation in Myanmar has been worsening recently, with citizens attacking soldiers trying to suppress the protests and with armed ethnic groups raiding police stations. Myanmar human rights organizations calculate that 618 people had been killed as of Saturday in the unrest that has lasted since the coup occurred in February. The international community needs to go beyond diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions and take stronger and more direct action.

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]