The macabre death toll of demonstrators killed in Burma (Myanmar) has risen to at least 149 since the beginning of the peaceful protests against the February 1st coup.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights denounced it today in Geneva, specifying that it is a prudent figure.
"There are many other reports of further killings that we have not yet been able to confirm," spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said.
A massacre of innocents, the most serious since the protests against the coup: at least 59 dead on Sunday, with local media reporting over a hundred, and another five dead yesterday in two other cities of the country.
Burma is now on fire, with tens of thousands of young people continuing to take to the streets despite the security forces having been shooting to kill for weeks, general strikes, martial law in the former capital and a new stop to internet traffic to prevent the dissent to organize.
Yesterday's toll speaks of at least five boys killed in the cities of Myingyan and Aunglan, the day after a Sunday of urban warfare in Yangon.
After crowds of demonstrators attacked 32 factories linked to China, also causing some injuries, police and military tried to disperse the protest by shooting at eye level.
At least 59 people died here alone, according to hospital sources, and the regime declared martial law in the districts of the former capital, the scene of yesterday's violence.
Local media, however, speak of a double number of deaths compared to what emerged.
With a new blocking of internet traffic on mobile phones applied yesterday, the risk is that new massacres are even less documented on social media by the protesters themselves.
The blocking of connections is also the reason why the third hearing in the trial against Suu Kyi, scheduled for yesterday behind closed doors but via teleconference, has been postponed to March 24.
This was reported by the same lawyer of the Lady, against whom four counts have been issued, from the illegal possession of walkie-talkies to the accusation of having pocketed illegal payments.
It's hard to tell if the inability to go online is the real reason for the postponement or if the regime is just taking time.
It is also impossible to expect an impartial application of justice - Suu Kyi is detained in solitary confinement and without access to her lawyer - in a clearly political trial against the leader who triumphed in the only two free elections in the fragile decade of transition to democracy, now crushed. from the coup.
A month and a half after the coup, it is now difficult to understand what could be the way out for a military junta that has enormously underestimated the popular rejection of its seizure of power and that is unable to stop the demonstrations even by firing on the crowd.
The protests are the cry of despair of a generation of young people who were growing up enjoying democratic freedoms for the first time, and who now find themselves in a brutal dictatorship.
Yesterday's events also show how anger has spread against China, which from the very beginning has avoided criticizing the military coup, even protecting them at the UN.
Beijing itself urged calm today, saying it was "very worried", but with a tone that seems to favor its economic interests rather than the dead of armed repression, and which has been mocked on social media by Burmese.
