Protesters in Myanmar take to the streets without fear of the Army 2:03
(CNN) -
At least 38 people have died after Myanmar security forces opened fire on peaceful young protesters in towns and cities across the Southeast Asian nation on Wednesday, in scenes described as "a war zone."
Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the weeks following the February 1 military coup in the country formerly known as Burma.
Security forces have stepped up their response in recent days, opening live fire on crowds and using tear gas and explosive and stun grenades against protesters.
What you should know about Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma
Photographs and video taken Wednesday show bodies dumped in the street surrounded by pools of blood as protesters run for cover.
Protesters flee tear gas fired by police during a pro-democracy rally in Mandalay, Myanmar, on Wednesday.
The United Nations said the total death toll since the coup had risen to 50, although activists say it is higher.
"Today was the bloodiest day since the coup occurred," Special Envoy Christine Schraner Burgener told a briefing on Wednesday.
About 1,200 people have been detained and many relatives are not sure where they are, he added.
"Now all the tools available are needed to stop this situation," Burgener said.
"We need the unity of the international community, so it is up to the member states to take the appropriate measures."
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CNN reached out to the ruling military regime by email, but has yet to receive a response.
Protesters have for weeks been demanding the release of democratically elected officials, including the country's leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, who are in detention.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy Party won a landslide victory in the November elections;
military leaders allege electoral fraud but have not provided proof of their claim.
Burgener said that in talks with the military he had warned that the UN Security Council and member states would likely crack down.
"The response was: 'We are used to sanctions and we survived those sanctions in the past,'" he said.
"When I also warned them that they would be isolated, the response was: 'We have to learn to walk with few friends.'
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Security forces, including members of the army's Light Infantry Divisions, long documented as being involved in human rights abuses in conflict zones across the country, stepped up their deadly crackdown on peaceful protesters this week.
"Today, the country is like Tiananmen Square in most of its major cities," the Archbishop of Yangon, Cardinal Charles Maung Bo, said on Twitter.
In one case, Myanmar security forces were caught on camera hitting emergency services personnel with the butts of their weapons, batons and kicking them in the head, according to the activist group Association for Assistance for Political Prisoners (AAPP).
The AAPP released the video on Wednesday, saying in a statement that it was from northern Okkalapa in Yangon.
The video offers a glimpse into the brutal methods deployed by the security forces.
In the footage, three aid workers are asked to get out of their ambulance at gunpoint and then made to kneel on the floor with their hands behind their heads.
A protester uses a fire extinguisher while others wearing homemade shields run during a protest in Yangon on Wednesday.
Two uniformed police officers start hitting the men on the head with their pistols and batons and also kicking them.
Moments later, a group of police officers with shields and soldiers joined, violently beating aid workers.
“The army is treating the peaceful protesters in Yangon as a war zone.
The army is creating terror, again, "said AAPP.
CNN does not know why security forces detained the aid workers.
The AAPP said live ammunition was used against protesters in at least seven towns and cities on Wednesday.
Among those killed was a 19-year-old girl in the second-largest city of Mandalay.
Her image flooded social networking sites, showing her wearing a T-shirt that read "Everything will be fine."
Reuters reported that security forces shot him in the head.
In Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, witnesses told Reuters that at least eight people were killed when security forces opened fire with automatic weapons early in the evening.
«I heard many shots in a row.
I lay down on the ground, they shot many times and saw two people killed at the scene, "23-year-old protester Kaung Pyae Sone Tun told Reuters.
Another large number of victims was registered in the central town of Monywa, where six people died, the Monywa Gazette reported.
Others died in various locations, including Mandalay, the northern city of Hpakant and the central city of Myingyan, according to Reuters.
Human rights advocacy group Fortify Rights said Thursday that "the similar use of excessive and lethal force by security forces in towns and cities across the country demonstrates coordination between the units and an overall national strategy."
“This is not a non-lethal tactic to disperse protesters.
It's an attack on peaceful protesters across the country, "said John Quinley, Senior Human Rights Specialist at Fortify Rights.
"And these are not crowd control techniques, this is an attack on civilians and people protesting against the military takeover."
The group said Wednesday's photos and video show soldiers with automatic weapons, long-range sniper rifles and other firearms.
World leaders have called for Myanmar's elected leaders to be restored.
"The use of lethal force against peaceful protesters and arbitrary arrests is unacceptable," said a February 28 statement by the spokesman for the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who also urged the international community to "send a clear signal to the military that they must respect the will of the people of Myanmar expressed through the elections.
A speech by Myanmar's ambassador to the UN, Kyaw Moe Tun, drew applause last week, after he said he represents the country's civilian government and called on the international community to use "all necessary means" to help end. to the blow.
On Wednesday, a Myanmar deputy ambassador, U Tin Maung Naing, resigned after the military rulers appointed him to replace Kyaw Moe Tun.
The US State Department condemned the violence and said Washington is reviewing policy options to respond to the recent escalations.
“We are shocked and disgusted to see the terrible violence perpetrated against the people of Burma for their peaceful calls to restore civil governance.
We urge all countries to speak with one voice to condemn the brutal violence of the Burmese army against its own people and to promote accountability for the actions of the army that have resulted in the loss of so many lives in Burma, ”said the spokesman. of the US Department of State, Ned Price, in a briefing.
On Wednesday, Pope Francis also called for an end to the violence.
“I also call on the international community to act so that the aspirations of the people of Myanmar are not stifled by violence.
May the young people of that beloved land have the opportunity to have hope in a future where hatred and injustice are replaced by encounter and reconciliation, "he said during his weekly audience.
CNN's Pauline Lockwood, Akanksha Sharma, Mitchell McCluskey, and Jennifer Deaton contributed to this report.
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