Myanmar Police Shoot Dead 10 Citizens

Myanmar's security forces again left a trail of bloodshed Wednesday after shooting to death ten citizens who were peacefully protesting against the military junta that carried out a coup d'état on Feb. 1.

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The killings occurred in the cities of Monywa, Mandalay, Myingyan, Salin, and Rangoon. Two of the citizens who perished at the hands of state terrorists were minors.

Although the Burmese are being suppressed with live ammunition, they have been defying the military for weeks and demanding the return of democracy and the release of their elected leaders, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We hate the junta from the bottom of our hearts. Today alone, 10 young people have died... Police forces are trying to get us off the streets any way they can," said Thame, a medical student who participates almost daily in the protests.

"Our future is dying... That thought scares me more than dying. That's why we take to the streets," he added.

Since the Feb. 1 coup, at least 30 people have been killed by security forces responding to the orders of the Army, which is trying to hold on to power despite having ruled the country uninterruptedly between 1962 and 2011.

On Tuesday, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) called on the Burmese military to initiate a concerted solution to the political crisis. This and other requests from the international community, however, have gone unheeded by the military junta headed by General Min Aung Hlaing.

So far, in an attempt to contain the mass protests, the military has detained over 1,200 citizens and blocked the Internet, Twitter, and Facebook.