Myanmar army kills young mother, death toll since coup 828: Watchdog

By Devina Halim

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AA) – Myanmar’s military junta has killed one more person in the country, raising the death toll in protests against the Feb. 1 coup to 828, according to a local monitoring group.

A woman was shot in the head by junta soldiers in Taw Seint village in the Salin Township of Magway Region on Tuesday night, the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said in an update late on Wednesday.

About 70 soldiers and police stormed the village after “residents painted slogans opposing the education system under the military regime on the gate of a local high school,” according to local news outlet Myanmar Now.

The victim was 24-year-old Saung Hnin Hmon, mother of a six-year-old girl, the report said.

A total of 4,330 people are currently under detention in Myanmar, with 102 of them having been sentenced, according to the AAPP update.

Zaw Win Maung, a member of the National League for Democracy (NLD), the ruling party ousted by the military in the Feb. 1 coup, was arrested during a protest in Lone Khinn village in Kachin State’s Hpakant Township, the report said.

Khin Ohn Myint, a retired teacher and a patron of the Red Cross Committee in Mogok Township, was also arrested on Tuesday in the Kyauk Saung village in the central Mandalay Region, the AAPP added.

- Boycott of ‘military slave education’

Some 90% of students have refused to enroll in Myanmar’s education system under the coup regime, according to the Myanmar Teachers’ Federation (MTF).

Only 10% of students nationwide have enrolled in their respective schools since registration opened on Monday, Myanmar Now reported.

Myanmar had more than 9 million students enrolled in its basic education system during the 2019-2020 school year, according to the ousted NLD government’s Education Ministry, the report said.

Current figures suggest that less than 1 million students will rejoin their schools this year when they open on June 1.

There have been no registrations in some schools in Mandalay, Monywa, and Myanmar’s largest city of Yangon, the report said.

People across Myanmar have “protested the reopening of schools – the sites of occupation by junta troops and battles with local resistance – spray painting anti-coup messages on gates and buildings,” Myanmar Now reported.

Parents have said they do not want children indoctrinated into a “military slave education,” the report added.

* Writing by Rhany Chairunissa Rufinaldo with Anadolu Agency’s Indonesian language services in Jakarta