JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Police used violence and shot at protesters and bystanders Friday in Yangon and Mandalay, according to JURIST’s law student correspondents in Myanmar. Video posted on the Internet showed a large crowd of police discharging weapons and pursuing protesters past a large hotel in Yangon. One Japanese journalist was arrested and later released. In Mandalay, there was a large demonstration of engineering and medical students in the morning, but large numbers of riot police reinforced with water cannons were seen moving through the city later and the protestors dispersed. At one point a young boy was shot by live fire.

Early afternoon Myanmar time, one of our law students in Mandalay reported:

A few hours ago, police, water cannon and soldiers arrive these places

-In front of University of Medicine Mandalay (UMM)
-Near the district court
-In front of Railway station
-Near Diamond plaza (They chased people here. Some of my friends were there and had to run away.)

I was planning to go to my university to pack ricebags for CDM staffs at 12:30 pm but I couldn’t due to blockages on the streets.

Later in the afternoon, she told JURIST:

On 62nd street, Mandalay, a man was shot was live rounds. They’re playing with fire 🔥