Demonstrators protest during an anti-coup rally in Mandalay on Saturday.
The demonstrations and a civil disobedience campaign of strikes and disruptions show no sign of dying down with opponents of the military sceptical of an army promise to hold a new election and hand power to the winner. Military spokesman Zaw Min Tun, who is also the spokesman for the new military council, has not responded to repeated attempts by Reuters to contact him by telephone for comment.
The more than two weeks of protests had been largely peaceful, unlike previous episodes of opposition during nearly half a century of direct military rule, which ended in 2011. Two people were shot and killed and 20 were wounded, said Ko Aung, a leader of the Parahita Darhi volunteer emergency service.A young woman protester, Mya Thwate Thwate Khaing, died on Friday after being shot in the head last week as police dispersed a crowd in the capital, Naypyitaw, the first death among anti-coup demonstrators.