UN Says Myanmar Unrest Led to 149 Deaths, Hundreds Disappeared

The United Nations (UN) condemned increasing deaths, violence, and disappearances - where some detained protesters were accordingly facing tortures in Myanmar after the military controlled the government since February 1.

UN rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said that the death toll in Myanmar had spiked over the past week, and security forces increasingly and aggressively been using lethal force against the peaceful protesters.

The spokeswoman said that the office recorded a total of 149 people who had died in protest against the military rule since February 1, stressing that the actual number could be higher. Shamdasani also said that the security forces still continue to arrest people arbitrarily throughout the country and detain them, and at least 2,084 people are being held presently.

UN had determined that there had been at least five deaths that occurred in recent weeks after being held in custody, and at least two of the victims showed severe physical abuse signs that say they were tortured.

Moreover, the number of enforced disappearances had dramatically increased as hundreds of people have been unlawfully detained unaccounted for, and the military authorities had not acknowledged. These are the "amounts to enforced disappearances," Ravina Shamdasani said.

Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP) said that more than 180 people were killed, including the 74 reported deaths on Sunday alone.

Many of Myanmar's working-class neighborhoods where citizens had been slain were cut off through communication blackouts that the state had imposed.

Additionally, a crackdown on the media in the said country has dramatically complicated access to information as the military tried to get a hold of the internal information. There were at least 37 journalists who had been arrested, while the country's five major news outlets had said their licenses were withdrawn.

Myanmar citizen's uproar began when the military, led by Win Myint, deposed the country's pro-democracy leaders Aung San Suu Kyi and others on February 1 and started a coup. Hundreds of thousands since went to the streets and demanded the release of their leaders and the return of their democracy.