YANGON: Security forces in Myanmar have been increasingly targeting paramedics who treat injured anti-coup protesters, rescuers say, as police and soldiers this week started to indiscriminately fire live rounds at demonstrators.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating in towns and cities across the country in the aftermath of the military’s overthrow of the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
At least 50 protesters have been killed since the beginning of the civil disobedience movement, 38 of them on Wednesday as security forces opened fire with live rounds. More than 1,200 people have been arrested, including rescuers.
Video footage that went viral on social media after the crackdown showed members of a Yangon-based volunteer group, Mon Myat Seik Htar (MMSH), being beaten by police.
“Police stopped the ambulance and ordered them to step out. A few moments later, police started beating them with batons,” one of the group’s leaders, who requested anonymity, told Arab News on Thursday.
“Police used the stock of the gun to beat them, and one team member was severely injured after his safety helmet was broken.” All four of them, the MMSH leader said, were taken to the notorious Insein prison.
Two members from We Love North Okalapa (WENO), a rescue team in Yangon’s North Okalapa township, were detained on the same day but later released.
A WENO volunteer said that one of them was the group’s chairman.
“The chairman was severely injured by batons while another was shot by police in thigh,” he told Arab News. The ambulances of MMSH and WENO were destroyed by security forces.
Troops also raided the office of Free Funeral Service Society (FFSS) in North Okalapa in search of its founder Kyaw Thu, one of the most vocal social activists in the country.
After the increase in violence, the group, which is present in all parts of the country, refused to provide services to persons related to the military.
Myanmar paramedics face bullets for treating injured protesters
https://arab.news/bwny9
Myanmar paramedics face bullets for treating injured protesters
- Video footage showing police battering rescuers and destroying their ambulance went viral earlier this week
Anger as branch of ICE to help with security at Winter Olympics
ROME: A branch of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will help with security for the Winter Olympics in Italy, it confirmed Tuesday, sparking anger and warnings they were not welcome.
Reports had been circulating for days that the agency embroiled in an often brutal immigration crackdown in the United States could be involved in US security measures for the February 6-22 Games in northern Italy.
In a statement overnight to AFP, ICE said: “At the Olympics, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is supporting the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service and host nation to vet and mitigate risks from transnational criminal organizations.
“All security operations remain under Italian authority.”
It’s not known whether the HSI has in the past been involved in the Olympics, or whether this is a first.
According to the ICE website, the HSI investigates global threats, investigating the illegal movement of people, goods, money, contraband, weapons and sensitive technology into, out of, and through the United States.
ICE made clear its operations in Italy were separate from the immigration crackdown, which is being carried out by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) department.
“Obviously, ICE does not conduct immigration enforcement operations in foreign countries,” it said.
The protection of US citizens during Olympic Games overseas is led by the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).
Yet the outrage over ICE immigration operations in the United States is shared among many in Italy, following the deaths of two civilians during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis.
The leftist mayor of Milan, which is hosting several Olympic events, said ICE was “not welcome.”
“This is a militia that kills... It’s clear that they are not welcome in Milan, there’s no doubt about it, Giuseppe Sala told RTL 102.5 radio.
“Can’t we just say no to (US President Donald) Trump for once?“
Alessandro Zan, a member of the European Parliament for the center-left Democratic Party, condemned it as “unacceptable.”
“In Italy, we don’t want those who trample on human rights and act outside of any democratic control,” he wrote on X.
Monitoring Vance
Italian authorities initially denied the presence of ICE and then sought to downplay any role, suggesting they would help only in security for the US delegation.
US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are attending the opening ceremony in Milan on February 6.
On Monday, the president of the northern Lombardy region, said their involvement would be limited to monitoring Vance and Rubio.
“It will be only in a defensive role, but I am convinced that nothing will happen,” Attilio Fontana told reporters.
However, his office then issued a statement saying he did not have any specific information on their presence, but was responding to a hypothetical question.
Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi was quoted as saying late Monday that “ICE, as such, will never operate in Italy.”
The International Olympic Committee when contacted by AFP about the matter replied: “We kindly refer you to the USOPC (the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee).”
Thousands of ICE agents have been deployed by President Donald Trump in various US cities to carry out a crackdown on illegal immigration.
Their actions have prompted widespread protests, and the recent killings of US citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both 37, on the streets of Minneapolis sparked outrage.
