Myanmar  (TIP): Police in Myanmar broke up demonstrations in several places with tear gas and gunfire on Thursday but there was no immediate word on casualties a day after the United Nations said 38 people had been killed in the bloodiest day since last month’s coup.

Undeterred by the crackdown, activists said they refused to accept military rule and were determined to press for the release of elected government leader Aung San Suu Kyi and recognition of her victory in a November election.

“We know that we can always get shot and killed with live bullets but there is no meaning to staying alive under the junta,” activist Maung Saungkha told Reuters.

Police later opened fire and used tear gas to break up protests in Yangon and the central town of Monywa, witnesses said. Police also fired in the town of Pathein, to the west of Yangon, media reported.

In Yangon, crowds of protesters soon assembled again to chant slogans and sing.

Big crowds also gathered peacefully for rallies elsewhere, including the second city of Mandalay and in the historic temple town of Bagan, where hundreds marched carrying pictures of Suu Kyi and a banner saying: “Free our leader”, witnesses said.

Earlier on Thursday, five fighter jets made several low passes in formation over Mandalay, residents said, in what appeared to be a show of military might.

On Wednesday, police and soldiers opened fire with live rounds with little warning in several cities and towns, witnesses said. UN special envoy on Myanmar, Christine Schraner Burgener, said in New York that there had been 38 people killed in the bloodiest day since the February 1 coup.

The latest deaths took toll to more than 50 as the military tries to impose its authority. “Myanmar’s security forces now seem intent on breaking the back of the anti-coup movement through wanton violence and sheer brutality,” said Richard Weir, a researcher at Human Rights Watch.

In one incident, a man in custody appeared to have been shot in the back, the group said.

A spokesman for the ruling military council did not answer telephone calls seeking comment.

‘FEW FRIENDS’

Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party said in a statement that flags would fly at half mast at its offices to commemorate the dead.

Schraner Burgener said she warned Myanmar deputy military chief Soe Win that the military was likely to face strong measures from some countries and isolation in retaliation for the coup.

“The answer was: ‘We are used to sanctions, and we survived’,” she told reporters, adding: “When I also warned they will go (into) isolation, the answer was: ‘We have to learn to walk with only few friends’.”

The UN Security Council is due to discuss the situation on Friday in a closed meeting, diplomats said.

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews said the “systematic brutality” of the military was on display and he urged Security Council members to view images of the violence. (Reuters)