Security Forces Exhume Body of Woman Slain in Myanmar Protests

By The Irrawaddy 5 March 2021

YANGON–The body of a 19-year-old woman who was shot dead by security forces in Mandalay on Wednesday was forcibly exhumed by Myanmar military soldiers Friday afternoon, one day after her burial.

Kyal Sin was hit in the head during a heavy-handed police crackdown on anti-regime protesters in downtown Mandalay on Wednesday. Witnesses said live ammunition was used.

She was entombed at the Chinese section of Aye Yeik Nyein Cemetery.

Witnesses said soldiers arrived in trucks at the cemetery around 3 p.m. Friday and held the cemetery staff at gunpoint. Since then the entrance to the cemetery has been blocked.

The exhumation came after the regime’s state-run newspapers reported on Friday morning that the injury sustained by the woman was unlikely to have been caused by security force weapons. It also claimed that if she had been hit by live ammunition, her head would have been disfigured.

“Relevant law enforcement personnel are investigating the root cause of the death,” it said.

Last month, the regime categorically denied involvement in the killing of a young woman who was shot in the head during a police crackdown on anti-regime protesters in Naypyitaw, saying the bullet that struck her was different from the type security forces use, citing a postmortem report.

You may also like these stories:

US Ambassador Asks Myanmar’s Military Deputy Chief to Stop Violence Against Protesters

Anger in Myanmar But Crisis Distant to Singaporeans

More Than 600 Police Join Myanmar’s Anti-Regime Protest Movement