Myanmar killings are an escalation, further action being readied: White House

Recent killings of protesters in Myanmar represent an escalation of the situation there, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday, noting that the Biden administration was preparing further costs on those responsible for the military coup.

"The killings represent an escalation of the ongoing crackdown on pro-Democracy protesters," Psaki told reporters. "We are preparing additional the actions to impose further costs on those responsible for this latest outbreak of violence and the recent coup and we expect to have more to share on that in the coming days."

Myanmar has been in chaos since the military seized power after alleging fraud in a November election that the NLD won in a landslide, with daily protests getting increasingly violent as police and troops try to stamp them out.

In his speech, read out by a newsreader on state-run MRTV, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing said action would be taken against civil servants refusing to work for the junta.

He said the military was investigating what he called corruption by the civilian government, accusing the authorities of misusing money meant for COVID-19 prevention efforts.

"The respective ministries are working to find out such financial abuse," he said, adding that action would be taken against organizations where foreign currency funds were found.

He said a committee formed by ousted lawmakers from the civilian government, which has announced the formation of a government-in-exile, was illegal and anyone associated with it would be punished.

The junta has promised a new election but not set a date.

On Monday, the Committee Representing Pyidaungsu Hluttaw, whose name uses the Burmese word for the Myanmar parliament, declared the junta a terrorist group and condemned the violence against protesters as a "declaration of war on unarmed civilians".

On Sunday, police fired on crowds in several places, killing 18 people, the United Nations human rights office said. A committee representing lawmakers elected last year said 26 people were killed but Reuters was unable to verify that.

"We have to continue the protest no matter what," Thar Nge said after tear gas volleys from the police forced him and others to abandon a barricade in a Yangon street.

The military has not commented on Sunday's violence and police and military spokesmen did not answer calls. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper warned that "severe action will be inevitably taken" against "anarchic mobs".

Demonstrators marched on Monday in the northwestern town of Kale holding up pictures of Suu Kyi, and live video on Facebook showed a crowd in the northeastern town of Lashio, chanting slogans. Police and soldiers later raided a church in the town and detained 11 people, a church group said.

After nightfall, a journalist for the Democratic Voice of Burma live-streamed security forces outside his apartment in the coastal town of Myeik, where he had been filming protests. "They are shooting," he cries out, appealing to neighbours for help as sounds of broken glass can be heard and smoke seen.

It was not clear whether the journalist had been detained.