Hundreds mourn slain teenager with T-shirt slogan 'Everything will be OK'

YANGON • Hundreds of mourners gathered in Myanmar yesterday for the funeral of a 19-year-old protester shot and killed at a demonstration against military rule.

Taekwondo champion Angel, also known as Ms Kyal Sin, was shot in the head and killed in the city of Mandalay on Wednesday while wearing a shirt bearing the message "Everything will be OK".

Mourners, many of them young like her, filed past her open coffin and sang protest songs, raised a three-finger salute of defiance and chanted slogans against the Feb 1 military coup that has plunged the country into turmoil.

Ms Angel, who was also a dancer, was one of 38 people killed on Wednesday, according to a United Nations tally. A spokesman for the junta did not respond to a request for comment on the killings.

Mr Myat Thu, who was with her at the protests, recalled a brave young woman who kicked open a water pipe so that protesters could wash tear gas from their eyes, and who lobbed a tear gas canister back towards the police.

"When the police opened fire, she told me 'Sit! Sit! Bullets will hit you. You look like you're on a stage'," recalled Mr Myat Thu, 23.

"She cared for and protected others as a comrade."

Mr Myat Thu said he and Ms Angel were among hundreds who had gathered peacefully in Myanmar's second-largest city to denounce the coup and call for the release of detained leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Before the police assault, Ms Angel can be heard on video shouting, "we won't run" and "blood must not be shed".

Mr Sai Tun, 32, who attended the funeral, said he could not come to terms with what had happened to Ms Angel.

"We feel so angry about their inhuman behaviour and really sad at the same time," he told Reuters by telephone.

"We'll fight dictatorship until the end. We must prevail."

Despite the slogan on her shirt, Ms Angel was aware of the risks as she headed out to the protest, posting details of her blood group, a contact number and a request to donate her body in the event of her death.

The phrase on the shirt quickly went viral on social media among opponents of the coup.

More than 50 people have now been killed as the military struggles to impose its authority, in particular on a generation that has grown up in recent years under a government led by Ms Suu Kyi.

The military, which ruled for nearly 50 years until it began stepping back from politics a decade ago, said an election Ms Suu Kyi won in a landslide in November was marred by fraud.

The election commission dismissed the complaint of fraud.

In the central town of Monywa, family and friends mourned the death of young poet T Z Win, who was also killed on Wednesday.

The day before he was killed, he posted a poem on Facebook with the line: "The louder the song of the youth, The more the whole world will be cleansed."

REUTERS