Myanmar demonstrators return on roads despite police brutality

Crowds protesting against the military takeover in Myanmar again opposed a ban on demonstrations Wednesday. They took to the streets even after defense forces ratcheted up the use of force against them and attacked the headquarters of the state party of ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Fresh protests were also reported in Yangon and Mandalay, the country's two biggest cities, and the capital Naypyitaw and elsewhere.

The protesters are asking that power may be restored to Suu Kyi's deposed civilian government. They've also sought freedom for her and other parties in power members since the military detained them after blocking the new Parliament session on Feb. 1. The military maintains it behaved because November's election, in which Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy obtained a landslide victory, was destroyed by violations. The election commission refuted the allegation.

The growing demonstrations and the junta's latest raid suggest there is little room for adjustment. The military, which held power right for five decades after a 1962 coup, used deadly force to quash a large 1988 uprising, and a 2007 revolt was led by Buddhist monks.

In Naypyitaw and Mandalay on Tuesday, police also sprayed water cannons and shot signal shots to try to clear away protesters.

In Naypyitaw, they shot rubber weapons and apparently live rounds, cutting a woman protester, according to witnesses and footage on social media. The reports could not be independently verified.

Human Rights Watch ordered a doctor at a Naypyitaw hospital to tell the woman was also in critical condition. The doctor said the woman had something stuck in her head, believed to be a bullet that had entered the end of the right ear, and had lost significant brain party. The doctor said a man had also been treated with an upper-body wound constant with that of live ammunition.

"Myanmar police should now end the use of disproportionate and lethal force" against the rebels, said the statement from the New York-based watchdog.