Myanmar Protesters Paint Yangon Red, Defying Bloody Army Crackdown

As the crisis drags on with no immediate diplomatic solution in sight, opponents of Myanmar's military junta sprayed red paint on roads in the country's largest city on Tuesday to commemorate the deaths of hundreds of "martyrs" killed by troops.

Since the military coup on Feb. 1, 570 people have been killed, and security forces have detained up to 3,500 people, with about four-fifths of them currently in custody, according to advocacy group the Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP).

Demonstrators in Yangon awoke early to spray and splash red paint on pavements, intersections, and bus shelters in defiance of security forces' sweeping crackdown, which has sparked weeks of international outcry.

Another daubed across a bus shelter took aim at rank-and-file soldiers who it said were being exploited by kleptocratic generals. "Don't kill people just for a small salary as low as the cost of dog food," it said.

Myanmar has been engulfed in anger over the return of a military government and the abrupt end of a brief period of democratic and economic change, as well as foreign integration, that existed under the military's authoritarian rule from 1962 to 2011.