Associated Press: Dissident group says 138 killed in crackdown by Myanmar junta
Mon 1 Oct 2007
Yangon, Myanmar - Myanmar's junta leader stalled a U.N. envoy for yet
another day Monday, delaying his chance to present international
demands for an end to the crackdown on the largest protests in two
decades that one dissident group says has killed more than 130 people.
A Norway-based dissident news organization estimated that 138 people
were killed - more than 10 times the government figure - and 6,000
detained.
After days of intimidation that snuffed out the public demonstrations
led by Buddhist monks, soldiers and riot police redeployed from
Yangon's center to the outskirts Monday, but were still checking cars
and buses, and monitoring the city by helicopter.
Traffic was light and most shops remained closed. Some monks were
allowed to leave monasteries to collect food donations, watched by
soldiers lounging under trees.
Ibrahim Gambari, the U.N.'s special envoy to Myanmar, was given an
appointment to meet with Senior Gen. Than Shwe on Tuesday in the
junta's remote bunker-like capital, Naypyitaw, an Asian diplomat said.
Instead of the meeting Monday that he had hoped for, Gambari was taken
on a government-sponsored trip to attend a seminar in the far northern
Shan state on European Union relations with Southeast Asia, said other
diplomats. The diplomats spoke on condition of anonymity, citing
protocol.
Public anger, which ignited Aug. 19 after the government increased
fuel prices, turned into mass protests against 45 years of military
dictatorship when Buddhist monks joined in. Soldiers responded last
week by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing at least 10
people by the government's account.
"The people are angry but afraid - many are poor and struggling in
life so they don't join the protests anymore," Thet, a 30-year-old
university graduate who is now driving a taxi, said Monday.
A Norway-based dissident news organization, the Democratic Voice of
Burma, said pro-democracy activists estimate 138 people were killed.
"Our own estimate is about 6,000 people detained, not killed, but
detained," including about 2,400 monks, DVB chief editor Aye Chan
Naing said in Oslo.
He said they are being held in at least four places - the infamous
Insein Prison, a pharmaceutical factory, a technical institute and a
disused race course.
He said his reporters had spoken to one family whose son was wounded
by gunfire in Yangon, brought to a hospital on Sept. 28 and
disappeared on Sept. 30.
There was a clear sense that the anti-democracy protests had once
again failed in the face of the junta's overwhelming military might,
which was last used in 1988 to crush a much larger uprising.
"I think the protests are over because there is no hope pressing
them," said a 68-year-old teacher.
In Yangon, trucks full of police and soldiers arrived in the
afternoon. Small vendors immediately packed up and left, while other
stores hurriedly closed their windows, fearing trouble.
Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, two flash points of the unrest, reopened,
but there were few visitors.
Another Asian diplomat said Monday all the arrested monks were
defrocked - stripped of their highly revered status and made to wear
civilian clothes. Some of them are likely to face long jail terms, the
diplomat said, also on condition of anonymity.
In Mandalay, Myanmar's second largest city, security forces arrested
dozens of university students who staged a street protest on Sunday, a
witness said.
Gambari is expected to return to Yangon on Tuesday to catch a flight
out of the country, the diplomats said.
The U.N. said Gambari, in the country since Saturday, "remains in
Myanmar. He looks forward to meeting Senior General Than Shwe and
other relevant interlocutors before the conclusion of his mission."
The junta has not commented on Gambari's mission. Since arriving on
Saturday, he has met with junior members of the junta in Naypyitaw and
pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Yangon.
Gambari's hour-long talk with Suu Kyi was unexpected - he did not know
before he arrived if he would be allowed to meet the 1991 Nobel Peace
prize winner who has come to symbolize the struggle for democracy in
Myanmar. She has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house
arrest.
Suu Kyi' National League for Democracy party was not optimistic
Gambari would yield any influence over the junta leaders.
The junta has never responded well to international pressure in the
past and has rebuffed U.N. efforts to bring about reconciliation with
Suu Kyi.
But its desire for oil and gas investment, increased tourism and its
status as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations means
it cannot follow a completely isolated path, as it has in the past.
"I do think a number of underlying dynamics have changed quite
fundamentally and make us more hopeful that something might happen,"
said British Ambassador Mark Canning.
The military rulers have sought to limit news coming out of Myanmar,
with public Internet access restricted and mobile phone service
sporadic for a fourth day in a row. Soldiers have gone to hotels in
search of foreign journalists operating without permission.
