Groups Struggle to Tally Myanmar's Dead

[babylonsister]

Groups Struggle to Tally Myanmar's Dead


Monday October 1, 2007 7:01 PM

By MICHAEL CASEY

Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. Buddhist monks floating face down in rivers.

After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing.

``There are huge difficulties. It's a closed police state,'' said David Mathieson, a consultant with Human Rights Watch in Thailand. ``Many of the witnesses have been arrested and are being held in areas we don't have access to. Other eyewitness are too afraid.''

Authorities have acknowledged that government troops shot dead nine demonstrators and a Japanese cameraman in Yangon. But witness accounts range from several dozen deaths to as many as 200.

``We do believe the death toll is higher than acknowledged by the government,'' Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press Monday. ``We are doing our best to get more precise, more detailed information, not only in terms of deaths but also arrests.''

Villarosa said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators - monks and civilians - in the thousands.

more...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6962910,00.html

[uppityperson]

1. Thanks for posting in GD too. k&r again, going to be hard to get accurate #/news

Monks being sent away, disappearing, etc etc etc combined with media shutdown, etc etc etc. k&r

[babylonsister]

2. It's so sad; I wonder if we'll ever really know the full tally or what really

happened when the hired guns took over. :(

[uppityperson]

3. Burma has been something for quite some time. Incredible for the monks to

do what they have done. And very brave of the people to support them.