'6,000 held' as Burma smashes revolutionTue 2 Oct 2007
ETHAN MCNERN AND AUNG HLA TUN IN RANGOON
The Scotsman (Scotland, UK)
BURMESE authorities are holding about 6,000 anti-government protesters at four sites, including the notorious Insein prison and a racecourse, a dissident group, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said yesterday.
DVB, which has continued to broadcast TV and radio into Burma from its Norwegian base in Oslo, added that at least 138 people were killed in last week's protests.
"Our own estimate is about 6,000 people detained, not killed, but detained," including about 2,400 monks, said DVB's chief editor, Aye Chan Naing. He said they were being held in at least four places: the Insein prison; a pharmaceutical factory; a technical institute and a disused racecourse.
Ominously, it was reported many would be sent to prisons in the far north of the country.
Monks appear to be paying a heavy price for spearheading the demonstrations. An Asian diplomat said all the arrested monks were defrocked and made to wear civilian clothes. Some were likely to face long jail terms, the diplomat said.
Insein prison, near Rangoon, was built by the British during the colonial period. It is now the junta's maximum security jail. One dissident who was held there has described it as the "darkest hell-hole in Burma".
The junta has been forced to use other facilities to hold people simply because of the numbers it has picked up.
Meanwhile yesterday, General Than Shwe, the junta's leader, stalled a United Nations envoy, Ibrabim Gambari, for yet another day, putting off the apparently onerous task of hearing international demands for an end to Burma's harsh crackdown on democracy advocates.
Mr Gambari has been in the country since Saturday with the express purpose of seeing the general, but the junta's top man has apparently been too busy.
Gen Than Shwe, 74, is frequently rumoured to be in poor health, but he has a well-deserved reputation as a military hard-liner who pays scant regard to the cares and concerns of the outside world.
Instead of the meeting that he had hoped for, Mr Gambari was shipped out yesterday to Lashio, a remote northern town for an academic conference.
In a sign yesterday that the junta was confident it had squeezed the life out of the uprising, barbed-wire barricades were removed from the Shewdagon Pagoda, a rallying point for monks leading the marches in Rangoon.
However, soldiers and security men were searching people for cameras. The internet, by which images of the crackdown reached the world, also remained unavailable.
Public anger ignited on 19 August after the government raised fuel prices, then shifted into mass protests led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship. Soldiers responded last week by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The government said ten people were killed.
Among residents in Rangoon, there was a palpable sense yesterday that the strongest anti-democracy protests since 1988 had once again failed.
"The people are angry, but afraid; many are poor and struggling in life, so they don't join the protests anymore," said Theta, 30, a university graduate who is now driving a taxi.
Other Burmese were more despairing. "The people are enraged, but they could not do anything because they're facing guns," said a 68-year-old teacher. "I think the protests are over because there is no hope pressing them."
Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador, said China had pushed for Mr Gambari's mission to be as far-reaching as possible, getting permission for him to fly to Naypyidaw, where he met the acting prime minister.
He then returned to Rangoon for an hour with the opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for nearly 12 of the past 18 years.
"There's been an evolution in his programme. The initial pitch was minimalist. It's got a bit better, and we want to see it get better still," Mr Canning said.
STALLONE IS HORRIFIED
SYLVESTER Stallone yesterday said he and his crew on the Rambo movie sequel witnessed the human toll of unspeakable atrocities while filming along the Burmese border.
"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries ... and ears cut off. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific," he said.
Stallone returned eight days ago from a film shoot on the Salween River separating Thailand and Burma.
DVB, which has continued to broadcast TV and radio into Burma from its Norwegian base in Oslo, added that at least 138 people were killed in last week's protests.
"Our own estimate is about 6,000 people detained, not killed, but detained," including about 2,400 monks, said DVB's chief editor, Aye Chan Naing. He said they were being held in at least four places: the Insein prison; a pharmaceutical factory; a technical institute and a disused racecourse.
Ominously, it was reported many would be sent to prisons in the far north of the country.
Monks appear to be paying a heavy price for spearheading the demonstrations. An Asian diplomat said all the arrested monks were defrocked and made to wear civilian clothes. Some were likely to face long jail terms, the diplomat said.
Insein prison, near Rangoon, was built by the British during the colonial period. It is now the junta's maximum security jail. One dissident who was held there has described it as the "darkest hell-hole in Burma".
The junta has been forced to use other facilities to hold people simply because of the numbers it has picked up.
Meanwhile yesterday, General Than Shwe, the junta's leader, stalled a United Nations envoy, Ibrabim Gambari, for yet another day, putting off the apparently onerous task of hearing international demands for an end to Burma's harsh crackdown on democracy advocates.
Mr Gambari has been in the country since Saturday with the express purpose of seeing the general, but the junta's top man has apparently been too busy.
Gen Than Shwe, 74, is frequently rumoured to be in poor health, but he has a well-deserved reputation as a military hard-liner who pays scant regard to the cares and concerns of the outside world.
Instead of the meeting that he had hoped for, Mr Gambari was shipped out yesterday to Lashio, a remote northern town for an academic conference.
In a sign yesterday that the junta was confident it had squeezed the life out of the uprising, barbed-wire barricades were removed from the Shewdagon Pagoda, a rallying point for monks leading the marches in Rangoon.
However, soldiers and security men were searching people for cameras. The internet, by which images of the crackdown reached the world, also remained unavailable.
Public anger ignited on 19 August after the government raised fuel prices, then shifted into mass protests led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship. Soldiers responded last week by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators. The government said ten people were killed.
Among residents in Rangoon, there was a palpable sense yesterday that the strongest anti-democracy protests since 1988 had once again failed.
"The people are angry, but afraid; many are poor and struggling in life, so they don't join the protests anymore," said Theta, 30, a university graduate who is now driving a taxi.
Other Burmese were more despairing. "The people are enraged, but they could not do anything because they're facing guns," said a 68-year-old teacher. "I think the protests are over because there is no hope pressing them."
Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador, said China had pushed for Mr Gambari's mission to be as far-reaching as possible, getting permission for him to fly to Naypyidaw, where he met the acting prime minister.
He then returned to Rangoon for an hour with the opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for nearly 12 of the past 18 years.
"There's been an evolution in his programme. The initial pitch was minimalist. It's got a bit better, and we want to see it get better still," Mr Canning said.
STALLONE IS HORRIFIED
SYLVESTER Stallone yesterday said he and his crew on the Rambo movie sequel witnessed the human toll of unspeakable atrocities while filming along the Burmese border.
"I witnessed the aftermath - survivors with legs cut off and all kinds of land mine injuries ... and ears cut off. We hear about Vietnam and Cambodia and this was more horrific," he said.
Stallone returned eight days ago from a film shoot on the Salween River separating Thailand and Burma.
9 comments:
It took Gandhi 50 years to defeat British. It is a matter of time that these dictators will be hung infront of people.
9:58 - Gandhi fought for independence from colonialist rule. The military junta in Myanmar is also fighting Western colonialist elements to maintain its nation's sovereignty. So I don't see the analogy between Gandhi and the current uprising.
http://www.oudam.com
Look at these westerns PhD fools. They think they can fool us (Mekongers) with their stupid Hollywood star, hahaha, LOL, hahaha....
Rambo is pure American fantasy. The idea of a sole American action hero taking out hundreds of Vietnamese soldiers belongs in the realm of wishful thinking. Even most Americans even acknowledge that they lost the Vietnam War.
Someone has seen the light now,proves truly no one is invicible but only the time.
"Mekongers?!!! where all this "Youn" bull shit coming from...? are the vietcongs now using "mekongers instead of "indochinese"
10:29a.m, are you stupid?.hahahahahha
wonder what the HR will do? Hopefully, there will be a trail for that ash....tanswee monkeyass.
It's so very shameful to be an Asian . We thought that we are nice people & gentle race full of compassion and love just like every good people. Wrong! Such action done by such people or " shameful leaders", prove that we are the ugliest race.
Bloody tear drops
"Mekongers?!!! where all this "Youn" bull shit coming from...? are the vietcongs now using "mekongers instead of "indochinese".
Allow me to explain: IndoChinese is only a subset of Mekongers. It consist of only Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Mekongers are countries that belong to the Mekong Committee and they shared the Mekong river, and that included China, Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia. Thus, Mekongers consist of 6 countries altogether.
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