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Higher Death Toll Suggested in Myanmar
EFL
U.S. diplomats who visited the site of political clashes in Myanmar saw bloody clothes and homemade weapons, suggesting far more people may have been killed than the four reported by the military junta, a U.S. Embassy official said Thursday. Evidence gathered at the site also indicated the fighting in northern Myanmar, which broke out around democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade as she toured the region last Friday, was orchestrated by the government. The junta detained her after the clash and has not disclosed her whereabouts.
Sounds like they whacked her.
``What they found corroborates eyewitness reports circulating of a premeditated ambush on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade,'' the official said. The two diplomats who visited the scene of the attack found signs of ``great violence,'' including bloody clothing, numerous homemade weapons and smashed headlights and mirrors. The official would not detail all the information suggesting a premeditated attack but said it included photographs and physical evidence. Myanmar's lying junta has said the fighting began when Suu Kyi's motorcade drove through a crowd of townspeople protesting her visit and that four people were killed. Exile groups allege that government-backed forces staged an ambush and that 70 or more people may have been killed over two days. Exiled opposition figures in Thailand say the Nobel Peace Prize winner may have received head injuries in the violence. The junta insists that Suu Kyi and colleagues detained with her are fine - although it refuses to divulge where they are held.
In a morgue, I'm afraid.
The exiled figures say the clash was planned by the junta to justify a crackdown on Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy.
Which will fool no one other than Chomsky and ANSWER.
U.S. officials said Thursday that some of those claims were corroborated by diplomats who visited the scene. ``Circumstances and reports from individuals in the region indicate that the attack was conducted by government-affiliated thugs,'' U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Reeker said in Washington. ``The debris remaining at the scene suggests a major clash, which could easily have resulted in serious injuries to large numbers of people.'' At least 19 members of Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party were also detained. The military, which has put Suu Kyi under house arrest several times since 1989, has repeatedly sought to quash her movement and said she was taken into ``protective custody.'' Tight media controls and the remote location of the clash made it impossible to confirm what happened. Phone lines to the area appear to have been cut.
That's always a bad sign...
Myanmar's government is under pressure to produce Suu Kyi by Friday, when U.N. special envoy Razali Ismail visits. Razali told The Associated Press in Kuala Lumpur he expected to meet junta leader Gen. Than Shwe to push for Suu Kyi's release. As he prepared to leave for Myanmar, the diplomat said he would investigate the violence by talking to all sides ``to get factual details of what took place.'' Razali said senior U.N. officials had asked him to proceed with the visit even though the junta has refused to give assurances that he would be allowed to meet her.
Good luck, Razali; let's see if the UN can be useful for a change.
Posted by: Steve White 2003-06-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=15144