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New Myanmar PM directly behind attack on Aung San Suu Kyi
 The new prime minister of military-ruled Myanmar was directly behind an attack on opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and her convoy last year, the United States charged on Wednesday amid calls for UN Security Council action against the Southeast Asian nation.State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington had a credible report that Lieutenant General Soe Win, an ally of hardline junta chief Than Shwe, was "directly involved in the decision to carry out the brutal attack on Aung San Suu Kyi and her convoy on May 30, 2003." "We did look into the matter extensively," Boucher said when asked for the basis of the charge. "I'm not sure exactly where that report came from but I think we find it to be a report that is worth taking into account." Last year's attack by a pro-junta mob on Aung San Suu Kyi and other leaders and members of her National League for Democracy party heralded the Nobel peace laureate's latest period of house arrest. At least six democracy campaigners were killed in the assault and eyewitnesses said the toll may have risen up to 70 as government-affiliated forces set upon the convoy with bamboo staves and metal pipes. In a report on the incident released earlier this year, the State Department said generals involved in the attack had been subsequently rewarded and alleged that scores of villagers, students, and Buddhist monks may have been killed.
Posted by: Steve White 2004-10-21 |
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| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=46526 |