Rights group: Myanmar toll "much greater" than junta admits

Dec 7, 2007, 10:02 GMT

Bangkok - Many more people were killed in a September crackdown on peaceful anti-government protesters than Myanmar's military regime admits, Human Rights Watch said Friday.

The rights group said that although it would be impossible to determine the exact toll without full and independent access to Myanmar, it could document the killings of 20 people in Yangon and believed the death toll was much higher.

The military government said 15 people died after troops broke up the country's biggest mass protests in nearly two decades.

Security forces shot into crowds of the monk-led protesters with live ammunition and rubber bullets, beat marchers and monks, and detained thousands of people, Human Rights Watch said after an investigation in which it interviewed more than 100 witnesses in Myanmar and Thailand.

It added that monks, students and other civilians were among those killed.

One of the witnesses the rights group interviewed was Thazin Aye, 17, who described a September 27 military raid on a high school.

'The informers pointed to the grass,' Thazin Aye was quoted as saying. 'Seven young people were hiding there. They got up and ran, but the soldiers started firing into their backs. They were only able to run six or seven steps before they fell. Three or four of the young boys, aged around 20 to 22, were gunned down straight away. The others tried to run but were caught and taken away in the military cars.'

A monk named U Khanda also described a September 27 raid on his monastery.

'They were throwing tear gas and firing their automatic guns into the buildings of the monastery and used their batons to beat the monks whenever they saw them,' he said. '... I was injured in the head when I was hit by baton charges.'

The New York-based group said the military's clampdown on the least sign of dissent is continuing, mostly out of sight of the international community.

Hundreds of monks, activists and ordinary citizens remain unaccounted for in the country once known as Burma although the regime said 80 people remain in detention and that nine people have been sentenced to jail terms.

'The crackdown in Burma is far from over,' said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. 'Harsh repression continues, and the government is still lying about the extent of the deaths and detentions.'

Human Rights Watch criticized the reaction to the protest by neighbours and allies with influence over Myanmar, notably China, India, Russia, Thailand and other members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations members. It also criticized Japan for acting timidly despite the killing of a Japanese journalist by security forces.

The agency called for harsher international pressure, including in the UN Security Council, for the junta to undertake reforms.

'It's time for the world to impose a UN arms embargo and financial sanctions, to hurt Burma's leaders until they make real changes,' Adams said. 'Countries like China, India and Thailand have the responsibility to take action to help hold the generals accountable and to end this long nightmare of military repression.'