3 Monks Killed in Myanmar Crackdown
P.S. SURYANARAYANA / The Hindu (India) 26sep2007
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Police opened fire and baton-charged protesters who had begun to gather at the Shwedagon Pagoda in the blazing noon sunshine. Undeterred by the show of force, some 1,000 monks soon regrouped and paraded through the streets, to the delight of thousands of onlookers. They roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces: "You are fools! You are fools!" source: AFP article below
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SINGAPORE Three Buddhist monks were killed on Wednesday in an attack by security forces on protesters in Yangon, Myanmar, according to the dissident National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB).
The three were beaten up near the iconic Shwedagon pagoda during a clash between the countrys junta and the protesting monks.
It was a day of dramatic defiance by the newly formed All-Burma Monks Alliance and its supporters from all walks of life even as the military regime braced for a crackdown.
By nightfall, another two monks were reported killed in clashes with security forces in Yangon.
But dissidents in exile in Thailand could not confirm this.
The dissidents, as also some Yangon residents, however, confirmed that gunshots were fired by some military personnel. The protesters were also teargassed once.
NCUB spokesman Soe Aung told The Hindu over telephone from Bangkok that on Wednesday too, students and activists belonging to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyis National League for Democracy joined the monks in the protest marches.
NCUB general secretary Maung Maung told The Hindu over telephone from the Thailand-Myanmar border that 40 monks, 20 nuns and 20 students were taken to a police quarantine.
source: 26sep2007
Four Killed in Myanmar Protest Crackdown:
Including Three Buddhist Monks
Agence France-Presse 26sep2007
YANGON - Myanmar security forces used batons, tear gas and live rounds Wednesday in a violent crackdown on mass protests against the military junta, killing at least four people including three Buddhist monks.
Up to 100,000 people defied heavy security to take to the streets of the main city Yangon, marching and shouting abuse at police despite blunt warnings from the ruling generals who are facing the most serious challenge to their rule in nearly two decades.
Two of the monks were beaten to death while another was shot when he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier and the weapon discharged, two senior Myanmar officials told AFP.
They said the monks were killed near Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest site and a key rallying point for the clergy who have led nine days of protests which have spread across the Southeast Asian nation.
A fourth man, who was not a monk, was shot dead, a hospital source said.
The United Nations Security Council held emergency talks in New York late Wednesday to discuss the spiralling crisis, as international outrage over the violent crackdown mounted.
The UN's point man on Myanmar, special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, was to brief the closed-door meeting.
Earlier, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he was sending Gambari to the region immediately and urged the junta to "cooperate fully" with his mission.
The United States and the European Union called on authorities "to stop violence and to open a process of dialogue with pro-democracy leaders," including detained Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
The G8 grouping of the world's eight most industrialised nations condemned the violence and warned the generals that they would be held accountable for their actions.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is the former colonial power, said "the whole world is now watching Burma," and French President Nicolas Sarkozy called on French businesses to freeze their investments here.
After tolerating more than a week of protests, police opened fire and baton-charged protesters who had begun to gather at the Shwedagon Pagoda in the blazing noon sunshine.
Undeterred by the show of force, some 1,000 monks soon regrouped and paraded through the streets, to the delight of thousands of onlookers.
They roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces: "You are fools! You are fools!"
Police and troops then fired a volley of warning shots and tear gas to try to break up the march.
In a sign of the resilience and determination of the protest movement, tens of thousands of monks massed once again, marching through the main market in a protest that lasted until the early evening.
At least 100 people were injured during the day and some 200 people were arrested, as many as half of them Buddhist monks, according to witnesses and diplomats.
State television news said that one 30-year-old protester had been killed, and another two men and one woman were injured, along with 10 police.
The report said security forces had used loudspeakers to ask the crowd to disperse but that the protesters had hurled stones and sticks at them, tried to steal their weapons, and set fire to two military motorcycles.
"Because of the difficult situation, the security forces opened fire to disperse the crowd, using just a little force against the violent protesters. Because they opened fire, the protesters dispersed," it said.
The party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi branded the assaults on the monks highly revered in the devoutly Buddhist nation "the greatest wrong in history."
Protesters ignored a ban on public gatherings issued Tuesday along with a dusk-to-dawn curfew, as the generals who have turned Myanmar into one of the world's poorest and most isolated nations tried to keep a lid on the unrest.
Wednesday was the first time violence has been used against the recent protests, and analysts said it could be a preview for an even more severe crackdown in coming days.
There are fears of a repeat of 1988, the last time demonstrators rallied in such numbers in the streets of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Then, around 3,000 people were killed by the security forces.
There were sketchy reports Wednesday of huge turnouts and further clashes with police in the central city of Mandalay and in Sittwe on the western coast where 15,000 people marched.
The unrest began last month when the junta dramatically raised the price of fuel overnight, deepening the misery in this already impoverished country.
The initial protests rare in a nation where the military quickly crushes any show of dissent began with only a handful of marching demonstrators.
But after the monks joined, the movement swelled, and around 100,000 people marched in Yangon on Monday and Tuesday.
source: 26sep2007
Monks Beaten, Arrested as Myanmar
Cracks Down on Anti-Government Protests
Canadian Press 26sep2007
YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces in Myanmar opened fire on demonstrators Wednesday, and witnesses said police beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks. The government said at least one person was killed, while dissident groups and media reported up to eight dead.
The military junta's announcement on state radio and television was the first acknowledgment of the use of force against protesters and its first admission of bloodshed after a month of mostly peaceful demonstrations against the government.
The United States and the European Union condemned the attacks and called on the military rulers to open a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, according to a joint statement on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
The UN Security Council planned to hold closed consultations on Myanmar later Wednesday, and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon dispatched a special envoy to the region.
Ban urged the junta "to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar," UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.
About 300 monks and activists were arrested on the ninth straight day of protests in Yangon, dissidents said. The number could not be independently confirmed.
Myanmar's leaders had warned the monks to stop the protests after some 100,000 people joined marches Monday in the largest anti-government demonstrations since a 1988 democracy uprising was violently suppressed in the country, which is also known as Burma.
The junta said security forces opened fire after a crowd of 10,000 people, including what it described as "so-called monks," failed to disperse at Yangon's Sule Pagoda. It said police used minimum force.
The dead man, age 30, was hit by a bullet, the statement said. It also said two men aged 25 and 27 and a 47-year-old woman suffered wounds when police fired, but did not specify their injuries.
Witnesses who were known to The Associated Press said they had seen two women and one young man with gunshot wounds in the chaotic confrontations.
Khim Maung Win, deputy editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, a small anti-junta broadcaster based in Oslo, Norway, said eight people - five monks and three civilians - were reported killed and at least four seriously wounded.
Zin Linn, information minister for the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which is Myanmar's self-styled government-in-exile, said at least five monks were killed.
An organization of exiled political activists in Thailand, the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area, said three monks had been confirmed dead, and about 17 wounded.
The reports could not be independently confirmed.
Voice of Burma's chief editor, Aye Chan Naing, said democracy activists are using the Internet and cellphones to funnel news out of Myanmar, but added that he did not want to discuss details because of the military's control of the country's communications.
"Mobile phones are essential. Mobile phones are the way they (their reporters) can report from the ground. This morning they (the military) cut off some mobile phones, so we can't get a hold of some of our people," he said.
Earlier in the week, Naing said activists sometimes transmit video one frame at a time over the web and also hide information within seemingly innocuous e-mails.
The security forces had fired warning shots and tear gas to try to disperse the crowds of demonstrators while hauling away the defiant, cinnamon-robed monks into waiting military trucks: the first mass arrests since protests erupted Aug. 19. Monks are highly revered in Myanmar.
In a joint statement condemning the attack on protesters, the United States and EU urged the Security Council to "discuss this situation urgently and consider further steps including sanctions." It also urged China, India and Southeast Asian countries to use their influence to end the crackdown.
"The European Union and the United States express their solidarity with the people of Burma/Myanmar," the statement said, calling on the junta to halt violent and open talks with Suu Kyi and others.
On Tuesday, President George W. Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who was appointed as the UN's independent expert on human rights in Myanmar seven years ago, told the Associated Press the confrontation between the monks and the security forces will end in "a disaster" unless the international community makes a concerted effort to stop further escalation.
"You will have a real threat to security in the area because you will have a regime that is politically unstable for many years to come," Pinheiro said by telephone from Brown University in Providence, R.I.
The use of force will almost certainly put pressure on Myanmar's top economic and diplomatic supporter, China, which is eager to burnish its international image before next year's Olympics in Beijing.
When faced with a similar crisis in 1988, Myanmar brutally suppressed a student-led democracy uprising. Soldiers shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands.
On Tuesday, the junta banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a 9 p.m.-5 a.m. curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks.
source: 26sep2007
Myanmar, Somalia Worst for Corruption
D'ARCY DORAN / AP 26sep2007
LONDON Myanmar and Somalia have been ranked as the most corrupt nations in Transparency International's 2007 index, released Wednesday adding pressure to the Southeast Asian country's military regime as it faces the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades.
Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index scored 180 countries based on the degree to which corruption is perceived among public officials and politicians.
Myanmar, also known as Burma, and Somalia received the lowest score of 1.4 out of 10.
Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt each scoring 9.4.
"Countries torn apart by conflict pay a huge toll in their capacity to govern," the agency's international chairman Huguette Labelle said in a statement. "With public institutions crippled or nonexistent, mercenary individuals help themselves to public resources and corruption thrives."
Western governments have accused Myanmar's junta which seized power in 1988 of turning what was once a jewel of Southeast Asia into one of its most miserable places through repression, mismanagement and corruption.
Myanmar's business elite thrive by serving the generals, while many in the country go without regular food and electricity, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, Shari Villarosa, told reporters earlier this year.
Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on one another. The current, U.N.-backed government was formed in 2004, but has struggled to assert any real control.
Faring the best in the survey were Denmark, Finland and New Zealand, in a first-place tie with each scoring of 9.4.
The agency's scale is based on the perceptions of the degree of corruption by businesspeople and country analysts. Countries are ranked out of 10, and any score below 5 indicates "serious" perceived levels of corruption, while scores below 3 reflect "rampant" corruption, the agency said.
On the Net: http://www.transparency.org
source: 26sep2007
China Nudges Myanmar on Protests
AP 26sep2007
BEIJING China has gently urged Myanmar's military rulers to ease the strife that has seen tens of thousands take to the streets in protest, diplomats said Tuesday, even as Beijing said publicly it would stick to a hands-off approach toward its neighbor.
China has quietly shifted gears, the diplomats said, jettisoning its noninterventionist line for behind-the-scenes diplomacy. A senior Chinese official asked junta envoys this month to reconcile with opposition democratic forces. And China arranged a low-key meeting in Beijing between Myanmar and State Department envoys to discuss the release of the leading opposition figure.
For a country that has been Myanmar's staunchest diplomatic protector, largest trading partner and a leading investor, the shift is crucial. Asian and Western diplomats in Beijing and Southeast Asia said China's influence in Myanmar is second to none and could be decisive in restraining the junta from a violent confrontation with protesters.
''China has been working to convey the concerns of the international community to the Burmese government,'' a Western diplomat in Beijing said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. ''But it could definitely do more to apply pressure.''
Diplomats and experts cautioned that China's communist leaders may not be willing to push harder. Myanmar's junta has resisted Western economic sanctions and appeals from Southeast Asian neighbors and the United Nations. China has deftly filled the diplomatic and economic vacuum, eyeing Myanmar as a strategic path to the Indian Ocean, investing in its teak forests, gas and mineral fields and picking up an ally in the junta.
Myanmar has about 19 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, only about 0.3 percent of the world's total reserves, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy at the end of 2006. Although Myanmar doesn't currently export gas to China, its supply could potentially help feed a rapidly growing Chinese economy hungry for energy.
State-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. has taken a stake in a Bay of Bengal gas field in Myanmar, while China National Petroleum Corp. is reportedly looking at building a pipeline network.
Myanmar ''was a vassal state of China's for centuries, and it's fast reverting to that status,'' said Sean Turnell, an economist and expert on the country at Australia's Macquarie University.
Beijing protected Myanmar, also known as Burma, from scrutiny and sanction in the U.N. Security Council earlier this year. On Tuesday, two officials one from the Communist Party's international affairs office, the other from the Foreign Ministry said China would stay out of Myanmar's affairs.
But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu tempered the pledge with an appeal for calm. ''We hope Myanmar and its people will take proper actions to resolve the issue,'' Jiang told reporters in Beijing.
China's political and economic interests in Myanmar are spurring it to act, diplomats and experts said. With an Olympics in Beijing next year already bringing China heightened scrutiny, Chinese leaders are likely loath to be associated with another repressive, unpopular regime.
Criticism from foreign governments and international activist groups already have caused Beijing to pare back lending to Zimbabwe and put pressure on Sudan to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur.
Democracy campaigners in Myanmar took note of the success of the Darfur activists, who warned the games would be tarnished as the ''Genocide Olympics'' if Beijing did not act, said David Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch.
''China has made some significant concessions recently on its links to Sudan, but it hasn't gone that far on its links with Burma,'' said Mathieson. ''If things heat up on the border, that's not going to look good for China in the lead up to the Olympics at all.''
Beijing's dual approach saying one thing in public while waging quiet diplomacy has also characterized its policy shifts on Sudan and in persuading North Korea to join disarmament negotiations, the diplomats said.
In June, Beijing hosted two days of talks between junta envoys and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric John. The State Department and U.S. Embassy declined to disclose details. Diplomats from other Western embassies said among the topics was relaxing house arrest for Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's democratic opposition.
As protests against the junta began gathering momentum, the Chinese government's senior diplomat told visiting Myanmar leaders to seek a peaceful resolution.
''China, as a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, sincerely hoped Myanmar would restore internal stability as soon as possible, properly handle issues and actively promote national reconciliation,'' China's official Xinhua News Agency paraphrased State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan as telling junta leader Gen. Than Shwe and Foreign Affairs Minister U Nyan Win.
In May, Beijing telegraphed its frustration with Myanmar's rulers. The Foreign Ministry briefly posted on its Web site a critical account of the junta's decision to move the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, a remote site with a shoddy airport and no cell phone service.
China has a sizable presence in Myanmar, constructing dams and laying a road that is supposed to stretch from the Chinese border across Myanmar to its shore.
China became Myanmar's No. 1 trading partner in 2005, with trade heavily lopsided in China's favor topping $1.7 billion, according to Turnell. China's Commerce Ministry says the value rose 20 percent last year and jumped nearly 40 percent in the first seven months this year compared to the same period in 2006.
Associated Press writer Christopher Bodeen contributed to this report.
source: 26sep2007
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