Reuters: Myanmar junta carries out more arrests

Thu Oct 4, 2007 1:06am EDT
By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Troops in Myanmar hauled away truckloads of people on Wednesday after the departure of a U.N. envoy trying to end a ruthless crackdown on pro-democracy rallies that has sparked international outrage.

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Witnesses said at least eight truckloads of prisoners were taken from central Yangon, the former Burma's biggest city, where crowds of up to 100,000 people had protested against decades of military rule and deepening economic hardship.

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The protests -- the biggest challenge to the junta since it killed an estimated 3,000 people while crushing an uprising in 1988 -- began with small marches against fuel price rises in August and swelled after troops fired over the heads of monks.

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CLIMATE OF TERROR

The junta says the instability was met with "the least force possible" and that Yangon and other cities had returned to normal. It says 10 people were killed and describes reports of much higher tolls and atrocities as a "skyful of lies."

In Brussels, EU ambassadors agreed to toughen existing sanctions against Myanmar and look at trade bans on its key timber, metals and gems sectors, officials and diplomats said.

"There was full agreement on reinforcing existing measures," one diplomat said of the decision, which will be sent to EU foreign ministers for approval in mid-October. "On the second measures, a number of member states took the view it should be done only after further information was obtained."

The junta appears to believe it has suppressed the uprising, with barricades around the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas lifted and an overnight curfew eased by two hours. Eighty monks and 149 women believed to be nuns swept up in widespread raids were released. Five local journalists, one working for Japan's Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, were also freed.

A heavy armed presence remained on the streets of Yangon and Mandalay, the second city, witnesses said. The junta was also sending gangs through homes looking for monks in hiding, raids Western diplomats say are creating a climate of terror.

(Additional reporting by Paul Eckert in Washington, David
Brunnstrom in Brussels, Darren Schuettler in Bangkok and Evelyn Leopold at the
United Nations)

They send gangs through homes to look for monks in hiding. I don't understand why we weren't more outraged when it happened the first time in 1988. 3,000 people is a hell of a lot of people to die. If you ask me, this is an act of terrorism that needs to be combated.

(Also on Reuters: slideshow for the Amazing Philippines Beauties contest, a transgender beauty pageant - http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?collectionId=1130)