Slaughter: Executed monks have been dumped in the jungle

During the recent visit by the UN speical envoy to burma in which he was trying to broker peace, the junta's security forces lightened their presence in Yangon, the country's main city, which remained quiet after troops and police brutally quelled mass protests last week. The 9 pm -to-5 am curfew was scaled back to 10 pm to 4 am. Kept off the streets, many residents launched a new form of protest Monday evening by switching off their lights and turning off television sets from 8 pm - 8.15 pm during the nightly government newscast.

Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were killed and 6,000 detained in the crackdown, compared to the regime's report of 10 deaths. "Normalcy has now returned in Myanmar," Foreign Minister Nyan Win told the UN General Assembly in New York in a recent address, adding that security forces acted with restraint for a month but had to "take action to restore the situation." Nyan Win made no reference to the deaths. Instead, he blamed foreigners for the violence. "Recent events make clear that there are elements within and outside the country who wish to derail the ongoing process (toward democracy) so that they can take advantage of the chaos that would follow," Nyan Win said.

"They have become more and more emboldened and have stepped up their campaign to confront the government," he said.
"The destiny of each and every country can only be determined by its government and people," he said. "It cannot be imposed from outside." Nyan Win's comments indicated that the junta would not give up its hardline position and is willing to thumb its nose at international demands to restore democracy and free pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi. In Rangoon, despite agreeing to see Gambari, the generals continued posting troops and police across the city and dispatching pro-junta gangs to raid homes in search of monks and dissidents on the run. "They are going from apartment to apartment, shaking things inside, threatening the people. You have a climate of terror all over the city," a Bangkok-based Myanmar expert said.

The plight of the monks who brought the protests to the burmese capital Rangoon.

Many of the remaining detained monks have been disrobed and shackled, according to sources quoted by BBC Radio's Burmese service. The reports follow claims from a former intelligence officer in Burma's ruling junta that thousands of protesters have been killed and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle. Public anger ignited on August 19 after the government increased fuel prices, then shifted into protests led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand." Mr Win said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. His defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled to villages along the Thai border. They will feel others in the army may follow him and turn on their ageing leaders, Senior General Than Shwe and his deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye.