IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
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PRESS RELEASE - BURMA
3 October 2007
As junta cuts off communications, refugees crucial source of information,
says SEAPA
SOURCE: Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA), Bangkok
**For further information on the current media crackdown, see IFEX alerts
of 1 October, 28, 27, 26, 24 and 14 September 2007, and others**
(SEAPA/IFEX) - The following is a 2 October 2007 SEAPA press release:
Refugees crucial to providing eyewitness accounts as junta cuts off
communications
A looming humanitarian crisis in Burma is being exacerbated by the junta's
determination to cut all news and information flowing out of the country.
At a forum on 1 October 2007 in Bangkok, members of the Foreign
Correspondents Club of Thailand, officers of civil society groups and
diplomats from various governments monitoring the situation in Burma were
equally helpless in updating each other or confirming the meagre news that
anybody could offer. With the Internet cut, foreign journalists and
diplomats refused entry, rebellious local journalists missing or arrested,
and state-controlled media forced to publish government propaganda about
recent bloody protests, refugees escaping to neighbouring countries have
become the only source of information about the unfolding tragedy in the
country. And even the entry of refugees, journalists and Burma advocates
say, has no guarantee of being tolerated by neighbouring governments.
Burma's shared borders with Thailand and India are already hosting some
200,000 Burmese refugees that had fled the country over the past two
decades. Following the recent violence in Burma, the borders have been
relatively quiet, according to the UNHCR on 1 October, but the ongoing
crackdown and deteriorating economic conditions which sparked the biggest
demonstrations in the dictatorship in two decades are anticipated to
trigger a surge of refugees in the weeks and months ahead.
SEAPA joins other civil and aid organisations in urging Burma's
neighbouring governments - particularly that of Thailand - to accommodate
the Burmese refugees. The need for humanitarian intervention is clear. At
the same time, with Burma isolated and cut off from the rest of the world,
the refugees are crucial to providing eyewitness accounts of the latest
atrocities the junta is committing against the unarmed civilians.
On 2 October, for example, a Norwegian journalist quoted a defecting
intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta as saying he had refused
orders to massacre thousands of protesting monks rounded up following raids
on monasteries. The former intelligence officer also recounted to the
journalist how bodies of hundreds of mass-executed monks have supposedly
been dumped in the jungles. "Many more people have been killed in recent
days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several
thousand," he was quoted as saying.
The same day, British tabloid the "Daily Mail" quoted an unnamed Swedish
diplomat as saying that "one of the largest embassies in Burma" revealed
that 40 monks in the notorious Insein prison "were beaten to death today
and subsequently burned".
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that that sources from a government-sponsored
militia said the 4,000-plus monks detained in Rangoon, the main site of the
protests, will be sent to prisons in the far north of the country. The
monks, disrobed and shackled, are reportedly still protesting by going on a
hunger strike.
No outside news agency could independently confirm any of the accounts, but
that fact only further heightens the desperation to ensure that information
and news can somehow make it out of Burma.
The government claims the death toll from the crackdown is between nine and
15 people. Local journalists said 40 and 50 people have been killed since
26 October. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which keeps
track of political detainees in Burma's 43 prisons, estimates that up to
1,500 people have been detained since the crackdown.
For further information, contact Roby Alampay, Executive Director, or Chuah
Siew Eng, Alerts Coordinator, at SEAPA, 538/1 Samsen Road, Dusit, Bangkok,
10300 Thailand, tel: +662 243 5579, fax: +662 244 8749, e-mail:
sieweng@seapa.org, seapa@seapabkk.org, Internet: http://www.seapabkk.org
The information contained in this press release is the sole responsibility
of SEAPA. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please
credit SEAPA.
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Christian Solidarity Worldwide highlight Burma as one of their countries of focus. They also provide many detailed reports on the current situation. This is a very significant human rights issue and needs more voices to promote the cause. If you’d like to view CSW reports, visit http://dynamic.csw.org.uk/country.asp?s=id&urn=Burma
Posted by: Christian Solidarity Worldwide at January 9, 2008 5:10 AMBurma's military government has made a history of intolerance and brutality in all times. Burma follows much more the strategy of China for not letting world know what is happening within the country. They cut off all kinds of information channels. And the strange thing is US interest has always been in Iraq to run an illegal war exploiting the concept of "Democracy". So the imperialist purposive capitalism does not really care "Democracy" and "Human Rights" unless it meets their agenda of greed and lust for power. The clash, conflict, and misery of human race seem to continue and the madness of the insane policies of mad sates could slap humanity. US and Burma are the good examples of such madness.
Posted by: Rubayat Ahsan at October 20, 2007 1:18 AM