More thuggish rulers are busy in Burma. Aung San Suu Kyi is a Nobel Prize laureate for her courage in the face of this unrelenting oppression. Now she has been arrested and may be dead. U.S. media have been slow to pick up this story, but the Australian press has been watching.
The United States and Britain have warned Burma's military regime it will face increasing global isolation if it fails to free detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and end the week-long crackdown against her National League for Democracy.The ultimatums came after the US State Department said it had evidence that Ms Suu Kyi - arrested a week ago after a violent clash during a tour of northern Burma - was the victim of a planned attack involving Government agents.
Two US diplomats who this week visited the scene, north-west of Mandalay, reported finding evidence of "great violence", including bloody clothing, smashed glass and abandoned home-made weapons.
"Their findings indicate that there was a premeditated ambush on Aung San Suu Kyi's motorcade. Circumstances and reports from individuals in the region indicate that the attack was conducted by Government-affiliated thugs," State Department spokesman Philip Reeder said.
Officials at the US embassy in Rangoon earlier told the Associated Press that their information supported claims by Burmese exile groups that the death toll was substantially higher than the four dead claimed by Burmese authorities. The groups have also given conflicting and unconfirmed reports that Ms Suu Kyi was injured in the attack.
via The Age
More than 100 opposition supporters may have been killed in the unrest that led to the Burma democracy leader Aun San Suu Kyi's detention, a report said today. Government-hired thugs wielding sharpened bamboo stakes and wooden clubs "unmercifully pounded" the opposition members in a May 30 ambush in northern Burma, BBC radio has reported.The report said that the latest details emerged after an unnamed American investigation team had visited the site of the attack. The team "concluded that the attack was planned and coordinated by the military government", the report said.
via The Age
Posted by Alan at June 7, 2003 12:22 AM