Dawn raids trap Burma protestors
Burmese troops today began hunting down anti-government protesters in house-to-house searches across Rangoon.
Military vehicles patrolled the streets before dawn with loudspeakers announcing: “We have photographs. We are going to make arrests.”
Shari Villarosa, the acting US ambassador in Burma, said people were terrified.
“From what we understand, military police … are travelling around the city in the middle of the night, going into homes and picking up people,” she said.
Residents living near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma’s most revered shrine and a flashpoint of unrest, said police swept through several dozen homes in the middle of the night, dragging away men for questioning.
The troops were looking for people who took part in mass pro-democracy demonstrations which were ruthlessly crushed last week with gunfire, tear gas and baton charges.
The government says 10 people were killed but dissident groups put the toll at about 200.
In addition, they say, some 6,000 people have already been arrested, including thousands of Buddhist monks who led the demonstrations.
Ms Villarosa said her embassy staff had gone to some monasteries in recent days and found them completely empty. Others were barricaded by the military and declared off-limits to outsiders.
“There is a significantly reduced number of monks on the streets. Where are the monks? What has happened to them?” she said.
Meanwhile, today Human Rights Watch in neighbouring Thailand released an interview with a Burmese army major who had fled the country.
“They (the demonstrators) were very peaceful. Later when I heard they were shot and killed and the armed forces used tear gas, I was really upset and I thought the army should stand for their own people,” the unnamed major said.
