Groups struggle to tally Myanmar's dead

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Source: Associated Press



Groups struggle to tally Myanmar's dead

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago

BANGKOK, Thailand - One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. Buddhist monks floating face down in rivers.


After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing.

"There are huge difficulties. It's a closed police state," said David Mathieson, a consultant with Human Rights Watch in Thailand. "Many of the witnesses have been arrested and are being held in areas we don't have access to. Other eyewitness are too afraid."

Authorities have acknowledged that government troops shot dead nine demonstrators and a Japanese cameraman in Yangon. But witness accounts range from several dozen deaths to as many as 200.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071001/ap_on_re_as/myanmar_dead___missing;_ylt=AnP7Ze1XSOAebNZWhtf_CFOs0NUE