New evidence of Burmese violence

As the UN envoy to Burma, Dr Ibrahim Gambari, prepares to write his report on his recent visit to the country, new pictures have emerged showing protesters being beaten during last week's demonstrations against the military regime.

UN visit

Ibrahim Gambari met the leader of the regime and the oppostion figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi and is briefing the UN Secretary General on his findings.

Now in Singapore and en route to New York, he is unlikely to say anything publicly before speaking to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. UN sources say he is expected to return to Burma in early November.

Witness reports

Burma's military junta arrested more people hours after the departure of Dr Gambari, who came to the country to try to end the ruthless crackdown on protests which sparked international outrage.

According to witnesses, at least eight truckloads of prisoners were hauled out of downtown Rangoon, Burma's largest city and centre of last week's monk-led protests against decades of military rule and deepening economic hardship.

In one house near the Shwedagon Pagoda, the holiest shrine in the devoutly Buddhist country and starting point for the rallies, only a 13-year-old girl remained.

Her parents had been taken, she said and added, 'They warned us not to run away as they might be back,' after people from rows of shophouses were ordered onto the street in the middle of the night and many taken away.

The crackdown continued despite some hopes of progress by Gambari's visit to persuade junta chief Than Shwe to relax his iron grip and open talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whom he met twice.

A 'seven-step road to democracy'

However, there were no indications of how his mission and international pressure might change the policies of a junta which seldom heeds outside pressure and rarely admits UN officials.

David Steinberg, a Georgetown University expert on Burma, said, 'They will say they are on the road to democracy and so what do you want anyway?' referring to the junta's 'seven-step road to democracy'.

The first of the seven steps was completed in September with the end of an on-off, 14-year national convention which produced guidelines for a constitution that critics say will entrench military rule and exclude Suu Kyi from office.

'Climate of terror'

Eighty monks and 149 women believed to be nuns swept up in widespread raids last week have been released, along with five local journalists, one of whom works for Japan's Tokyo Shimbun newspaper.

Witnesses say there is still a heavy armed presence on the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay, the second city.

The junta is also sending gangs through homes looking for monks in hiding in raids which Western diplomats say are creating a climate of terror.

International anger

There has been no let up in international anger at the harsh response to peaceful protests.

In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council, including China, the closest thing the regime has to an ally, condemned the junta's 'violent repression'.

It called on the generals to allow Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN human rights envoy to Burma, to visit for the first time in four years. He said thousands of people had been detained.

However, Buma said the hearing was being used by 'powerful countries for political exploitation.'

Junta claims normalcy

The junta says the monk-led protests, which filled five city blocks, were countered with 'the least force possible' and Rangoon and other cities had returned to normal.

It says 10 people were killed and describes reports of much higher tolls and atrocities as a 'skyful of lies.' However, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer agreed with other Western governments that the real figure was much higher.

Still, the junta appears to believe it has suppressed the uprising and lifted the barricades around the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, the focal points of the protests, and eased an overnight curfew by two hours.

New pictures

However, the latest images confirm what this programme has been told about the demonstrations.

In our report later tonight, we speak to a Burmese army major who fled his home country for Thailand because of his revulsion at the treatment of Buddhist monks.

Warning: you may be disturbed by some of the images in Jonathan Miller's report later tonight.

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