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By MARCUS OSCARSSON » Last updated at 15:04pm on 1st October 2007

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnew...

Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta has revealed.

The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand."

Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.

Meanwhile, the United Nations special envoy was in Burma's new capital today seeking meetings with the ruling military junta.

Ibrahim Gambari met detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Rangoon yesterday. But he has yet to meet the country's senior generals as he attempts to halt violence against monks and pro-democracy activists.

It is anticipated the meeting will happen tomorrow.

Heavily-armed troops and police flooded the streets of Rangoon during Mr Ibrahim's visit to prevent new protests.

Mr Gambari met some of the country's military leaders in Naypyidaw yesterday and has returned there for further talks. But he did not meet senior general Than Shwe or his deputy Maung Aye - and they have issued no comment.

Reports from exiles along the frontier confirmed that hundreds of monks had simply "disappeared" as 20,000 troops swarmed around Rangoon yesterday to prevent further demonstrations by religious groups and civilians.

Word reaching dissidents hiding out on the border suggested that as well as executions, some 2,000 monks are being held in the notorious Insein Prison or in university rooms which have been turned into cells.

There were reports that many were savagely beaten at a sports ground on the outskirts of Rangoon, where they were heard crying for help.

Others who had failed to escape disguised as civilians were locked in their bloodstained temples.

There, troops abandoned religious beliefs, propped their rifles against statues of Buddha and began cooking meals on stoves set up in shrines.

In stark contrast, the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay - centres of the attempted saffron revolution last week - were virtually deserted.

A Swedish diplomat who visited Burma during the protests said last night that in her opinion the revolution has failed.

Liselotte Agerlid, who is now in Thailand, said that the Burmese people now face possibly decades of repression. "The Burma revolt is over," she added.

"The military regime won and a new generation has been violently repressed and violently denied democracy. The people in the street were young people, monks and civilians who were not participating during the 1988 revolt.

"Now the military has cracked down the revolt, and the result may very well be that the regime will enjoy another 20 years of silence, ruling by fear."

Mrs Agerlid said Rangoon is heavily guarded by soldiers.

"There are extremely high numbers of soldiers in Rangoon's streets," she added. "Anyone can see it is absolutely impossible for any demonstration to gather, or for anyone to do anything.

"People are scared and the general assessment is that the fight is over. We were informed from one of the largest embassies in Burma that 40 monks in the Insein prison were beaten to death today and subsequently burned."

The diplomat also said that three monasteries were raided yesterday afternoon and are now totally abandoned.

At his border hideout last night, 42-year-old Mr Win said he hopes to cross into Thailand and seek asylum at the Norwegian Embassy.

The 42-year-old chief of military intelligence in Rangoon's northern region, added: "I decided to desert when I was ordered to raid two monasteries and force several hundred monks onto trucks.

"They were to be killed and their bodies dumped deep inside the jungle. I refused to participate in this."

With his teenage son, he made his escape from Rangoon, leaving behind his wife and two other sons.

He had no fears for their safety because his brother is a powerful general who, he believes, will defend the family.

Mr Win's defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled to villages along the Thai border.

They will feel others in the army may follow him and turn on their ageing leaders, Senior General Than Shwe and his deputy, Vice Senior General Maung Aye.

Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen
By Rosalind Russellin Rangoon
Published: 29 September 2007

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article3010196.ece

Burma's military leaders locked down monasteries, arrested dissidents and set up barricades across Rangoon yesterday in an attempt to suffocate the waves of street demonstrations calling for an end to their rule.

They also tried to cut off ordinary people's communication with the outside world, heightening fears that the crackdown that appears to have knocked the wind from the demonstrations could become more violent.

Yet, despite the regime's best efforts, a day after security forces killed at least nine demonstrators – dissident groups say the total could be as high as 200 – hundreds again risked their lives to defy the government in small but angry protests across Burma's main city.

Locked inside their monasteries, or banished from the city, the cinnamon-robed monks who have formed the backbone to the dignified protest of the past week were largely gone. In their place were civilians, less disciplined and more angry, some with bandanas around their faces. Shouting, jeering groups moved quickly around the city in an attempt to gather in large numbers. But the military, with soldiers packed in the back of trucks, raced after them, quickly breaking up gatherings with threats and force.

In Thanwe township, a decaying residential area in north-east Rangoon, witnesses said soldiers fired shots amid skirmishes with protesters. "It's finished!" shouted a soldier as a group of young men scattered. When faced with lines of soldiers with rifles and riot shields, some protesters threw rocks and bottles in retreat.

Without the moral authority, organisation and discipline of the country's much revered Buddhist clergy, it seemed the soldier's words may ring true. With the civilian leaders of the pro-democracy movement who organised the initial protests last month having been arrested and jailed, Burma's rulers seem to have taken the upper hand.

"Government go away!" a young man in a sarong and flip-flops shouted in English, banging on the roof of our car as it moved through an agitated and disorganised crowd.

Gone was the pride and hope that accompanied the well-ordered marches led by the monks. In its place came fear and confusion. One Western diplomat said that, in another blow to the protesters, hundreds of suspected dissidents were arrested in raids across the city yesterday, with 50 taken in one swoop alone.

The military had moved on the monks overnight, raiding monasteries that were identified as hotbeds of protest, beating them up by the dozen and shipping them back to their villages – all away from the eyes of the world. Rangoon's temples, including the Sule and Shwedagon pagodas around which the monks had been rallying, have been declared "danger zones" and cordoned off with barbed wire.

Yesterday, authorities shut Burma's only internet server and blocked all text and picture messaging on mobiles, in an effort to stem the violent images leaving the country, including pictures of a Japanese photographer shot in front of the Sule Pagoda. Though foreign journalists are banned, the regime ordered soldiers to go door-to-door at some hotels looking for foreigners.

With widespread outrage and words of encouragement, but so far no practical support from the outside world, the protesters' only fuel is pent-up anger at 45 years of unbroken military rule. Burma's generals have ruined a resource-rich country through mismanagement and greed. A hike in fuel prices in August was the final straw for citizens who have kept quiet since a 1988 uprising was brutally crushed, killing up to 6,000 people.

Last night, the UN's special envoy to Burma was heading to the country to promote a political solution and could arrive as early as today. Also the UN Human Rights Council announced it would be holding a special session about Burma next week. It will be the first meeting of its kind since it gathered to talk about Darfur last year.

At the same time, a disturbing picture was emerging of Thursday's crackdown. Bob Davis, Australia's ambassador to Burma, said he had unconfirmed reports the death toll after two days of violence was "several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities". The Washington-based dissident group, US Campaign for Burma, said around 200 protesters had been killed.

"It's tragic," said Shari Villarosa, the most senior US diplomat in the country. "These were peaceful demonstrators, very well behaved."

A Burmese journalist who gave her account to The Independent, said: "The police were shooting everything – houses, trees, anything. The bullets were flying over our heads. It was as if they were on drugs and were crazy." Seven young people ran from the protest in Thanwe and tried to hide in long grass, the 23-year-old journalist said. "Informers were pointing to the grass, people got up and ran, but the police just fired into their backs. Four were gunned down straight away. Shot dead."

Following phone talks with the US President, George Bush, and the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, Gordon Brown said: "I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported."

The Prime Minister called for greater UN efforts and EU sanctions. "Now we have seen pictures from Burma and now we can hear voices from the Burmese people, there is no amount of censorship and no amount of violence that can silence the will of the Burmese people," he said.

Mr Brown added: "The eyes of the world are not only upon them. The anger of the world is now being expressed."

http://www.hindu.com/2007/09/26/stories/2007092662751900.htm

Protest in Burma
SINGAPORE: Defying the Myanmar military junta’s warnings against any further mass protest, nearly 50,000 Buddhist monks and an equal number of civilians swarmed the streets of Yangon and other centres on Tuesday.

It was as if a sea of humanity had surged on to the streets. But the junta stayed its hand and did not order crackdown, which was implicit in the warnings issued on Monday following a similar demonstration over economic and political hardship.

For the eighth consecutive day, the defiant monks led the protesters in peaceful marches in an ambience of prayerful chants and some slogans too. While the monks, traditionally held in high esteem, continued to lead the protesters, some among these civilians formed a “human chain” to protect the marching columns. Now and then, the monks, too, linked their arms in a show of solidarity.

Like on previous days, Buddhist places of worship remained focal points of the protest marches. And, some portrait-sketches of Lord Buddha were carried, as if to define the spirit of the marchers.

Exclusive conversations with Myanmar’s dissident-activists in exile in neighbouring Thailiand, “secretly filmed” and televised video footages of the protest marches and reports from Yangon indicated a defiance of this dimension.

General Secretary of the National Council of the Union of Burma, Maung Maung, told The Hindu over telephone from Thailand that some minions of the regime had, at first, used loudspeakers to warn monks, nuns, and others against organising any protest marches today. Troops and security personnel were not very visibly deployed.

There were, of course, no confirmed signs of defection by soldiers to the ranks of protesters, but it was becoming “hard for the regime to crack down,” it was emphasised.