Monday, October 01, 2007
Burma is bleeding.
Nothing Else to Give but Our LivesAccording to that article, dissident groups say at least 200 are dead. Reports in other media farther from Rangoon say the toll runs into the thousands. The Daily Mail (UK) quotes a Burmese general seeking asylum as saying:By Shah Paung
October 01, 2007—“One of them stopped breathing while I was holding him in my arms. I was so sad that I just went home. The young men that were killed were all good people. Yet I am sure more people will have to die. Everyone is so depressed and all we can do is give up our lives.”
This is the experience of a young man who took part in the demonstration in front of Ngwe Kyar Yan Monastery on September 27 after soldiers had conducted a midnight raid on the monastery and arrested more than 250 monks.
The young man lost four of his friends during the demonstration.
He says that he arrived at the demonstration at about noon and saw many other young men, aged about 20.
“The demonstrators were shouting: ‘The military skills that were passed down by Bogyoke (Burmese independence leader Aung San) were not meant to kill people.’
Riot police were standing in front of the soldiers and blocking the demonstrators’ way. The protesters threw stones at the riot police but they still blocked their path. The soldiers standing behind the riot police shot into the air to disperse the crowd,” he recounted.
The young demonstrator said that the crowd retreated after those first shots, but gathered together again and marched toward the security forces.
He confirmed that the riot police moved away, leaving space for the soldiers. A burst of gunfire suddenly rang out. There was panic as the crowd fled.
Four young students who had been marching in the middle of the front row fell. They were dead. The demonstrators managed to carry three of the bodies away but the SPDC troops claimed the fourth body.
“We are paying the ultimate price,” said the young man who tried to save his friend.
“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.”
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