Lest we forget. The bloody crackdown in Myanmar was only months ago. Bodies were reported to be floating down the rivers. Monastaries were empty of monks, fearful of the army. Because we hear less does not mean they fear less.

Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the special UN Rapporteur to Myanmar, released his report yesterday.

At least 31 people were killed in Myanmar during the military government’s crackdown on protests this fall, and arrests and night raids on suspected demonstrators are continuing, a United Nations human rights expert who visited the country last month said Friday.

In a report released in Geneva, Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a special rapporteur to the United Nations Human Rights Council, said that 500 to 1,000 people are still detained and that 1,150 political prisoners held prior to the demonstrations have not been released.

In addition, 74 people are listed as missing ….

UN Report Released

Frustratingly, I can not find the actual report anywhere, including at UNCHR which otherwise has an impressive list of articles and findings about Myanmar.

A group from Buddhist Peace Fellowship which visited the country recently says the death toll was at least 70, not the 31 Pinheiro found. The Generals, of course, deny everything…people die everyday. What’s it got to do with us?

Update:

A report Chris McGreal for the Guardian UK, from Burma.

“I was sitting on the floor of the interrogation room,” said the man, an art shop owner in his 20s. “There were five of them asking questions. The first day I was beaten very hard and they asked: who organised the monks? I told them we were following the monks, respecting the Buddha, they weren’t following us.”

“I was interrogated all night for three nights. They kicked and punched me on the side of my head with their fists. They asked me the same question over and over. I told them: you can ask anything, my answer will always be the same. I don’t know who organised the monks. They didn’t like that answer.”

So the interrogators forced the young man to half-crouch as though he were sitting on a motorbike, made him put his arms out as if gripping the handlebars and demanded he imitate an engine, loudly.

The initial humiliation gave way to intense pains in his legs, arms and throat after several hours. When he fell over he was beaten again. He was held for a month and is still not sure why he was detained. He suspects the police identified him from photographs of civilians who marched with the monks. But he was not alone in the cells of police station No 14.

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