Where Have All The Burmese Protesters Gone?

Agence France-Presse - Getty Images

Who can investigate where all the protesters have gone? The International Committee of the Red Cross is no longer functioning in Myanmar – ever since the junta demanded last year that any of its delegates be accompanied at all times by government “observers”

By Citizen Correspondent Peace Maker

Date Posted: 10/02/07

Reader Rating:

The British Press reports that the Government Technology Institute in Rangoon, Burma, housed on acres and acres of derelict buildings, overgrown by tropical foliage and protected by rusty barbed wire fence, has become the most recent concentration camp – for an estimated 1700 political prisoners and democracy activists, both monks and civilians, including 200 women and one monastic novice, aged ten years old.

Western diplomats, plus at least one Burmese government official, and the news agency Agence France-Presse have confirmed the story, as far as is possible on the ground. If true, these victims of the brutal crackdown on protesters in Myanmar last week are being held without charge, denied access to legal counsel or the ability to communicate with the outside world. They may also be starving.

All along the fence, and at the main gate, armed police and soldiers are visible, according to several reports. One of the largest buildings on the campus — a blue and green striped high-roofed, windowless warehouse — has a concentration of soldiers outside.

According to AFP, it would be in a building like this that the prisoners are being held. It is also reported that many monks were stripped of their monastic robes. In addition, some monks have gone on a hunger strike, which would be a direct continuation of their refusal to receive any form of alms from members of the regime as token of their resistance: turning their begging bowls upside down…even if it means death.

In addition to the imprisoned monks, hundreds, maybe thousands, of civilians have been forcibly removed from their homes, picked up by trucks, or rounded up at night. Vanished. Without a trace. Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister said. “This is a brutal regime and we’ve seen it at work over the last few days.”

Win Zaw, 56, is one of those missing. A former university teacher and now an active Burmese journalist, he was working for the Japanese newspaper, Tokyo Shimbun. At 12.30 a.m. on Friday he opened his door to six strangers dressed in civilian clothes.