YANGON, Myanmar — Myanmar’s junta leader kept up his usual tactics for foreign critics Monday, packing a U.N. envoy off to a remote academic conference and stalling for another day the chance to deliver international demands for an end to the crackdown on democracy advocates.
Security forces lightened their presence in Yangon, the country’s main city, which remained quiet after troops and police brutally quelled mass protests last week. Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were slain, compared with the regime’s report of 10 deaths, and 6,000 detained.
Ibrabim Gambari, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy to Myanmar, also known as Burma, has been in the country since Saturday with the express purpose of seeing Senior Gen. Than Shwe about the violence, but the junta’s top man hasn’t made himself available.
Instead of the meeting Gambari sought Monday, he was sent to a remote northern town for an academic conference on relations between the European Union and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, diplomats reported.
Gambari was granted an appointment today to meet with Than Shwe in Naypyitaw, U.N. officials in New York said.
In Yangon, soldiers dismantled roadblocks in the middle of the city and moved to the outskirts, but riot police still checked cars and buses and monitored the streets from helicopters.
Most shops stayed closed and traffic was lighter than usual. After keeping Buddhist monasteries sealed off for several days because of their prominent role in the protests, authorities let some monks go out to collect food donations, but soldiers kept watch on them.
Protests against the government ignited Aug. 19 after it hiked fuel prices, but public anger ballooned into mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship.
Soldiers responded last week by shooting at unarmed demonstrators. The government says 10 people were killed, but dissident groups say anywhere from several dozen to as many as 200 died in the crackdown.
Opposition groups also say several thousand people were arrested, including many monks who were dragged out of their monasteries and locked up.
It was impossible to independently verify the reports in this tightly controlled nation.
“The people are enraged, but they could not do anything because they’re facing guns,” said a 68-year-old teacher. “I think the protests are over because there is no hope pressing them.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
