Thursday, 4 October 2007

The bloodshed continues: An update on the Ngwe Kyar Yan raid

By D. Triplow

BBC world claim that 200 monks were arrested last Wednesday. The true picture, it seems, is far worse.

One example is the Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery in the obscure neighborhood of Yangon, which was raided early Thursday morning. A troop of lone-tein (riot police comprised of paid thugs) protected by the military trucks raided the monastery with 200 studying monks. They systematically ordered all the monks to line up and banged and crushed their heads against the brick wall of the monastery. One by one, the peaceful, non resisting monks, fell to the ground, screaming in pain. They tore off the red robes and threw them all in the military trucks and took the bodies of the deceased away.

The head monk of the monastery, was tied up, tortured, and bludgeoned in the middle of the monastery, he died later that day. Tens of thousands of people gathered outside the monastery, warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles, unable to assist their helpless monks being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every try to forge ahead was met with the bayonets.

When the military eventually left, only 10 out of 200 monks remained alive; those who were lucky enough to escape the military. All that was left in the monastery was the blood of the victims covering the building's walls and floors.

Source:
http://ko-htike.blogspot.com/

Friday, 28 September 2007

Violent raid on Ngwe Kyar Yan Monastery

By D. Crowley

The sacred Ngwe Kyar Yan Monastery was raided by the Junta military Wednesday night, following another day of protest in Rangoon.

The raid took place at 12:30 Am last night in the former Burmese capital. It is believed that monks were reportedly beaten and shot at. No causalities have been reported by official sources but local reports and picture phone photographs report bloodshed and likeliness of deaths.

“They took cash and food away from the monastery - not just from the monks - that's robbery, armed robbery,” local blogger Ka Daung Nyin Thar reports, “yesterday around 12.30a.m. they broke into the monastery with an army truck, took away their possesions and fired bullets, everyone heard the gun shots.”

A curfew ssued that night was, according to some locals, intentionally imposed to hold off witnesses.

Photographs taken the next morning (see link) indicate that violent activity and destruction of property clearly took place.


Quote source: http://www.kadaung.blogspot.com/
Photo source: http://picasaweb.google.com/niknayman/NgweKyarYanMonasteryRecordPhoto

A day in Burma: A local view

By J. Goldsmith

A woman from Shan State in Burma, known to us only as dawn has given us a local view of the situation in the country. The report found on her blog describes details of how she experienced events on wednesday as fatalities started falling in the continuing demonstrations.

An extract of the report follows:

"Yesterday morning, I came to work as usual. There was nothing particular to see on the way to work, except that on Bahan St., 10 or 20 soldiers were stationed in Kandawgyi Park."

"At 9:30, I had to go on an errand in Myaynigone with the office car. On the way, the driver decided to take a look around, so we drove around Shwe Dagon Pagoda, but the road near Kyay Thun Buddha Image, that led to the temple was barricaded. So we turned around, and drove to Shwe Gondine. The gates of the monasteries were closed, and there were inside some of them. We drove around Sule Pagoda, and in the Maha Bandoola Park across City Hall, soldiers (or police?) were standing guard with shields."

"I was back at the office around 11 a.m. When I heard noises outside so I looked out of the window. I saw groups of people walking towards Sule Pagoda. A while later someone came into our office and told us that people were running. We saw groups of people running away from the temple. Then they stopped running and walked back toward the Pagoda. I heard that they were doing this because the police were using tear gas. It went on like this for some hours."
...
"Around 1.20 p.m. I was told by a friend from abroad that he heard reports of police firing guns. I asked around and looked outside. They were shooting into the air(...) Reports were also coming in about monks being beaten with clubs."

"Someone from the office went outside to see what was happening, he came running back around 2.50p.m. and said shots were being fired into the air and the crowd. He didn't see anyone being hit, though a girl told him that her friend was hit. I heard the gun shots too, but it sounded like people clapping. So I went out to look. Some people were running back, while others were just staying in the same place, there were also people walking back towards Sule Pagoda. I was reading the news on a blogger's Cbox, and it said that at least 5 monks were dead at Shwedagon Pagoda. "

"My sister had already called home and told my brother not to go to work. I called my father, who told me to stay at work and not to go out."

"At 3:03 pm, I saw a large group of people coming up from Bo Gyoke Road, from Pan Soe Dan side, and joining the group near Sule Pagoda."

"At 3:10 pm, my boss told us all to go home. He said he would give some of us a lift, so I went home with him. When we got to U Htaung Bo Circle, the road to Shwegondine was blocked, so we had to go around."

"This morning, I wasn't sure if the office was opened or not. My father said if the buses are running, I have to go to office. The buses were running, so I took the bus as usual. Bahan Road was still blocked, so the bus had to take the same detour and drove around Kandawgyi Park. The ticket collector whined that (CNG) gas is going to run out more if they kept having to drive like this. When I got off at Sule bus stop, the ticket collector said they would stop running and go back to ask the owner if they should continue to run."
Police officers gathered on the streets. (Source: Link)

"At work, many offices in the building were closed and will be open on Friday. Later, the MD told us that we could go home if we wantet. We decided to stay since we were already there."

Source and full report:
http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=dawn_1o9