junta

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Irate UN Cuts Burma Off After Junta Seizes Aid

No reason given after goods confiscated

(Newser) - An enraged UN has shut off all further cyclone aid to Burma after its military junta seized two planes carrying a massive food shipment, CNN reports. “This is another example of them actively getting in the way of relief getting to the victims,” said the UN's Asia World...

Burmese Junta Still Blocking Cyclone Aid

'Second disaster' looms if aid is not allowed in

(Newser) - Emergency supplies for some 1.5 million Burmese desperately in need of help are ready to be flown into the cyclone-stricken regions—but the military junta is still blocking delivery. Only two UN planes have been allowed to land in Burma. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon tried unsuccessfully to telephone Burma's...

Cyclone Could Weaken Junta's Grip

Upcoming vote could challenge government

(Newser) - The devastation of cyclone Nargis could spur stronger opposition to Burma’s ruling junta, the Christian Science Monitor reports. “It could be quite catalytic, like the [2004] tsunami in Aceh,” says a regional aid director. The government, reluctant to allow outside aid, has struggled to cope with the...

Bush to Junta: Let the US Help
 Bush to Junta: Let the US Help 

Bush to Junta: Let the US Help

President signs act awarding Congressional Gold Medal to Suu Kyi

(Newser) - President Bush today expressed “heartfelt sympathy” to the victims of the Myanmar cyclone and called on the ruling junta to allow the US to offer more help, the Voice of America reports. The government has accepted $250,000 of US aid but balked at letting US Navy rescue teams...

Burmese Rebel Leader Assassinated in Thailand

Suspicion falls on military junta, allies

(Newser) - One of Myanmar's top rebel leaders was shot dead in his home in Thailand today, Reuters reports. Mahn Sha Lar Phan was the secretary-general of the Karen National Unit, the largest rebel group in the former Burma. His son, another senior leader, immediately blamed the attack on a splinter group...

Burmese Junta Downplays Protest Death Toll: Report

Government 'lying,' rights group says

(Newser) - The quashing of pro-democracy demonstrations in September was significantly bloodier than the Burmese junta claims, says a Human Rights Watch report released today. Although the government acknowledges only 10 deaths during the suppression of the protests, 20 killings have been verified by eyewitnesses in Yangon alone, and the rights group...

UN Inspector Vows to Tally Burma's Dead

Demands 'full cooperation' from junta or 'I'll go out'

(Newser) - A UN inspector landed in Burma today to tally the junta's detained and dead protesters, the AP reports. And he vowed to leave if officials don't give him "full cooperation." So far, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro has met with officials and visited a town where the junta targeted monks...

Suu Kyi: 'I Stand Ready to Cooperate'

Imprisoned opposition leader wants 'dialogue' with Burma's junta

(Newser) - Aung San Suu Kyi is ready to cooperate with Burma's military rulers, UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari announced today, reading a statement from the long-imprisoned opposition leader. “I stand ready to cooperate with the government in order to make this process of dialogue a success,” she wrote after the...

Burma Nabs Top Dissidents
Burma Nabs Top Dissidents

Burma Nabs Top Dissidents

(Newser) - Myanmar’s rulers have arrested just about every major dissident at large, the BBC reports. The junta rounded up three more prominent figures, among them Htay Kywe, who had been in hiding. He was a leader not only of the recent protests but of the 1988 uprising as well. Amnesty...

Myanmar Junta: 'You Are No Longer Monks'

Prisoners recount abject conditions after peaceful protests

(Newser) - Buddhist monks rounded up in protests in Myanmar faced torturous conditions, a recent detainee told Reuters. During days of interrogation, monks were beaten and denied medical treatment, water, and toilets. Prisoners were stripped of their iconic robes. “You are no longer a monk,” a guard told the prisoner,...

First Lady to Junta: Free Burma
First Lady to Junta: Free Burma

First Lady to Junta: Free Burma

Laura Bush blasts 'friendless regime' in Journal piece

(Newser) - The recent violent crackdown on peaceful protests in Burma have left the military regime friendless in the international community and reviled by its people, Laura Bush writes in the Wall Street Journal. The junta “must immediately stop their terror campaigns against their own people,” she writes, and then...

Priest Gets Life for 'Dirty War' Crimes

He shared parishioners' confessions with police

(Newser) - A former Roman Catholic priest  who delivered dozens of Argentines to the former military junta was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. Christian von Wernich, 69, passed his parishioners’ confessions to police during the so-called "Dirty War,"  leading to 7 murders, 42 abductions and 31 cases of...

Suu Kyi Rejects Conditions, Won't Meet Junta

Opposition leader rejects talk conditions

(Newser) - Aung San Suu Kyi will not meet with Burma's ruling junta, which insists that she soften her anti-regime position as a condition of scheduling talks. The opposition leader said in a statement today she will accept no conditions, the Guardian reports: “The success of a dialogue is based on...

Junta Cremates Protesters
Junta Cremates Protesters

Junta Cremates Protesters

Crackdown carries on, as soldiers arrest more activists and the wounded are refused treatment

(Newser) - Burma's army is burning the bodies of activists in secret cremations, hiding their true death count forever, the Sunday Times reports. Locals near Rangoon report trucks are driving by a crematorium at night as smoke rises constantly from its chimneys. Rumors of victims burnt alive have swept the city, but...

9 Killed in Burmese Crackdown
9 Killed in Burmese Crackdown

9 Killed in Burmese Crackdown

Japanese reporter among dead as troops scatter protesters

(Newser) - Burmese troop forcibly scattered some 70,000 protesters for a second day today, with gunfire claiming the lives of at least nine—even as leaders around the world called for restraint. One of the dead is reportedly a Japanese photographer, spawning fears that the junta is targeting journalists to prevent...

Burmese Junta Rounds Up 200 Monks in Midnight Raids

Protesters warned to go home or risk being shot

(Newser) - The Burmese military junta has once again opened fire on pro-democracy protesters in Rangoon and rounded up hundreds of monks in midnight raids on monasteries, the Guardian reports. It was not immediately known if anyone was injured. As many as 200 police officers and soldiers later marched through the streets...

Junta Issues Curfew to Stem Protests

Monks vow to keep marching as government sends troops to rally sites

(Newser) - Burma issued a dusk-to-dawn curfew and warned it will crack down on any large meetings, but protesters still marched by the tens of thousands today. The junta also sent out armed troops and declared it time to "take action," raising fears that it will repeat its 1988 crackdown,...

Burma's Monks Defy Crackdown
Burma's Monks Defy Crackdown

Burma's Monks Defy Crackdown

Junta warns of action against protests

(Newser) - Pro-democracy protests in Myanmar continued for an eighth day today, with tens of thousands of  Buddhist monks, joined by students, taking to the streets in Yangon in defiance of government orders. The ruling junta threatened Monday night to crack down on the demonstrations, instructing the monks to return to their...

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