Fog Of Suppression

At this point, nobody is sure what the real casualty count is in Burma. Estimates range from a few to a few thousand. Rumors are swirling, with many exile groups trying to get word out and the media struggling. But there are some ugly details emerging that sound very ominous.

BANGKOK, Thailand – One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. A Buddhist monk floating face down in a river.

After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing.

"There are huge difficulties. It's a closed police state," said David Mathieson, a consultant with Human Rights Watch in Thailand. "Many of the witnesses have been arrested and are being held in areas we don't have access to. Other eyewitness are too afraid."

Authorities have acknowledged that government troops shot dead nine demonstrators and a Japanese cameraman in Yangon. But witness accounts range from several dozen deaths to as many as 200.

"We do believe the death toll is higher than acknowledged by the government," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press Monday. "We are doing our best to get more precise, more detailed information, not only in terms of deaths but also arrests."

Villarosa said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators — monks and civilians — in the thousands.

"I know the monks are not in their monasteries," she said. "Where are they? How many are dead? How many are arrested?"

She said the true death toll may never be known in a Buddhist country where bodies are cremated.

"We're not going to find graves like they did in Yugoslavia … We have seen few dead bodies. The bodies are removed promptly. We don't know where they are being taken," Villarosa said.

Every, single monastery visited was empty. This may actually be even worse than the Daily Mail is reporting. Again, nothing is confirmed at this point. Gateway Pundit has links to pictures and video that are not for the squeamish.  Ace of Spades calls the west's response to all this for what it is. Nothing useful. Agam is very displeased with the UN right now. I read an earlier report (can't find it now) that said that Ibrahim Gambari, the UN envoy, was spending the day with European trade delegates who were negotiating trade deals with Burma's junta.

So much for a meaningful response. It's actually worse than doing nothing. It's sending the signal that it's perfectly cool with the EU to eradicate troublesome monks and unruly mobs.