Bangkok Post News (21/9/98)

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Post crash report rejected

Not fresh information on accident provided

Burma's military government yesterday angrily denounced a report in
Sunday's Bangkok Post that survivors of an air crash in the east of the
country were raped and murdered as "Hollywood-style sensationalism".
The post reported at least five adults and one infant survived the crash of
the Myanmar Airways Fokker F-27 turboprop on August 24, but were killed by
Shan villagers who reached the site soon after the crash. A female crew
member, and possibly also a female university student, were raped many
times before they died, the report said.
"It is quite difficult to understand how the author came up with such a
story," a statement from the government said, adding that it appeared to be
based on "pure speculation".
"Irresponsible reporting will not help but put more misery and grief on the
bereaved," it said.
"It is very unfortunate that the author did not make any proper kind of
inquiry and investigative reporting before writing such an article and
seems to have have based his information against the ethics of journalism,"
it said.
The government statement described the Post report as being "heavily spiced
with racial hatred violence, political motivation and anti-military
sentiments to create a Hollywood style sensationalism."
After the crash, Burmese officials gave several conflicting reports as to
the fate of the plane and those aboard, all of whom were Burmese citizens.
The aircraft crashed while on a scheduled domestic flight from Rangoon to
Tachilek, the main town on the Burmese side of the "Golden Triangle" opium
growing region. The Burmese government eventually said 36 people died in
the crash, after earlier saying 39 people were on board.
The official government release yesterday provided no new information on
the crash.

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