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Two killed, seven detained for call



BBC Summary of World Broadcasts 
October 09, 1999, Saturday 

Two killed, seven detained for calling leading official a "crook" 

Source: Democratic Voice of Burma, Oslo, in Burmese 1245 gmt 7 Oct 99 

Text of report by Burmese opposition radio on 7th October 

According to a report received by the Democratic Voice of Burma, 27
employees from the
'Kyemon' newspaper were interrogated for describing Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt as
the world-famous crook.
It was reported that two people died in the course of the interrogation.
The 25th September issue of
'Kyemon'carried a picture and a report about Lt-Gen Khin Nyunt meeting the
chairman of the Burma
Council of Churches. Above the picture of Lt-Gen Khin was the caption: "The
World Famous Crook" . 

Soon after the release of the newspaper, military intelligence agents came
and conducted interrogations,
leading to a 'Kyemon'newspaper employee, U Hla Han dying on 27th September
and another
employee, U Tha Win, dying on 2nd October. 

The bodies of the two were cremated immediately after their deaths and
their family members were
allowed to view the bodies for only a few minutes. According to some close
relatives, they had bruises
on their faces. The SPDC [State Peace and Development Council] authorities
were reported to have
given only 10,000 kyat [Burmese currency] for their funeral expenses. The
military intelligence
threatened the family members not to disclose the incident. 

Due to much discontent among the 'Kyemon' staff members, 20 persons, who
were detained, were
released. However, seven are still being detained. 

A political observer said that the SPDC generals were much embarrassed by
the inadvertent errors in
the SPDC newspapers which happened to reflect the truth. That is why they
tortured those they
believed to be responsible until they died. An editorial in the ' Myanmar
Alin' newspaper in February
claimed that the SPDC government is relentlessly working for opium
cultivation and trade. During 1991,
a caption describing Foreign Minister U Ohn Gyaw delivering an address at a
UN conference was put
next to the picture of the prime minister of the National Coalition
Government of the Union of Burma,
Dr Sein Win, and his ministers attending a meeting. 

In early 1990, a caption, "Cows Show" , was put under a picture of SPDC
generals seated in a row.
Soon after the SPDC seized power, a cartoon referring to the SPDC appeared
in the 'Working
People's Daily' with the caption, "Defect to Government" . 



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