Explosives Found in Monastery, Says Junta

By The Associated Press
October 18, 2007

Burma's military regime, which acknowledged detaining nearly 3,000 people during a recent crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, said Thursday that it seized large quantities of US-made explosives that a monk had been hiding in a Buddhist monastery.

Forty-eight blocks of TNT were found last week after investigations by authorities which led to U Kovida, a 23-year-old monk at Rangoon's Nan Oo monastery, the state-run New Light of Myanmar said. He reportedly hid the explosives in the monastery and then moved them to another location, where they were found.

Monks were at the forefront of mass anti-government demonstrations, which the military brutally suppressed. The junta said Wednesday it detained nearly 3,000 people in connection with the protests, adding that hundreds remain in custody and that it is still hunting for others.

The newspaper report, which did not say if Kovida was arrested, said explosives were being smuggled into the country and people suspected of having links with the smuggling operation were being questioned.

London-based Amnesty International said Wednesday that an increasing number reports from Burma tell of deaths, torture, lack of food and medical treatment in overcrowded detention facilities across the country.

"The current arbitrary arrests, secret detention and widespread reports of ill-treatment and torture make a mockery of promises made by the Myanmar [Burmese] authorities to cooperate with the United Nations ... for early release of all political prisoners," a statement from the human rights group said.

An official statement in the New Light of Myanmar said 2,927 people had been arrested since the crackdown started and nearly 500 were still in custody. "Some are still being called in for questioning and those who should be released will be," it said.

Everyone released from custody was required to sign "pledges" the military statement said, without elaborating. Protesters freed from custody have said in interviews that they had to sign statements saying they would not take part in protests or support the pro-democracy movement.

The opposition National League for Democracy party of detained Nobel laureate Suu Kyi said Tuesday that more than 300 party members had been detained since August, including 60 within the past week.

The junta has said 10 people were killed when troops fired into crowds of peaceful protesters during the Sept. 26-27 crackdown.

Diplomats and dissidents say they believe the death toll is higher and that up to 6,000 people were seized, including thousands of monks who led the rallies.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, has come under increasing international pressure to call off its crackdown, as Japan canceled a multimillion dollar grant and China threw its weight behind a U.N. envoy's efforts to ease the crisis.

But ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, of which Myanmar is a member, said it would not support any sanctions against the military regime.