Myanmar's military killed at least 31 people during a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators -- more than double the amount acknowledged by authorities, a UN investigator said.
But Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, the UN human rights expert assigned to the country, said the death toll was probably much higher than 31 because they were just the victims whose names were known.
"Several reports of killings indicate that the figure provided by the authorities may greatly underestimate the reality," he said on Friday.
He gave authorities a list of 16 people killed in the military junta's September crackdown on top of the 15 dead he said the authorities had already acknowledged.
The new list "contains only those incidents where the names of the people involved are cited," Pinheiro said in a 31-page report released by the UN on Friday.
"There are a number of incidents where no names were reported but where there were allegations of groups of people reportedly killed, which have also been shared," he said.
Pinheiro, who visited the country from Nov. 11 to Nov. 15, said the report has a "list of names of 653 persons detained, 74 persons disappeared and 16 killed -- in addition to the list of 15 dead provided by the authorities."
His report includes details of a visit to the Htain Bin crematorium, where authorities said 14 corpses were transferred from the Yangon General Hospital.
The bodies were registered and cremated, but three of the dead could not be identified. Eleven of those cremated died as a result of firearm wounds.
Pinheiro also said he received "credible reports" from a monk detained between Sept. 27 and Oct. 5 that at least 14 individuals died in custody.
Pinheiro said he heard that Win Shwe, a member of Aung San Suu Kyi's pro-democracy movement, died during questioning in Plate Myot Police Center, near Mandalay, on Oct. 9.
His body was not returned to his family, Pinheiro said.
U Thilavantha, the deputy abbot of the Yuzana Kyaungthai monastery in Myitkyina, was allegedly beaten to death in detention on Sept. 26, Pinheiro said.
He added that ``credible sources'' reported a large number of bodies wrapped in plastic and rice bags that were burned in the early hours of the last days of September. The burning took place at the Ye Way crematorium in Yangon, he said. Authorities blocked Pinheiro from visiting.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home