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Military Planning to Infiltrate Demonstrations to Spark Violence
Yangon, Burma -- Burma Campaign UK sources in Rangoon have reported that soldiers have been ordered to shave their heads, in possible preparation for infiltrating peaceful demonstrations. They would start rioting or attacking police, providing the regime with a pretext for a brutal crackdown on protestors. Sources indicate that soldiers from Light Battalion 77 in Rangoon have been given the order. Sources also report that the regime has ordered 3,000 monks robes from a factory in Rangoon. It is a tactic the regime has used in the past, including at the Depayin Despite the widespread expectations that the regime will use violence to suppress protest, the international community has been remarkably silent, with the French government being the only one to make a strong statement warning of consequences if the regime respond with violence. ASEAN has also expressed concern. "The regime has been held in check by the peoples' respect for the monks and the fact that the world is watching, but the scale of protests means they will be looking for options that allow them to justify a crackdown," said Mark Farmaner, "The UN Secretary General and other world leaders must speak out and make it clear that a violent response in unacceptable. At the moment the international community seems to be willing to watch from the sidelines as the regime moves closer to a massacre. If the regime does attack protestors, this will have been one of the most widely predicted massacres in recent history, and makes a mockery any government's claim to be committed to human rights." |
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