Only now, the full horror of Burmese junta's repression of monks emerges

The story is slowly emerging of what happened, out of sight, to the monks and the other Burmese citizens who staged demonstrations against the ruling regime.

The hidden crackdown is as methodical as it is brutal. First the monks were targeted, then the thousands of ordinary Burmese who joined the demonstrations, those who even applauded or watched, or those merely suspected of anti-government sympathies.

"There were about 400 of us in one room. No toilets, no buckets, no water for washing. No beds, no blankets, no soap. Nothing," said a 24-year-old monk who was held for 10 days at the Government Technical Institute, a leafy college in northern Rangoon which is now a prison camp for suspected dissidents. The young man, too frightened to be named, was one of 185 monks taken in a raid on a monastery in the Yankin district of Rangoon on 28 September, two days after government soldiers began attacking street protesters.

"The room was too small for everyone to lie down at once. We took it in turns to sleep. Every night at 8 o'clock we were given a small bowl of rice and a cup of water. But after a few days many of us just couldn't eat. The smell was so bad.

"Some of the novice monks were under 10 years old, the youngest was just seven. They were stripped of their robes and given prison sarongs. Some were beaten, leaving open, untreated wounds, but no doctors came."

On his release, the monk spoke to a Western aid worker in Rangoon, who smuggled his testimony and those of other prisoners and witnesses out of Burma on a small memory stick.

Most of the detained monks, the low-level clergy, were eventually freed without charge as were the children among them. But suspected ringleaders of the protests can expect much harsher treatment, secret trials and long prison sentences. One detained opposition leader has been tortured to death, activist groups said yesterday. Win Shwe, 42, a member of the National League for Democracy, the party of the detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, has died under interrogation, the Thai-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners said, adding that the information came from authorities in Kyaukpandawn township. "However, his body was not sent to his family and the interrogators indicated that they had cremated it instead." Win Shwe was arrested on the first day of the crackdown.

I heard on the radio the other day that the Burmese government intended to punish even those who simply watched the march and applauded with two years in jail.

Burmese intelligence agents are scrutinising photographs and video footage to identify demonstrators and bystanders. They have also arrested the owners of computers which they suspect were used to transmit images and testimonies out of the country.

The United States yesterday threatened unspecified new sanctions against Burma and called for an investigation into the death of Win Shwe.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said in a statement: "The junta must stop the brutal treatment of its people and peacefully transition to democracy or face new sanctions from the United States."

The sanctions from the United States are welcome but the whole world needs to impose sanctions on Burma through the United Nations.

"When there were demonstrations and soldiers on the streets, the world was watching," said a professional woman who watched the marchers from her office.

"But now the soldiers only come at night. They take anyone they can identify from their videos. People who clapped, who offered water to the monks, who knelt and prayed as they passed. People who happened to turn and watch as they passed by and their faces were caught on film. It is now we are most fearful. It is now we need the world to help us."

The Liberal blogosphere has been generally quiet on this subject with only a few of the smaller blogs, like this one, bothering to comment on what is happening in Burma. I genuinely have no idea why that is.

I know that China will resist any attempts to place sanctions on Burma through the United Nations but, as I have said before, that need not be a problem.

Nor is China's protection enough to make the Burmese regime untouchable. Indeed, the more the Burmese government rely on one trading partner to protect them, the more vulnerable they become.

The Chinese government are setting great hope on the Beijing Olympics enhancing their international reputation. Were Western governments to threaten to boycott those Olympics I don't think the Chinese would continue to support the Burmese government.

China may be the rising international superstar, but she can still be hit where it matters. In this case, her vanity. We should threaten to boycott until China stops protecting this vile regime.

Now more than ever it is imperative that the world acts, as the vile clampdown and punishments start. The excuse that China will use her veto at the UN ignores the fact that the Chinese holding the Olympics gives us an ideal opportunity to make China reconsider her support for this vile regime. Normally the Chinese would be impossible to persuade when it comes to this subject, but the Olympics and the great store that China is setting by them gives us a window of opportunity that should be not be allowed to pass.

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Tags: Burma, China, General Than Shwe, Suu Kyi, Beijing Olympics, Win Shwe