33 Killings, Arson Mark 3rd Day of Burma Protests

Killings and arson swept Burma on Wednesday as anti-government protests raged for a third day.

Official Radio Rangoon announced that 33 people were killed and 59 were wounded Wednesday in clashes between security forces and demonstrators and that three police officers were beheaded in suburban Rangoon.

The official three-day casualty toll is now 78 dead, although estimates by diplomatic sources in the capital are at least double that number.

In Washington, State Department spokeswoman Phyllis Oakley said that all U.S. personnel and their dependents, a total of 154 people, are safe after the U.S. Embassy in Rangoon was closed temporarily Tuesday. She said there is no indication that Americans have been or might become targets of violence.

Security forces fired automatic weapons 15 times Wednesday to disperse crowds in Rangoon, according to the government-owned radio, which was monitored in Bangkok. It said 113 people were arrested for “violence and looting,” a sharp drop from the arrest figures Monday and Tuesday.

In the capital and its suburbs, buses, warehouses, a factory and a department store were burned by rioters, it also reported. Eyewitnesses said protesters fought back against security forces with stones, slingshots and Molotov cocktails.

Thousands of demonstrators waving Burmese flags roamed the streets of Rangoon demanding the ouster of strongman Sein Lwin, who took office July 26, and an end to 26 years of repressive rule. The protests began Monday when an estimated 100,000 people took to the streets as part of a general strike called by students and other dissidents.

“I think this government is coming down,” one Western diplomat told United Press International.

Burmese officials have made no comment on the rapidly spreading unrest, which continued in defiance of a martial-law order banning any gathering larger than five people.

Police appeared to be targeted for violence Wednesday by the demonstrators, who until this week had been largely unarmed. The evening radio broadcast reported that three police officers were “beheaded by the mob” in Okkalapa, northeast of Rangoon, and that at least two police stations had been burned in the capital, along with the living quarters of the officers and their families.

Another police officer was reported killed in the southern port of Moulmein by protesters who seized his weapon.

Radio Rangoon said three nurses were shot at the capital’s General Hospital after security forces were attacked while guarding an ambulance carrying injured police to the hospital.

Foreigners in Rangoon, a city of 3.5 million people, were warned to stay off the streets, and tourists reportedly were approached by undercover police officers and told to avoid any demonstrations. The Foreign Ministry advised diplomats to “exercise extreme caution” when they left their homes or offices.

Embassy Worker Trapped

On Tuesday, Oakley said, a U.S. Embassy officer driving to work became trapped in a demonstration. After a bullet struck his car, demonstrators loaded their wounded comrades into the vehicle and the American, who was unharmed, was forced to drive them to a safe location.

A State Department spokesman said late Wednesday that U.S. Ambassador Burton Levin has been instructed to deliver a formal protest to Burmese authorities over their methods in suppressing the protests. “The troops and security forces are using an extreme degree of force,” a State Department official said.

There were reports in Washington that some army units outside Rangoon were refusing to go along with orders to take action against protesters. “The army’s beginning to divide up,” one U.S. official said.

U.N. offices in Rangoon have declared a “Phase 2 risk,” which requires employees to stay indoors and to prepare for evacuation. Phase 3 is a full evacuation.

Prominent among the demonstrators have been a number of Buddhist monks. On Monday, several monks were reported addressing the crowds of 30,000 people that reportedly gathered at Sule Pagoda, in the heart of the capital, to denounce Sein Lwin.

Wednesday night’s Radio Rangoon broadcast ended with an appeal for calm and nonviolence from the official organization of Buddhist monks.

Burma: Facts and Figures

Official name: Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma.

Capital: Rangoon (population 3.5 million).

Area: 261,789 square miles (roughly the size of Texas).

Population: 39 million.

Ethnic divisions: 68% Burmese, 9% Shan, 7% Karen, 16% other.

Religion: 85% Buddhist.

Language: Burmese.

Literacy: 78%.

Life expectancy: 57 years.

Climate: Tropical.

Political party: Burma Socialist Program Party.

History: Granted independence from Britain in 1948. Union of Burma formed as parliamentary democracy. Coup in 1962 brought to power Ne Win, who ruled country as president and leader of ruling party until resigning in July, 1988. Current President Sein Lwin.

--Sources : “Political Handbook of the World,” “The World Factbook.”