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Author Topic:   Videographer shot dead in Myanmar during monk-led protest
OMG Jay
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posted September 28, 2007 10:01 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Videographer shot dead in Myanmar during monk-led protest

BY CORKY SIEMASZKO
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, September 28th 2007, 4:00 AM

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Japanese photo journalist Kenji Nagai was shot during anti-junta protests in Myanmar yesterday.

Japanese photo journalist Kenji Nagai was shot during anti-junta protests in Myanmar yesterday.
Nagai lies dead as soldiers hurry past.

Nagai lies dead as soldiers hurry past.

Mortally wounded and bleeding to death on a street, a terrified Japanese photographer became a symbol of the Myanmar military's brutality yesterday as the junta cracked down on protesters.

Kenji Nagai was covering day 10 of the pro-democracy "Saffron Revolution" against the brutal generals who have run the nation for two decades when soldiers converged on a crowd in Rangoon city and suddenly opened fire.

Nagai, 50, a veteran videographer working in the country, also known as Burma, for Tokyo-based APF News, was knocked flat on his back by a volley of shots that scattered the Buddhist monks and other protesters.

A Reuters photographer captured Nagai laying on a street littered with the water bottles and sandals of the fleeing demonstrators while a soldier ran past him.

In that photo, Nagai is still holding his camera over his head and apparently still recording the mayhem. In the next frame, Nagai's camera is on the ground by his side and his arms are dropped to his side as he lies dead.

"We were supposed to receive a call from him this evening," Nagai's boss, Toru Yamaji, told reporters in Toyko. "But we didn't."

Shocked by the ferocity of the military crackdown - and with the death toll at least nine - the Bush administration hit a dozen of Myanmar's senior officials and generals, all of whom have grown rich by impoverishing their own people, in the pocketbook.

The administration's chief targets for economic sanctions are the junta's top leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, and his second-in-command, Deputy Senior Gen. Maung Aye.

"The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals," President Bush said. "Every civilized nation has a responsibility to stand up for people suffering under a brutal military regime."

Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo declared his country "appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used."

"We hope that Myanmar will show restraint, remain calm and not take any actions that will complicate the situation," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, urging the government to "resolve the crisis."

The Chinese also called on the junta to allow the UN special envoy heading there today full access to the hundreds of opposition leaders, mostly Buddhist monks.

The diplomatic drive gathered speed after generals launched predawn raids on Buddhist monasteries in a bid to quell the biggest anti-junta rebellion in 20 years.

It was a shocking move because in Myanmar the monks are venerated. But facing the most serious challenge to its authority since troops gunned down an estimated 3,000 protesters in 1988, the junta went after the monks anyway.

The Myanmar military has admitted killing one man and wounding just three as the country has been convulsed by violence.

Protest leaders, however, said at least nine people were killed yesterday and the shocking photographs of Nagai dying at the hand of soldiers appeared to buttress their claims.

csiemaszko@nydailynews.com

With News Wire Services


Kill those pieces of crap soldiers


http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/2007/09/28/2007-09-28_videographer_shot_dead_in_myanmar_during-1.html


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OMG Jay
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posted September 28, 2007 10:11 AM           Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Internet cut as violence continues

* Story Highlights
* Unconfirmed reports of bodies in the streets, protesters shot.
* New video appears to show point blank shooting of protester in Yangon
* Internet links severed, reports say.
* Protesters defy orders to stay off the streets a day after deadly crackdown
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YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Shots were fired to clear crowds defying a brutal crackdown in Myanmar Friday as authorities reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage showed troops using deadly force.
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A still from a video released by Myanmarese opposition shows crowds fleeing gunshots in Yangon on Thursday.
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Witnesses told CNN that police opened fire on crowds to disperse demonstrators resulting in fatalities. Other sources said they had spoken to a Western witness who had seen up to 35 bodies lying in the streets.

CNN could not independently verify the claims.

A day earlier, troops with automatic rifles fired into crowds of anti-government demonstrators, reportedly killing at least nine people in the bloodiest day in more than a month of protests demanding an end to military rule.

The governemt also cut Internet connections Friday, according to reports, severing a vital information link that has been used to digitally smuggle images of the violent suppression out of the secretive state.

British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN that troops had opened fire in Yangon on Friday.

"We have heard shots in the last 15, 20 minutes," British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN.

U.S. Charge d'Affaires Shari Villarosa said crowds were not as large as on previous days, when thousands of red-robed Buddhist monks swarmed the streets of major cities.

Meanwhile, a Western diplomat told CNN that witnesses said security forces were firing rubber bullets into a small crowd outside Sule Pagoda -- the site of previous clashes with government forces.

Another diplomat told CNN that a Western witness had reported seeing about 35 bodies lying in rows on a street near Sule Pagoda, with civilians praying over them. CNN could not independently confirm the report, and it was not known if the bodies were from Friday or the result of earlier violence.

With tough controls over foreign journalists reporting on the situation, details from inside Myanmar were sketchy. Both opposition and official Web sites that have been a major source of information showed few updates Friday.

Ko Htike, who runs one of the main opposition blog Web sites from London, said the military government had cut the Internet across the country, hampering access to photographs.

He said he was still receiving information from people inside Myanmar and would continue to post pictures received via other means.

A resident of Yangon, who did not wish to give his name, told CNN that police in had told people to remain indoors after midday.

Friday's restrictions came after the government had imposed a night curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people, the U.S. Embassy said, effectively clearing streets overnights, according to witnesses.

The Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) reported that many privately-owned weekly news journals in Myanmar had decided to stop publication in protest of official demands to publish pro-government propaganda.

According to the DVB, authorities are ordering the publications to print articles written by state media and other stories blaming the All Burma Student's Democratic Front and the National League for Democracy for the protests.

The opposition National League for Democracy party won general elections in 1990, but the military refused to honor the results and has repeatedly placed party leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.

DVB also released video on Friday that appeared to show someone being shot at close range in Yangon a day earlier. The person flies backward into the street as shots ring out and the crowd scatters. Video Watch police open fire on crowds. »

According to state media, nine people were killed on Thursday. The victims include a Japanese news photographer.

Witnesses' reports of other deaths, including a university student shot in the head, could not be confirmed. The Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) reported the same incident.

In another account of Thursday's violence, at least 10 people were shot in Yangon, said Aung Zaw, editor in chief of the opposition Web site Irrawaddy.org. CNN could not independently confirm the reports.
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Gunfire broke out Thursday afternoon when troops confronted thousands of demonstrators who had marched from Yangon's center to its eastern Tamwe township, Irrawaddy.org reported. Troops sealed the huge crowds off and then opened fire, the report said.

Meanwhile, on its state-run Web site, the government offered its own account of its response to the protests, saying security officials were provoked into violence.

Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung called on senior monks to rein in the protests. Buddhist monks were at the forefront of the demonstrations before government forces surrounded their temples and monasteries.

ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has taken the unusual step of openly condemning Myanmar, which has repeatedly embarrassed the trade bloc in the past.

In Malaysia on Friday, hundreds of Myanmarese exiles joined a rally outside their country's embassy calling for an end to the crackdown.
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U.S. President George Bush has urged Beijing, Myanmar's main trading partner, to use its influence to persuade the military junta end its crackdown. China on Thursday issued a statement urging restraint.

The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, has made his way to southeast Asian neighbor Singapore, according to the city-state's Foreign Ministry. The Myanmar government has said it will issue him a visa on Saturday. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/28/myanmar.protests/index.html


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