Nyein Chan Naing/European Pressphoto Agency
A monk was treated in November after being hurt in the crackdown on a protest outside a mine.
By THOMAS FULLER
Published: January 30, 2013
BANGKOK — A group of lawyers investigating a violent crackdown in Myanmar in November that left Buddhist monks and villagers with serious burns contends that the police used white phosphorus, a munition normally reserved for warfare, to disperse protesters.
The suppression of a protest
outside a controversial copper mine in central Myanmar on Nov. 29
shocked the Burmese public after images of critically injured monks
circulated across the country. It also gave rise to fears that the
civilian government of President Thein Sein, which came to power in 2011, was using the same repressive methods as the military governments that preceded it.
Burmese lawyers and an American human rights lawyer gathered material at
the site of the protest, including a metal canister that protesters
said was fired by the police. It was brought to a private laboratory in
Bangkok, which found that residue in it contained high levels of
phosphorus. Access to the canister and a copy of the laboratory report
were provided to a reporter.
“We are confident that they used a munition that contained phosphorus,”
said U Thein Than Oo, the head of the legal committee of the Upper Burma
Lawyers Network, which helped investigate. “They wanted to warn the
entire population not to protest. They wanted to intimidate the people.”
White phosphorus has many uses in war — as a smoke screen or incendiary
weapon — but is rarely if ever used by police forces.
Reached on Wednesday, Zaw Htay, a director in the office of Mr. Thein
Sein, declined to comment on what kind of weapon was used. “I can’t
say,” he said. “I can’t answer.”
John Hart, a senior researcher at the Chemical Weapons Program of the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, said by e-mail that
although white phosphorus was not considered a chemical weapon under a
1993 international convention, it was banned from uses that “cause death
or other harm through the toxic properties of the chemical.”
One of the monks injured at the protest, Ashin Tikhanyana, 64, has burns
over 40 percent of his body and was flown to Bangkok by the government
because Myanmar does not have the facilities to treat such a serious
case.
Two months after the crackdown, Mr. Tikhanyana remains in intensive
care. In an interview on Wednesday in his hospital room, Mr. Tikhanyana
described the moment that the police came to disperse the crowds before
dawn on Nov. 29.
“I saw a fireball beside me, and I started to burn,” he said. “I was rolling on the ground to try to put it out.”
Dr. Chatchai Pruksapong, a burn specialist treating Mr. Tikhanyana, said
it appeared that the monk was seared with something “severely
flammable.”
Mr. Tikhanyana’s wounds are similar to those Dr. Chatchai said he saw on
soldiers injured by bomb blasts in Thailand’s southern insurgency.
“Tear gas would definitely not cause this kind of deep wound,” Dr. Chatchai said.
Myanmar government officials were initially quoted in the local news
media as saying that police officers had thrown “smoke bombs” at
protesters.
The canister found at the protest site appeared to have “smoke”
stenciled on it and looks similar in appearance to smoke hand grenades
once manufactured by the United States, said a security expert and
former colonel in a European army who asked to remain anonymous because
he has dealings in Myanmar. Such smoke grenades emit burning particles
within a radius of about 55 feet, he said.
Roger Normand, the American human rights lawyer who helped investigate
the crackdown, said a report from the lawyers would be released in the
next few days.
Mr. Normand arranged to have the canister brought to the Bangkok
laboratory, which is run by ALS, an Australian company that specializes
in testing samples for their chemical content.
In an interview, Mr. Normand said it was “unheard-of” for highly
volatile and dangerous weapons to be used by police forces. “This raises
serious questions about who in the military chain of command could have
given the order to use these weapons,” he said.
The report prepared by Mr. Normand and the Burmese lawyers has been submitted to Daw Aung San Suu Kyi,
the Nobel laureate and opposition leader, who was appointed by the
government soon after the crackdown to lead a separate, official
commission of inquiry. The precise mandate of the commission is unclear,
as is the timing of the release of the commission’s findings.
The government initially announced that the commission would report its
work on Dec. 31, but that was delayed by a month. It may be further
delayed because Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is on a five-day visit to South
Korea.
The controversy over the copper mine
centers on the government’s effort to relocate villagers in order to
expand the mine, which is co-owned by a Chinese company and the Burmese
military. The government ordered the dispersal of protesters after
several months of intermittent demonstrations. The controversy received
widespread coverage in the Myanmar media partly because land rights have
become a major issue as the country opens up to the world.
But it is a measure of the villagers’ resolve that even after the
violent crackdown they say they are refusing to back down. Aye Net, a
villager who has helped lead the protest movement, said Wednesday by
telephone that villagers were calling for “justice for all those wounded
in the crackdown.”
“And we still want the total abolition of the project,” she said.
