ID Cards

Kerry Howley | October 2, 2007

Just when you think Than Shwe's junta has maxed out on its capacity for surreal, senseless cruelty, a government official raises the bar:

Bodies of two protesters killed in the Burmese junta's brutal crackdown on recent protests were not returned to their families but were instead buried in discreet government-organised funeral services, according to family members.

Ko Htun Htun Linn, of South Okkalapa township, and high-school student Maung Kyaw Zeya Naing were killed in Friday's protests in downtown Rangoon after government guards and soldiers fired automatic weapons and beat up protesters.

Their family members said they were later informed of their deaths by the Ministry of Home Affairs. They were invited to attend a funeral service organised by the government, bringing no more than ten people from each family. "The letter, signed by the minister of Home Affairs Thura Myint Maung, was delivered to us by [township] police chief Naing Win and it said that we are to bring our ID cards to the funeral," said a family member of Ko Htun Htun Linn. "It also said that we are not allowed to hold the traditional merit-making ceremony seven days after the death."

Via Moe Aye at the Democratic Voice of Burma.

Comments

The Wine Commonsewer|10.2.07 @ 2:50AM|#

I am surprised the government didn't bury them in an unmarked grave somewhere in the hinterlands. Secondly, I wouldn't trust them, neither. Maybe the black helicopters, maybe not. Either way, it seems suspicious that you have to bring your id card to view the body. Maybe they should bring a shotgun instead.

D. Greene|10.2.07 @ 3:27AM|#

I'm not sure this act of denying the Buddhist rebels their merits in the next realm will work.

Sure, it might inspire some fear, but it will more likely create deeply rooted hostility. People have long memories when you directly fuck with their families like that, especially when you apparently deny them their ability to go to heaven, or in this case escaping samsara.

|10.2.07 @ 4:26AM|#

Ministry of Home Affairs???

Wow. They don't even try to mask the fact that they want to run their citizens' personal lives, do they?

|10.2.07 @ 5:30AM|#

Ministry of Home Affairs???

Department of Homeland Security? Anyone see a trend here?

Wow. They don't even try to mask the fact that they want to run their citizens' personal lives, do they?

No, they don't, in either case.

Either way, it seems suspicious that you have to bring your id card to view the body.

Not really, they want to make sure that the "family" doesn't have connections to foriegn media.

|10.2.07 @ 6:19AM|#

Well, if the Burmese people don't like these rules they don't have to live there.

NP|10.2.07 @ 7:39AM|#

Dan T., that was mind-bogglingly fatuous even by your standards.

|10.2.07 @ 7:52AM|#

I am surprised the government didn't bury them in an unmarked grave somewhere in the hinterlands.

See, when I read "discreet government-organised funeral services", that's exactly what I thought it meant.

|10.2.07 @ 8:08AM|#

That was an imposter, m'thinks. The Real Dan T. doesn't stoop so low.

NP|10.2.07 @ 8:24AM|#

Bronwyn,

To be honest, I suspected that myself. But you gotta agree that this particular comment, if indeed made by the real Dan T., is only a notch below his usual fare.

|10.2.07 @ 8:28AM|#

I will grant you that.

|10.2.07 @ 8:31AM|#

Bronwyn, NP - I thought it might be very dark humor. After all, the people at the heart of the matter don't live there anymore.

|10.2.07 @ 8:56AM|#

I probably should have said "an attempt at very dark humor."

NP|10.2.07 @ 9:20AM|#

BakedPenguin, you should've said "an incredibly clumsy attempt at very dark humor."

|10.2.07 @ 10:05AM|#

Makes all those letters to the editor from leftists about Bushhitler's shredding of the constitution and turning America into a police state sound kinda whiny doesn't it?

|10.2.07 @ 10:10AM|#

Or, conversely, doubled, it shows how important it is to nip abuse of power in the bud.

|10.2.07 @ 10:52AM|#

Or, conversely, doubled, it shows how important it is to nip abuse of power in the bud.

The best or most effective way to nip the abuse of power is to give it to individuals, not governments(once in the hands of the 'annointed' it will creep into every facet of our lives). I won't hold my breathe while we wait.

Bob|10.2.07 @ 11:39PM|#

"Ministry of Home Affairs???

Department of Homeland Security? Anyone see a trend here?"


Everyone please visit my new website entitled "world'sstupidestexamplesofmoralequivalence.com" This little gem is going to make the list right next to the one comparing Roosevelt to Mussolini and Roosevelt's public work's projects to Auschwitz.
This site is chock-full of total bullshit like the above quote. The commenters on this site are so hysterical, it rises to a level of parody that even the Onion could not hope to match.