Death Toll Burma will never be known

Hundreds of pro-democracy supporters are being detained daily by Burma's military junta, and it may never be clear how many died during the violent suppression of their protests, a senior British diplomat said Friday.

The official said figures released by Myanmar authorities showed around 800 people had been arrested in the last 10 days alone. Britain estimates between 2,000 to 2,500 are being held in squalid labor camps, prisons and makeshift detention centers, said the senior diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

"There are substantial nighttime raids still going on. They have scooped up hundreds of people," he said.

He said all remaining leaders of the 1988 pro-democracy uprising had been seized by authorities, among a total of 2,927 people arrested since new protests began last month.

The British official told reporters it is proving impossible to assess the death toll.

"The official figure remains at 10," he said. "We believe it is many, many multiples more and we will never get to the bottom of that I'm afraid."

British diplomats have received accounts from those held in prisons and labor camps, describing "excrement-smeared rooms, hundreds to a room," where detainees have been denied food and interrogated.

"There is a profound sense of trauma amongst the population, and amongst, I would guess, certain parts of the army and the government too. There is a huge sense of outrage, the anger is quite extraordinary if you just scratch the surface," he said.

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