The World - News from Sept. 14, 1989

Widespread beatings, water torture and killings of students and others who oppose the military government of Myanmar, formerly Burma, were described in a U.S. State Department briefing. “We now have credible firsthand reports that instances of torture, beatings and mistreatment are commonplace and that deaths have resulted,” spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said. Two other State Department officials amplified those remarks in testimony before a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee. One official told the panel that the number killed in crushing the pro-democracy movement in Myanmar may exceed the number of deaths during the student uprising in China in June.