BRUSSELS, Oct 23: The Myanmar junta is taking relatives of protesters hostage if it cannot find the people it wants to arrest, rights groups said on Tuesday after returning from a trip to the region.

The mission, from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) called for further international sanctions against the military regime over its “brutal and systematic” crackdown on peaceful protests last month.

“Arrests are still taking place,” said FIDH delegate Gaetan Vanloqueren, who visited the area from Oct 13 to 21.

“The regime is now taking family members hostage when the persons sought are not at home.” In late September in Yangon, Myanmar’s main city, the authorities suppressed pro-democracy protests led by Buddhist monks.

The rights delegation did not enter Myanmar during its fact-finding visit but interviewed witnesses of the crackdown in neighbouring Thailand and on the Thai-Myanmar border.

“While no accurate and verifiable number of deaths or wounded can be given at this stage, we can assert that the repression was brutal and systematic,” said Vanloqueren.

“Most of the participants (in their study) witnessed people being shot dead, as well as persons beaten to death,” he told a press conference in Brussels.

The regime “is conducting widespread arbitrary arrests in Rangoon (Yangon) and elsewhere,” he added.

The rights group also distributed statements from anonymous witnesses.

“I saw people on the ground,” said one such witness, who attended the Yangon street protests.

“A student leader was shot dead with one shot ... After that they shot with a machine gun. People fell down. Many were shot,” said the witness, identified as a “poet”.

“Most of the people killed were monks as they were in the front of the march when the soldiers attacked,” the witness said.

The testimonies from the other witnesses was similar. Some of the witnesses predicted more demonstrations, amid anger at the attacks — especially on the country’s revered Buddhist monks — and over food shortages.

Earlier this month European Union foreign ministers approved new sanctions against the Myanmar regime, including an embargo on the export of wood, gems and metals.—AFP