Mon Oct 1, 9:38 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Myanmar's foreign minister on Monday accused elements inside and outside the country of trying to derail its move toward democracy and defended the crackdown on an "unruly and provocative" mob as essential to restore order.

"Normalcy has now returned in Myanmar," Foreign Minister U Nyan Win told the U.N. General Assembly's ministerial meeting.

Protests against Myanmar's government ignited in August over fuel prices hikes, but public anger ballooned into mass demonstrations led by Buddhist monks against 45 years of military dictatorship. Soldiers responded last week by shooting at unarmed demonstrators. On Monday, the main city of Yangon was quiet and security forces lightened their presence.

Win accused "neo-colonialists" — a clear reference to the United States, Britain and other Western nations — of conducting a concerted campaign against Myanmar by imposing economic sanctions and spreading disinformation that the government is committing gross human rights violations.

Such campaigns, Win said, eventually culminate in the invasion of countries and overthrow of governments.

"Recent events make clear that there are elements within and outside the country who wish to derail the ongoing process (toward democracy) so that they can take advantage of the chaos that would follow," Win said.

Win made no mention of the deaths or injuries in the crackdown against the pro-democracy demonstrators by the country's security forces. Dissident groups say up to 200 protesters were slain, compared to the regime's report of 10 deaths, and 6,000 detained.

Win said "cooperation with the United Nations is a cornerstone of Myamar's foreign policy," citing his government's decision to allow U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari to visit this week.

He insisted Myamar was advancing on the path to democracy, citing plans for a new constitution. Critics call the process a sham because the junta hand-picked most delegates to a national convention that drew up guidelines for the new constitution and has barred the opposition.

"The Myanmar government is fully aware of its responsibility to lead the nation in the process of transformation to a disciplined democracy," Win said. "We have laid down a road map and will work conscientiously to achieve our goals."

Mon Oct 1, 8:01 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - Myanmar Foreign Minister U Nyan Win on Monday blamed the military crackdown against anti-government protesters in his country on "political opportunists" backed by "some powerful countries".

"The situation would not have deteriorated had the initial protest of a small group of activists against the rise in fuel prices not been exploited by political opportunists," he told the UN General Assembly here.

He said those "opportunists ... aided and abetted by some powerful countries" also took advantage of protests "staged initially by a small group of Buddhist clergy demanding apology for maltreatment of fellow monks by local authorities."

The minister asserted that Myanmar security forces showed "utmost restraint" and did not intervene for nearly a month.

He said authorities were then compelled to declare a curfew "when the mob became unruly and provocative."

"When protestors ignored their warning, they (security forces) had to take action to restore the situation. Normalcy has now returned in Myanmar," he added.

Nyan Win portrayed the turmoil as part of "neo-colonialist attempts" to impose Western-style democracy on Myanmar.

Mon Oct 1, 2:57 PM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - One hundred shot dead outside a Myanmar school. Activists burned alive at government crematoriums. A Buddhist monk floating face down in a river.

After last week's brutal crackdown by the military, horror stories are filling Myanmar blogs and dissident sites. But the tight security of the repressive regime makes it impossible to verify just how many people are dead, detained or missing.

"There are huge difficulties. It's a closed police state," said David Mathieson, a consultant with Human Rights Watch in Thailand. "Many of the witnesses have been arrested and are being held in areas we don't have access to. Other eyewitness are too afraid."

Authorities have acknowledged that government troops shot dead nine demonstrators and a Japanese cameraman in Yangon. But witness accounts range from several dozen deaths to as many as 200.

"We do believe the death toll is higher than acknowledged by the government," Shari Villarosa, the top U.S. diplomat in Myanmar, told The Associated Press Monday. "We are doing our best to get more precise, more detailed information, not only in terms of deaths but also arrests."

Villarosa said her staff had visited up to 15 monasteries around Yangon and every single one was empty. She put the number of arrested demonstrators — monks and civilians — in the thousands.

"I know the monks are not in their monasteries," she said. "Where are they? How many are dead? How many are arrested?"

She said the true death toll may never be known in a Buddhist country where bodies are cremated.

"We're not going to find graves like they did in Yugoslavia ... We have seen few dead bodies. The bodies are removed promptly. We don't know where they are being taken," Villarosa said.

Dissident groups have been collecting accounts from witnesses and the families of victims, and investigating reports of dead bodies turning up at hospitals and cemeteries in and around Yangon.

The U.S. Campaign For Burma, a Washington-based pro-democracy group, says more than 100 people were killed in downtown Yangon after truckloads of government troops fired automatic weapons last Thursday at thousands of demonstrators. It also claims that 100 students and parents were killed the same day at a high school in Tamwe, in northeastern Yangon, after troops shot at them as school let out.

The Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based dissident news organization, has received reports of soldiers burning protesters alive at the Yae Way cemetery crematorium on the outskirts of Yangon. The group also shot video Sunday of a dead monk, badly beaten and floating face down in a Yangon river.

The Democratic Voice of Burma has put the death toll at 138, based on a list compiled by the 88 Student Generation, a pro-democracy group operating in Myanmar.

"This 138 figure is quite credible because it's based on names of victims," Aye Chan Naing, the chief editor, told the AP Monday. "I also think the figure is accurate because of the pictures coming from inside Burma. The way they were shooting into the crowds with machine guns means dozens of people could have died."

The Democratic Voice of Burma also estimates that about 6,000 demonstrators — including at least 1,400 monks from seven now-empty monasteries — are being held at makeshift detention centers set up at universities, old factories and a race track in Yangon. There are already an estimated 1,100 political prisoners languishing in Myanmar's jails.

The military junta did not respond to AP requests for comment Monday. It is impossible to independently verify the death toll because Myanmar is virtually off-limits to journalists.

Lars Bromley of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington said his agency has ordered up satellite images of four Myanmar cities, including Yangon, since the crackdown. He said satellite imagery — along with clear skies and exact locations from witnesses — could help locate massacre sites, and also give some sense of the military presence around cities and monasteries.

"If there are several suspected burial sites, we could help narrow it down or identify the site," said Bromley, who last week uncovered evidence that Myanmar's military destroyed border villages and forcibly relocated ethnic minorities in eastern Myanmar last year. "But we need a little information to go on."

Most analysts said the fallout from the protests was not surprising, given the regime's history of brutality. It may be impossible to ever verify how many people are dead or detained.

"We cannot say exactly and we are unlikely to know for sure," Win Hlaing of the dissident group National League for Democracy-Liberated Area said of the death toll. "(But) the junta never declares the real number of people killed."

Myanmar's military also opened fire on the country's 1988 democratic uprising. Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 3,000 protesters were killed, but other reports cite up to 10,000. The media, diplomats and activists have been denied access to documents that could shed light on the shootings.

And so, to this day, the exact death toll remains shrouded in secrecy.

Mon Oct 1, 2:07 PM ET

WASHINGTON - The White House on Monday expressed serious concerns about "continued reports of violence and intimidation" in Myanmar and kept up pressure for its military rulers to give way to democratic rule.

At the same time, spokeswoman Dana Perino highlighted the importance of the diplomatic mission there by UN special envoy Ibrahim Gambari, sent to Myanmar to express outrage over the deadly crackdown on anti-government protests.

And US President George W. Bush's deputy national security adviser, Jim Jeffrey, was to meet with China's ambassador to Washington, Zhou Wenzhong, to discuss Sino-US cooperation on the crisis, said Perino.

"The United States is committed to working with countries around the world to make sure that the region moves Burma towards peaceful transition to democracy," said Perino, Bush's chief spokeswoman.

"There are continued reports of violence and intimidation coming out of Burma. That is of great concern to the president and Mrs Bush," said Perino.

In Myanmar's main city of Yangon, which bore the brunt of the campaign to shut down two weeks of anti-government rallies, the military presence lifted slightly and shops and Buddhist pagodas reopened.

Asked what violence she was referring to, Perino said that the junta's forces had "brutalized" protesters and some journalists last week and said "that could have a chilling effect on any type of protest."

"But they have a right to peacefully protest, and we would ask that the Burmese refrain from using violence against them," she said. Washington does not recognize the name Myanmar and continues to call the country Burma.

Perino expressed US support for Gambari, saying that Washington was "pleased" that the envoy was able to meet with Myanmar democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We understand he remains in Burma in order to see junta leader Than Shwe. We obviously think it's important that all of those meetings take place, that he be allowed to meet with everyone that he's asked to meet with," she said.

"We think it's important that the process of national reconciliation start, and part of that process is getting these meetings underway," said the spokeswoman.

Mon Oct 1, 7:06 AM ET

NEW DELHI - India's new army chief on Monday called a bloody crackdown by Myanmar's military junta against pro-democracy protests an "internal matter."

India's army, which is battling numerous insurgencies in the remote northeast bordering Myanmar, favours a "good relationship" with the military junta, said army chief Deepak Kapoor, who took charge on Sunday.

"We have a good relationship going with Myanmar and I am sure we will try and maintain that," Kapoor told reporters in New Delhi, adding the turmoil in Myanmar was "an internal matter."

The statement came a week after the United States tightened sanctions on Myanmar's military rulers and urged countries like China and India to do more to help end the crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.

New Delhi has been criticised for its low-key reaction to the authoritarian regime's brutal suppression of the month-long protests.

At least 13 people were killed last week during protests led by the highly influential Buddhist monks.

Meanwhile, an Indian opposition-led protest in New Delhi urged the government to "raise its voice" in support of the pro-democracy movement.

"All the countries are asking us why India is not saying or doing anything. We demand that the government stand up and speak (for democracy) with courage," said former defence minister George Fernandes.

He was flanked by activists waving placards reading "India, speak up for Burma!" (Myanmar's former name) and "Attacks on monks are an attack on humanity."

Others chanted "Long live Aung San Suu Kyi," carrying photographs of the detained democracy icon.

Fernandes was joined by refugees from Myanmar, swelling the protesters' numbers to about 450, according to the police. There are around 2,000 refugees from the country in New Delhi.

India last week expressed "concern" and urged dialogue to resolve differences between the junta and the pro-democracy protesters. It also called for accelerating the process of "broad-based national reconciliation and political reform."

But analysts say India is walking a diplomatic tightrope, juggling energy and strategic concerns with a commitment to democracy.

India, which rolled out the red carpet for military strongman Than Shwe in a 2004 visit, was until the mid-1990s a staunch supporter of Suu Kyi.

New Delhi kept the military junta at arms length after the 1988 crackdown on democracy protests, but changed track when it decided its security interests in the northeast were in jeopardy.

Since India began engaging the generals, there has been cooperation between Indian and Myanmar's security forces in flushing out the northeastern rebels.

Fali S. Nariman, an Indian constitutional expert at the protest, criticised what he described as "security achieved through suppression of human rights."

"When human rights of a people are involved you cannot dismiss it as an internal matter... Aung San Suu Kyi has become a legend. She has become a second (Nelson) Mandela," he said, referring to the South African freedom leader.

Besides security, India is also vying with China and other Asian countries for a share of Myanmar's vast energy resources -- triggering accusations that it is weakening US and European economic sanctions.