Reuters-Air crash story ``Hollywood

[hlaing@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Air crash story ``Hollywood sensationalism''-Myanmar 
04:25 a.m. Sep 20, 1998 Eastern 

BANGKOK, Sept 20 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military government on Sunday
angrily denounced a newspaper report that survivors of an air crash in
eastern Myanmar were raped and murdered as ``Hollywood-style
sensationalism.'' 



``It is quite difficult to understand how the author came up with such a
story,'' a statement from the government said, adding that it appeared to
be based on ``pure speculation.'' 



``Irresponsible reporting will not help but put more misery and grief on
the bereaved families,'' it said. 



The report in the Bangkok Post said an air hostess and a female university
student were gang-raped by villagers and an infant starved to death after
they survived the crash of the Myanmar Airways Fokker F-27 turboprop on
August 24. 



The full-page report, quoting unnamed officials and witnesses from the
region of the crash site, said at least five people had initially survived
the crash. 



It said male survivors were tortured and villagers chopped off ears and
fingers to take passengers' jewellery. It also said living and dead Myanmar
military personnel among the passengers were kicked and punched by the
ethnic Shan villagers. 



Myanmar authorities had questioned at least 14 Shan villagers in connection
with the incident, the report said. 



The government statement described the Post report as being ``heavily
spiced with racial hatred, violence, political motivation and anti-military
sentiments to create a Hollywood style sensationalism.'' 



After the crash, Myanmar officials gave several conflicting reports as to
the fate of the plane and those aboard, all of whom were Myanmar citizens. 



The aircraft crashed while on a scheduled domestic flight from Myanmar's
capital Yangon to Tachilek, the main town on the Myanmar side of the
``Golden Triangle'' opium growing region, which is formed by the juncture
of Myanmar, Thailand and Laos. 



At one stage, a Myanmar Airways official said the plane had landed safely
in Laos. Then a Myanmar government spokesman said Laos had told Yangon the
aircraft had crashed there. 



The government said initially that 39 people were aboard the plane,
including four crew members and three babies. Eventually it said there were
36 people aboard and all died after the plane crashed six km (four miles)
northeast of Tachilek. 



Airline officials said most aboard were military personnel. 



The Bangkok Post report quoted witnesses as saying that up to 12 were
soldiers while other passengers were their wives and children. It said the
passengers included the Tachilek police chief and senior officials of the
town. 



The government statement said the passenger list showed a far different
number of military personnel on the plane. 



``It is very unfortunate that the author did not make any proper kind of
inquiry and investigative reporting before writing such an article and
seems to have based his information on against the ethics of journalism,''
it said. 



Myanmar's Ministry of Information has said the Fokker was unable to land at
Tachilek, about 550 km (340 miles) northeast of Yangon, due to poor
weather. It was diverted to Heho in the southeast but then lost contact
with ground control. 



It was the second Myanmar Airways F-27 crash this year. 



In January, 14 people, including three foreigners, were killed when an F-27
carrying about 45 people crashed near Thandwe, about 320 km (200 miles)
northwest of Yangon.