A new report from Human Rights Watch says the crackdown by the military junta in Burma on pro-democracy protests in September was far deadlier than Burmese officials have let on.

Steve Crawshaw, the United Nations Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch: “What we’ve seen is a horrendous series of killings and brutality with both live bullets and beatings during the protests of the last couple of months. The government says everything is back to normal. Our report makes it clear that that is absolutely not the case. Arrests are continuing, and we’ve seen a series of very brutal actions, which I think the world really needs to wake up to.”

Human Rights Watch documented at least twenty deaths of students, civilians and Buddhist monks in Rangoon but said that many more were likely to have died in Burma’s main city and nationwide. Official Burmese media have admitted that ten people died in the crackdown, including a Japanese video journalist shot dead at point-blank range.