Death and injury reported in crackdown

The Vow of the Burmese Monks to not rest until they have: 

Despite threats and warnings and despite the beginnings of a violent response, witnesses reported tens of thousands of chanting, cheering protesters flooding the streets. Monks were in the lead, "like religious storm troopers," as one foreign observer put it.

The Reuters news agency quoted a hospital source as saying two people were killed and five wounded in the shootings.

Though the crowds were large and energetic, they were smaller than on previous days, apparently in part because of the deployment of armed soldiers to prevent monks from leaving some of the main temples.

It appeared that an attempt by the military to halt the protests through warnings, troop deployments and initial bursts of violence had not succeeded. Analysts said that the next steps in the crackdown might be more aggressive and widespread.

A foreign diplomat described "an amazing scene" Wednesday as a column of 8,000 to 10,000 people flooded past his embassy following a nucleus of about 800 monks. They were trailed by four truckloads of military men, watching but not taking action. The diplomat, in keeping with embassy policy, spoke on condition of anonymity.

According to news reports and telephone interviews from Myanmar, which is sealed off to foreign reporters, the day began with a confrontation at the giant, gold-spired Shwedagon Pagoda, which has been one focus of the demonstrations.

In the first reported violence in nine days of demonstrations by monks in the country's main city, Yangon, police with riot shields dispersed up to 100 monks who were trying to enter the temple, firing tear gas and warning shots and knocking some monks to the ground. As many as 200 monks were reported to have been arrested at the pagoda.

Several hundred monks then walked through the city to the downtown Sule Pagoda, another focus of the demonstrations, where truckloads of soldiers had been seen arriving Tuesday. Another violent confrontation was reported here, at which more shots were fired and a number of arrests were made.

Tens of thousands of people were reported to be demonstrating in the streets of Mandalay, the country's second largest city.

The demonstrations had grown from several hundred people protesting a fuel price rise in mid-August to as many as 100,000 Sunday, led by tens of thousands of monks in the largest and most sustained antigovernment protests since 1988.

That earlier peaceful uprising was crushed by the military, which shot into crowds, killing an estimated 3,000 people. During the turmoil, the current military junta took power in Myanmar and has maintained its grip by arresting dissidents, quashing political opposition and using force and intimidation to control the population.

Now, emboldened by the presence of the monks, huge crowds have joined the demonstrations in protests that reflect years of discontent over economic hardship and political repression.

The government held back as the protests grew and issued its first warning Monday night, when the religious affairs minister said the government was prepared to take action against the protesting monks.

On Tuesday night the government announced a dawn-to-dusk curfew, banned gatherings of more than five people and placed the cities of Yangon and Mandalay under what amounts to martial law. Troops began taking up positions at strategic locations around Yangon and attempted to seal off five of the largest and most active monasteries.

As the protests grew, public figures began to come forward, and on Tuesday the government arrested the first of them, a popular comedian, Zarganar, who had urged people to join the demonstrations. He had irritated the government in the past with his veiled political gibes.

The crackdown came in the face of warnings and pleas from around the world to refrain from the kind of violence that has made the ruling generals international pariahs.

At the United Nations, President George W. Bush announced a largely symbolic tightening of U.S. sanctions against the government, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain called for a Security Council meeting on the situation, and the European Union threatened to tighten its own sanctions if violence was used.

The Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa have spoken out in support of their fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar's pro-democracy leader, who has been held under house arrest for 12 of the last 18 years.

Nine days of peaceful demonstrations erupted into violence in Yangon on Wednesday when troops fired warning shots to send away Buddhist monks and other protesters.

(National League for Democracy-Liberated Area via AP)

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http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/26/news/myanmar.php 

Police baton-charged a crowd of about 700 anti-junta protesters including students and some Buddhist monks who gathered near a pagoda in Burma's main city Rangoon in defiance of a ban, witnesses say.

The police charged the crowd that had gathered for a ninth straight day of protests, beating students and monks alike with batons outside the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma's holiest shrine, according to witnesses.

There are reports security forces have used tear gas to disperse monks trying to enter the Shwedagon Pagoda and that about 80 people have been arrested.

Soldiers and police fired warning shots into the air and used tear gas to break up thousands of people who had gathered to cheer 1,000 monks marching into downtown Rangoon, witnesses said.

As the Buddhist monks neared the pagoda, thousands of people cheered the clergy and then began shouting at the security forces "You are fools! You are fools!"

A witness has told the ABC via telephone a number of monks were beaten and some have been forced into trucks.

Soldiers were waiting for them after the junta last night imposed a ban on gatherings of more than five people.

Barbed wire was put across the road near the temple. Security forces are also believed to have been deployed outside key monasteries across the city to prevent the monks leaving.

On Monday the military junta put out an official warning to the monks to stop their action. They have refused to do so.

The junta has also imposed an overnight curfew.

Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party (NLD) said Burma's military regime had committed "the greatest wrong in history" by beating Buddhist monks.

The party led by the detained democracy icon said it had warned the Government before today's protest that attacking the monks would be seen by the public as a grave crime.

"We warned the authorities in advance that if they used violence against the peaceful protest marches, they would have committed the greatest wrong in history," the party said in a statement.

"The NLD has asked to hold a dialogue immediately to solve all the nation's problems peacefully," it said.

 http://www.huliq.com/35729/burma-cracks-down-on-protesters-marches-continue