Burmese protestors defy warning

YANGON – Security forces fired warning shots and tear gas into swollen crowds of demonstrators in Myanmar’s biggest city yesterday, while hauling away defiant Buddhist monks into waiting trucks – the first mass arrests since protests in this military dictatorship erupted last month.

A Norway-based dissident radio station, the Democratic Voice of Burma, said one monk was killed and several injured in clashes in downtown Yangon. The death could not be confirmed by other sources.”The troops opened fire into the crowd, and they also used tear gas and some Buddhist monks have been beaten up,” said Aye Chan Naing, the station’s editor, citing reports from his reporters in Yangon, who were trying to confirm reports of three other monks killed.About 300 monks and activists were arrested across Yangon after braving government orders to stay home, according to an exile dissident group, and reporters saw a number of cinnamon-robed monks, who are highly revered in Myanmar, being dragged into military trucks.The junta had banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks across the country in the largest protests in nearly two decades.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar, also known as Burma, and urged the military regime there to be restrained in reacting to protests.”The whole world is now watching,” Brown told reporters at the Labour Party’s annual conference.”I hope the Security Council will meet immediately, meet today and discuss this issue and look at what can be done.”Foreign governments and religious leaders have urged the junta to deal peacefully with the situation.They included the Dalai Lama and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates like Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.US President George W Bush announced new US sanctions against Myanmar, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing ‘a 19-year reign of fear’ that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.The European Union also threatened to strengthen existing sanctions if the regime uses violence to put down the demonstrations.As the ninth consecutive day of unrest began, about 10 000 monks and students along with members of Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party set off from Shwedagon to the Sule Pagoda in the heart of Yangon, but were blocked by military trucks along the route.Other blocs of marchers fanned out into downtown streets with armed security forces attempting to disperse them.There were reports of destruction of property but it was unclear whether this was carried out by the demonstrators or pro-junta thugs, who were seen among the troops and police.Witnesses said an angry mob at the pagoda burned two police motorcycles.”It’s scary here.They will kill us, monks and nuns.Maybe we should go back to normal life as before,” said a young nun, her back pressed against the back of a building near the scenes of chaos.But a student at a roadside watching the arrival of the demonstrators said, “If they are brave, we must be brave.They risk their lives for us.”The two asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.Other protesters carried flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock, a key symbol of the democracy movement in Myanmar.Nampa-APThe death could not be confirmed by other sources.”The troops opened fire into the crowd, and they also used tear gas and some Buddhist monks have been beaten up,” said Aye Chan Naing, the station’s editor, citing reports from his reporters in Yangon, who were trying to confirm reports of three other monks killed.About 300 monks and activists were arrested across Yangon after braving government orders to stay home, according to an exile dissident group, and reporters saw a number of cinnamon-robed monks, who are highly revered in Myanmar, being dragged into military trucks.The junta had banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks across the country in the largest protests in nearly two decades.British Prime Minister Gordon Brown yesterday called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on Myanmar, also known as Burma, and urged the military regime there to be restrained in reacting to protests.”The whole world is now watching,” Brown told reporters at the Labour Party’s annual conference.”I hope the Security Council will meet immediately, meet today and discuss this issue and look at what can be done.”Foreign governments and religious leaders have urged the junta to deal peacefully with the situation.They included the Dalai Lama and South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates like Myanmar’s detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.US President George W Bush announced new US sanctions against Myanmar, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing ‘a 19-year reign of fear’ that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.The European Union also threatened to strengthen existing sanctions if the regime uses violence to put down the demonstrations.As the ninth consecutive day of unrest began, about 10 000 monks and students along with members of Suu Kyi’s pro-democracy party set off from Shwedagon to the Sule Pagoda in the heart of Yangon, but were blocked by military trucks along the route.Other blocs of marchers fanned out into downtown streets with armed security forces attempting to disperse them.There were reports of destruction of property but it was unclear whether this was carried out by the demonstrators or pro-junta thugs, who were seen among the troops and police.Witnesses said an angry mob at the pagoda burned two police motorcycles.”It’s scary here.They will kill us, monks and nuns.Maybe we should go back to normal life as before,” said a young nun, her back pressed against the back of a building near the scenes of chaos.But a student at a roadside watching the arrival of the demonstrators said, “If they are brave, we must be brave.They risk their lives for us.”The two asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.Other protesters carried flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock, a key symbol of the democracy movement in Myanmar.Nampa-AP