Myanmar citizens take up monks' protest

NEW DELHI — As thousands of angry residents continued to pour onto the streets of Yangon in defiance of an official ban, Myanmar's military dictatorship tightened its clampdown on anti-government protests Thursday in a show of force that left at least nine people dead.

Among those killed in clashes in the nation's capital was a Japanese photographer who was shot while trying to capture images of the large-scale demonstrations that have offered the repressive ruling junta its most powerful challenge in nearly 20 years.

Eyewitness accounts, television footage and photographs beamed through cellphones showed security forces with riot shields marching down Yangon's boulevards on the second day of an increasingly brutal crackdown.

Security forces fired tear gas and warning shots from automatic weapons to disperse the crowds, which scurried for cover, leaving behind sandals in their haste and pools of blood where the faceoff turned violent.

The spiraling unrest stoked fears of a repeat of a 1988 massacre of pro-democracy protesters in which an estimated 3,000 people were killed in the Southeast Asian nation, also known as Burma. It also sparked concern among bordering countries of growing instability on their doorstep, in a region that has seen its share of political chaos.

Even China, Myanmar's traditional ally, issued a public admonition to the country's military regime to proceed with caution, after having joined with Russia to block an official condemnation Wednesday by the United Nations.

A special U.N. envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, was expected to arrive soon in Myanmar, one of the world's most tightly controlled countries.

President Bush met Thursday with China's foreign minister, urging China to use its influence in the region to bring about a peaceful transition to democracy.

Up to 70,000 people ignored government warnings to stay home and marched through the streets of Yangon, also known as Rangoon, for a 10th day of protests, according to news reports and dissident groups in exile.

Whereas previous rallies had been led by Buddhist monks, who are revered in Burmese society, fewer clerics turned out Thursday, most likely because government forces raided at least six monasteries before dawn and reportedly beat and arrested scores of people.

The majority of demonstrators Thursday appeared to be ordinary citizens, some of whom shouted for freedom from the military rule that has driven their country into poverty and isolation. Others chanted, "We will win! We will win!"

"It's civilians and students. The monks were beaten up in public, which causes outrage. Despite the fact that they knew they might be shot, there are still protests in Rangoon," said Soe Myint, the editor of the Burma-focused Mizzima News Web site and a dissident based here in India.

There were unconfirmed reports of demonstrations in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city, and the towns of Sittwe, Pakokku and Moulmein.

In Yangon, protesters tried to converge on a familiar rallying point, the Sule pagoda, a sacred and politically symbolic shrine in the center of the city, near which the 1988 massacre of demonstrators took place, The Associated Press reported.

But when chanting marchers threw rocks and bottles at surrounding soldiers and police, the security forces charged amid a fusillade of gunfire. State media, which blamed the monks for instigating the unrest and inciting "the mob group," said nine people were killed Thursday and 11 wounded.

One man was reported killed Wednesday. Witnesses and activist organizations say the real death toll could be higher.

Unlike 19 years ago, word of the bloody events unfolding in Myanmar has streamed out of the country through the Internet and cellphones, captured in pictures and footage. The leadership, perhaps caught off guard by the instant multimedia campaign, has begun closing down blogs and other sources of information.

Whether international outrage will have any effect on the military junta is debatable; Myanmar's leaders have shown themselves contemptuous of world opinion throughout 45 years of military dictatorship. The junta also has relied on interest from China and India in the country's rich natural-gas reserves and other resources to insulate it from greater global condemnation.

The current string of protests in Yangon has its origins in sporadic demonstrations that began in August, ostensibly because of a doubling in the price of fuel — a major blow to the residents of a country where per-capita GDP is only $1,800, according to the CIA Fact Book.

The demonstrations soon took on a political color. Upset over being treated roughly by government forces, Myanmar's monks demanded an official apology by Sept. 17. When none came, the clerics invited the public to join them in mass protests.

Analysts said that the involvement of the monkhood, which had been fairly pacific and supportive of social order over the past 20 years, complicated matters for the military regime.

The monkhood, with an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 members, is about equal in number to Myanmar's military.