Shots Fired to Disperse Crowds in BurmaBy Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 26, 2007; 5:44 AM
BANGKOK, Sept. 26 -- Security forces in Burma fired warning shots and tear gas at crowds of protesters Wednesday morning who were defying a newly imposed ban on gatherings of more than five people, news services reported.
Hundreds of Buddhist monks and other activists were said to be arrested and driven away in trucks. The military rulers of this isolated Southeast Asian country appeared ready to crack down on the largest pro-democracy demonstrations in nearly two decades, despite appeals from around the world that it avoid using force and enter into negotiations with its opponents.
On Tuesday, after thousands of monks defied warnings and mounted an eighth straight day of protests to the cheers of crowds in the streets of Rangoon, the military junta imposed a nighttime curfew and banned assemblies. Several truckloads of soldiers and armed police, including anti-riot troops carrying shields and truncheons, were seen taking up positions in Burma's largest city late in the day, according to news agency reports and videos e-mailed out of the isolated Southeast Asian country.
"A crackdown is imminent," predicted Bertil Lintner, a veteran Burma specialist based in neighboring Thailand.
Addressing the annual U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday, President Bush announced that he will impose new economic restrictions on Burmese leaders and their financial backers and expand a U.S. visa ban on those deemed responsible for "the most egregious violations of human rights" as well as their families.
An estimated 10,000 monks and lay supporters had participated in the protests, some shouting "Democracy, democracy." Junta supporters were seen driving around Rangoon warning via loudspeakers that "action" would be taken against anybody who continued to support the demonstrations, news agency reports said. Others announced a 9 p.m.-to-5 a.m. curfew in Rangoon and Mandalay, Burma's two largest cities, and said gatherings of five or more people were banned, setting the stage for confrontation.
Similar protests in 1988 were put down by soldiers firing weapons into crowds of demonstrators, killing several thousand. But this time, security forces have remained in the background during more than a week of sustained anti-government agitation that has built into the most serious challenge to the military junta since the 1988 disturbances.
The junta warned on government-controlled television Monday night that security forces could step in if the current wave of demonstrations did not come to a halt. The threat followed a day-long protest march in Rangoon estimated to have included more than 50,000 people, perhaps up to 100,000, which was much larger than previous demonstrations and several times larger than Tuesday's march.
At the same time, the religious affairs minister, Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung, ordered senior Buddhist leaders to rein in younger monks leading the charge in the streets. "If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of Buddhist teachings, we will take action under existing laws," state television quoted him as saying.
In what could be a taste of things to come, several hundred monks protesting in the northwestern city of Sittwe were attacked with tear gas and roughed up by security forces, the Reuters news agency reported. Others were reportedly arrested, sparking anger among their fellow monks in Rangoon.
The protests started Aug. 19, set off by a stiff rise in fuel prices. But they have escalated since then into a head-on political challenge against the military leadership that has run Burma, also called Myanmar, for most of the past half-century. Spearheaded by the Buddhist monks who are revered by Burma's approximately 50 million inhabitants, the demonstrations in recent days also have broadened to embrace lay students and members of the National League for Democracy, the political party headed by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.
MORE The BBC is now reporting unconfirmed reports that troops have fired on the crowds with machine guns resulting in at least 4 casualties.
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