Demonstrators Defy Crackdown

YANGON, Myanmar — Soldiers fired warning shots today above an estimated crowd of 70,000 anti-government demonstrators defying a crackdown that has drawn international appeals for restraint by Myanmar’s ruling junta.

Some protesters shouted “Give us freedom, give us freedom!” at the soldiers.

Witnesses said at least one man had been shot, though the weapons fire did not appear to be aimed directly at the crowd that had gathered at Sule Pagoda.

The demonstration followed early morning raids on Buddhist monasteries during which soldiers reportedly beat up monks and arrested more than 100.

The monks have spearheaded the largest challenge to the military junta in the isolated Southeast Asian nation since a failed uprising in 1988. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of demonstrators, killing some 3,000 people.

The government acknowledged that at least one man was killed and others wounded in chaotic clashes in Yangon on Wednesday. Led by thousands of monks in their cinnamon robes, protesters have been demanding more democratic freedoms, the release of political activists and economic reforms in the impoverished nation also known as Burma.

As the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, the crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike has drawn increasing international pressure on the regime, especially from its chief economic and diplomatic ally, China.

“China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said Thursday at a twice-weekly media briefing.

The United States called on Myanmar’s military leaders to open a dialogue with peaceful protesters and urged China to do what it can to prevent further bloodshed.

“We all need to agree on the fact that the Burmese government has got to stop thinking that this can be solved by police and military, and start thinking about the need for genuine reconciliation with the broad spectrum of political activists in the country,” said U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing.

Myanmar’s state-run newspaper blamed “saboteurs inside and outside the nation” for causing the protests in Yangon, also known as Rangoon, and said the demonstrations were much smaller than the media are reporting.

“Saboteurs from inside and outside the nation and some foreign radio stations, who are jealous of national peace and development, have been making instigative acts through lies to cause internal instability and civil commotion,” The New Light of Myanmar, which serves as a mouthpiece for the military government said.

In Mandalay, the country’s second-largest city some 430 miles north of Yangon, five army trucks with soldiers and three fire trucks were seen driving into the Mahamuni Pagoda, where hundreds of monks had been locked inside by security forces.

Another 60 soldiers blocked the road to the pagoda from the center of the city.

Also today, security forces arrested Myint Thein, the spokesman for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s political party, family members said.

Several other monasteries that are considered hotbeds of the pro- democracy movement were raided by security forces before dawn in an apparent attempt to prevent the demonstrations spearheaded by the Buddhist clergy.

A monk at Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery pointed to bloodstains on the concrete floor and said a number of monks were beaten and at least 100 of its 150 monks taken away in vehicles. Shots were fired in the air during the chaotic raid, he said on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

“Soldiers slammed the monastery gate with the car, breaking the lock and forcing it into the monastery,” the monk said. “They smashed the doors down, broke windows and furniture. When monks resisted, they shot at the monks and used tear gas and beat up the monks and dragged into trucks.”

Originally published by Associated Press.

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