Burmese Riot Police Clash With Protesters

Burmese riot police backed by troops clashed with hundreds of protesters today as monks, nuns and students attempted to gather at the country's holiest Buddhist shrine in defiance of a government ban on public assembly.

The police squads baton-charged the crowd of about 700 and witnesses said that between 80 and 100 protesters - some bloodied and injured - were arrested and taken away in army vehicles with obscured identification numbers.

Tear gas was also used to quell the demonstrators and there were reports that six shots had been heard in the area of the trouble at the Shwedagon pagoda in Rangoon, one of the focal points for more than a week of demonstrations.

Many of the monks wore face masks to protect themselves from tear gas and some carried flags of the fighting peacock, a key symbol of the democracy movement.

The moves to halt days of protests came after the military regime imposed a night time curfew in the largest city, Rangoon, and Mandalay, and banned gatherings of more than five people.

Overnight up to ten pro-democracy activists were arrested in police swoops. Among the best known were Zaganar, a comedian famed for his anti-government jibes, and U Win Naing, a veteran government opponent.

Zarganar, along with actor Kyaw Thu and poet Aung Way, led a committee that provided food and other supplies to the monks who have spearheaded the protests. Up to 200 monks have been arrested.

But despite the military's determination to halt the ninth consecutive day of marches, a group of about 200 monks surrounded by their supporters set off from the Shwedagon pagoda towards the city center, their ranks swelling to several thousand.

Another group of 400 to 500 monks was also marching from the Nyaungdone monastery, in the Pazunting suburb of Rangoon, amid mounting tension in the most concerted challenge to the repressive regime in almost two decades. In 1988, the junta brutally put down a student-led uprising in which 3,000 demonstrators were killed.

Barbed wire roadblocks have been erected in parts of Rangoon and security forces have thrown a tight cordon around the home of the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, where she has been held under house arrest for years.

About 300 monks headed towards the Nobel laureate's house, followed by a truck carrying some 40 soldiers, but the monks urged their supporters to remain at a distance in order not to provoke the soldiers into action.

At Rangoon's Sule pagoda about 1,000 people gathered in front of hundreds of troops and riot police who waited in a park behind the shrine, but did not intervene. Security forces were also present at five other monasteries around the city.

Maung Maung, the general secretary of the National Council of the Union of Burma, a Thai-based coalition of exile groups, said he had reliable reports that water cannon and fire trucks had been filled with a mosquito repellent solution to spray protesters, though was unaware of any incidents so far.

In Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, more than 100 soldiers armed with assault rifles were deployed around the Mahamuni Paya Pagoda, erecting a barricade and barbed wire at the gate from which monks had marched out to protest.

Five military trucks were seen inside the monastery compound, while other soldiers were stationed along the road into the fabled city of temples and palaces.

"We are so afraid, the soldiers are ready to fire on civilians at any time," a man near the pagoda said, asking that his name not be used for fear of reprisals.

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 Suu Kyi.

The US president, George Bush, announced new sanctions against Burma, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.

Britain's ambassador to Burma, Mark Canning, yesterday met Burma's leaders urging continued restraint. Mr Canning said he told ministers that the "demonstrations have been peaceful and well-disciplined."

"It will be disastrous in the eyes of the world on Burma if the authorities use force," he told them.