Burmese Troops Seal Off Buddhist Monasteries

Burmese troops today sealed off a number of Buddhist monasteries at the center of protests against the country's military dictatorship.

Thousands of protesters continued nonetheless to defy a ban on demonstrations and took to the streets of Rangoon, Burma's biggest city, although in fewer numbers than in the past few days.

At least one shot was fired as soldiers charged chanting protesters in central Rangoon, sending people scurrying for cover down side streets, a witness told Reuters. Crowds several hundred strong were taunting soldiers sealing off the area around the Sule Pagoda.

Men were shouting at the soldiers in English: "Fuck you. Go fuck yourself," Reuters reported.

As fresh clashes broke out, bloggers inside Burma were reporting dissent among troops, with soldiers refusing to leave their barracks. The reports, which could not be independently verified, said soldiers in Mandalay, Burma's second largest city, refused to fire on demonstrators and had even been fighting each other.

Guardian Unlimited yesterday reported that disgruntled officers had formed a group called the Public Patriot Army Association, backing the demonstrators in a letter drafted on Tuesday.

The document - the veracity of which cannot be independently verified - was obtained by Burmese exiles. The letter declared the soldiers' support for the non-violent action of the monks and protesters.

As part of a violent crackdown that has left at least 10 people dead, the ruling junta declared no-go zones around five key monasteries, including main protest sites at the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas in Rangoon, foreign diplomats in the country said today.

Yesterday, a Japanese photojournalist, Kenji Nagai, 50, was among those killed in fierce clashes.

Thousands of protesters played a deadly game of cat and mouse with the police and troops, continually dispersing as they were attacked and reforming to taunt the security forces who used teargas, baton charges and live ammunition against them.

Trucks of soldiers and riot police were sealing off the central city, near the Sule pagoda, by moving up wooden and barbed-wire barricades street by street.

At the UN general assembly in New York, the foreign secretary, David Miliband, called on the regime "to allow peaceful protest, encourage national dialogs and promote genuine reconciliation".

"Let us today send a message to the monks on the streets of Burma: We support your demand for a democratic Burma," he said late last night.

"And let us take a message from the monks on the streets of Burma: the human desire for freedom knows no bounds of race or religion or region."

Fewer monks were seen on the streets yesterday as up to 500 had been arrested and many others confined to their quarters by soldiers who raided six monasteries around the capital from dawn onwards. Leaders of the National League for Democracy were also rounded up.

Pools of blood remained in monastery dormitories and stairwells where the troops had smashed in windows and doors, and beaten the young novices as they lay sleeping. In some raids, shots were fired and a senior abbot at Moe Ngway monastery was said to have died later in the afternoon.

The ferocity of the attacks on the monks, the ransacking of monasteries that saw Buddhist relics vandalized and gold looted, according to diplomatic sources, shocked ordinary Burmese people, who revere the clergy.

It set the tone for a day that echoed months of violence in 1988. That pro-democracy uprising ended with the massacre of 3,000 students and monks.

Yesterday's protests by Burmese people were more spontaneous and chaotic than those of the previous days when the monks had taken the lead, both protecting and being protected by their supporters.

Truckloads of soldiers and police were out in much greater force from early morning at strategic points around Rangoon. Barbed wire barricades blocked roads and empty prison trucks awaited their cargo as water canon and fire engines stood by.

"Clearly the military had calculated that seven or eight days of protests needed to be brought to a halt," said Mark Canning, Britain's ambassador to Burma.

"I would imagine that people [the military] have gone back to the drawing board and concluded that they needed to turn up the measures further. We deplore that and think that sort of violence is going to make matters worse."

Security forces on foot and in vans toured the city with loudspeakers, urging residents to clear the streets within 10 minutes or face "extreme force", warnings that went unheeded among the crowds, who appeared not to care about the danger.

By midday, a large, angry mob had gathered near the Sule pagoda, a focal point of earlier protests, despite the presence of large numbers of security forces at the Buddhist shrine.

About 3,000 demonstrators sat down in the road in front of the ranks of riot police, clapping and chanting, taunting the security forces, who took no action at first. But then police and soldiers pushed the crowd and began firing into the protesters, wounding at least four, though it was not clear how severely.

One of the demonstrators caught in the crossfire called the BBC on his mobile phone to relay the horror unfolding in front of him. "They have shot several times into the crowd," he shouted, the panic around him clearly audible. "One person has been injured. They've used teargas. The injured person has been put in a car and taken off to hospital. They've used force on us."

The onslaught scattered the panic-stricken protesters, who left sandals lying in the road. But they soon regrouped nearby and found themselves being pushed back again by the riot police. Their retreat was blocked by a phalanx of soldiers. Sandwiched between the two sets of security forces, the crowds rushed down a side street, and diplomats saw and heard volleys of shots, though they were unsure if anyone was hit.

Calm was restored for a time before another wave of protesters appeared near the Sule pagoda to be confronted by the military. Again the troops opened fire and another four protesters fell.

At about the same time, western diplomats reported another standoff in the north-eastern Rangoon suburb of Damway, when an angry mob came upon four army trucks packed with troops.

Surrounded by the jeering crowds still seething over the treatment meted out to the monks during the overnight raids, the troops again fired their weapons.

Other crowds around the city were involved in sporadic clashes with the security forces, particularly those who tried to approach the monasteries where the troops were still maintaining a vigil.

In the second city, Mandalay, troops also shadowed protesting monks, who were baton-charged by riot officers. Many were injured but there were no reports of soldiers opening fire.

As protesters throughout Asia demonstrated against the Burmese junta, the UN special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, was heading to the country in an attempt to ease the crisis.

With Mr Cambari due to arrive as soon as tomorrow, diplomats said the Burmese government's decision to let Mr Gambari enter the country could herald a mediating role for the UN between the junta and the opposition.