Burmese troops seal off Buddhist monasteries

Burmese troops broke up street gatherings on Sept. 28, sealed off Buddhist monasteries and shut down internet connections, in an attempt to snuff out the most serious protests against the country's military dictatorship in two decades. Nevertheless, thousands of protesters continued to defy a ban on demonstrations and took to the streets of Burma's biggest city, Rangoon, though in smaller numbers than over the previous few days. Troops fired teargas, shot in the air and hit protesters with clubs to break up the largest rally of around 2,000 people in Rangoon. Five people were seen being dragged into a truck and driven away. Elsewhere, security forces played cat-and-mouse with small groups of activists. A witness told Reuters that at least one shot was fired as soldiers charged protesters in the center of the city, sending people scurrying for cover down side streets. Crowds several hundred strong taunted soldiers sealing off the area around the Sule Pagoda. Men shouted at them in English: "Fuck you. Go fuck yourself," Reuters reported. As fresh clashes broke out, bloggers inside Burma reported 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. Some disgruntled officers reportedly had formed a group called the Public Patriot Army Association, backing the demonstrators in a letter drafted on Sept. 25. As part of a violent crackdown that has left at least 10 people, including a Japanese news photographer, dead, the ruling junta declared no-go zones around five key monasteries. The monasteries included the main protest sites at the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas in Rangoon, foreign diplomats in the country said. In another development, the UN human rights council will call an emergency session to examine the crackdown on protesters. Earlier this week, the body was criticized by an independent UN rights expert for failing to take Burma to task over its abuses. Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, who was appointed as the UN's independent expert on human rights in Burma seven years ago, this week told the Associated Press that world leaders "need to act or there will be a disaster, and the international community will be responsible." On Sept. 27, 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 tear gas, baton charges and live ammunition against them. The junta has confirmed 10 deaths, but Bob Davis, Australia's ambassador, said he had unconfirmed reports of a toll that was "several multiples of the 10 acknowledged by the authorities." Fewer monks were seen on the streets that day, with up to 500 having been arrested and many others confined to their quarters by soldiers who raided six monasteries around Rangoon from dawn onwards. Leaders of the National League for Democracy were also rounded up. Pools of blood stained monastery dormitories and stairwells where the troops had smashed in windows and doors, beating young novices as they slept. Shots were fired in some raids, and a senior abbot at the Moe Ngway monastery was reported to have died later in the afternoon. The ferocity of the attacks on the monks, coupled with apparent looting and vandalism at monasteries, shocked ordinary Burmese people, who revere the clergy. The raids 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. On Sept. 28, as the day before, soldiers gave demonstrators 10 minutes to clear the road or face gunfire. Several protesters who rushed police lines were beaten and removed in a truck.