Troops Crack Down In 2 Burma Cities

Rangoon, Sept. 28: Security forces clamped down on protests in Burma’s two biggest cities on Friday, firing warning shots and using baton charges in the third day of a crackdown that has left at least 13 people dead.

The military regime also appeared to have cut the main Internet link to block images and reports of the violence from the isolated nation, which have galvanised world opinion against the ruling generals.

About 10,000 people surged onto the streets of the main city of Rangoon, playing a deadly game of cat-and-mouse as they repeatedly confronted the police and soldiers before scattering and regrouping once more.

In the central city of Mandalay, thousands of young people on motorbikes rode down a major thoroughfare towards a blockade set up by security forces who unleashed a volley that witnesses believed could have been rubber bullets.

Intent on quelling the biggest anti-government demonstrations in 20 years, the ruling junta has also mounted an offensive against the Buddhist monks who have led nearly two weeks of mass rallies.

With dozens of monks arrested, beaten or confined to their monasteries, the mantle has now been taken up by student groups and youths who dominated Friday’s rallies. "The monks have done their job and now we must carry on with the movement," said one student leader in main Rangoon city.

"This is a non-violent mass movement," he shouted as demonstrators tried to move towards the Sule Pagoda, one of the focal points of the street demonstrations.

At a separate protest in Rangoon, around 500 people marched in the streets, singing the national anthem as thousands applauded them from the sidewalks. Monks helped transform what began as a scattershot series of protests over a hike in fuel prices into the stiffest challenge to the junta’s military rule since 1988.

But since the crackdown was launched on Wednesday, at least three monks have been killed. At least two monasteries were raided on Wednesday night, including one in Rangoon’s northeastern satellite town of South Okkalapa, where about 100 monks were arrested.

The UN Human Rights Council will hold an emergency session to examine the Burma government attempt to crush demonstrations in which at least 10 people have been killed, the body’s president said on Friday.

The crackdown on Opposition marches led by Buddhist monks has drawn condemnation from Burma’s neighbours and Western powers, and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has dispatched a special envoy to the Southeast Asian nation to seek a solution to the crisis.

The Geneva-based council was criticised earlier this week 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 said on Wednesday that world leaders "need to act or there will be a disaster, and the international community will be responsible for what happens in Burma."

Burma’s main Internet link was down on Friday because of what a telecom official said was a damaged undersea cable. Blogs, pictures and amateur video of the violence posted on the Web have helped ignite criticism of the regime.

Security forces have also smashed cameras and cellphones, and beaten people who were carrying them. (AP,AFP)

Source: www.asianage.com