Myanmar forces raid monasteries

Myanmar security forces raided two Buddhist monasteries on Thursday, beating up and hauling away more than 70 monks after a day of violent confrontation with monk-led protesters that drew international appeals for restraint.

The security forces in the isolated Southeast Asian nation fired at protesters for the first time on Wednesday in street protests that have brewed over the past month into the biggest rallies against Myanmar's military rulers since 1988. At least one man was killed and others wounded in chaotic clashes in Yangon.

The protesters, led by thousands of monks in cinnamon robes, have been demanding more democratic freedoms, the release of political activists and economic reforms in the impoverished nation.

Early on Thursday, security forces arrested Myint Thein, the spokesperson for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party.

An executive of her National League for Democracy, Hla Pe, was also arrested, according to exiled league member Ko Maung Maung.

Increased security

An Asian diplomat said Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi remained at her Yangon residence where she has been detained for 12 years.

Rumours had circulated that she had been taken away to Yangon's notorious Insein prison.

The diplomat said that junta had deployed more security forces around Suu Kyi's house and on the road leading to her residential compound and that more than 100 soldiers were now inside the compound.

''The sign of increasing security forces make me confident that she is still there,'' the diplomat said. He said others told him that they had seen the diminutive opposition leader in her home Wednesday night.

Several 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.

Political activists

The United States called on Myanmar's military leaders Thursday to open a dialogue with peaceful protesters in the reclusive Asian nation 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 US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill in Beijing.

On Wednesday, protesters in Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city, pelted police with bottles and rocks. Onlookers helped monks escape arrest by bundling them into taxis and other vehicles and shouting ''Go, go, go, run!''

The United States and the European Union issued a joint statement decrying the assault on peaceful demonstrators and calling on the junta to open talks with democracy activists, including Suu Kyi.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who was sending a special envoy to the region, urged the junta ''to exercise utmost restraint toward the peaceful demonstrations taking place, as such action can only undermine the prospects for peace, prosperity and stability in Myanmar.''

The protests are the biggest challenge to the junta since a failed 1988 democracy uprising. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, killing some 3,000 people.

Source: http://www.ndtv.com/