Myanmar Forces Open Fire on Protesters
Pastor Dale Morgan
Sep 26, 7:48 PM EDT
*Myanmar Forces Open Fire on Protesters*
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar security forces opened fire on Buddhist
monks and other pro-democracy demonstrators Wednesday for the first time
in a month of anti-government protests, killing at least one man and
wounding others in chaotic confrontations across Yangon.
Dramatic images of the protests, many transmitted from the secretive
Southeast Asian nation by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet,
riveted world attention on the escalating faceoff between the military
regime and its opponents.
Clouds of tear gas and smoke from fires hung over streets, and defiant
protesters and even bystanders pelted police with bottles and rocks in
some places. Onlookers helped monks escape arrest by bundling them into
taxis and other vehicles and shouting "Go, go, go, run!"
The government said one man was killed when police opened fire during
the ninth consecutive day of demonstrations, but dissidents outside
Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths.
Some reports said the dead included monks, who are widely revered in
Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyr figures could stoke public
anger against the regime and escalate the violence.
As the stiffest challenge to the generals in two decades, the crisis
that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike has drawn
increasing international pressure on the isolated regime, especially
from its chief economic and diplomatic ally, China.
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 detained opposition
leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace laureate.
"What's going on in Burma is outrageous," Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice said.
The U.N. Security Council met in private to be briefed on developments,
and issued a brief statement expressing concern about the violent
response to demonstrations.
U.N. 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."
There was no sign the government had any intention of backing down, and
monks said the violence would not deter them from pressing on with what
has become the most sustained anti-junta protest since a failed 1988
democracy uprising. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of
peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands.
John Dale, an associate faculty member of George Mason University's
Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, said the involvement of
monks had made it clear the demonstrations would not peter out and it
was surprising the military held back this long.
"Now that it's turned violent, there's high risk activity," Dale said.
"The regime signaled they are sincerely prepared to use violence."
The junta issued an edict late Tuesday banning gatherings of more than
five people, but the order was ignored by democracy activists and the
public alike Wednesday.
The number of protesters seemed a bit less than on Tuesday, but
thousands massed at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, including monks in
cinnamon robes, students, members of Suu Kyi's democracy movement and
activists waving flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock - a symbol
of Myanmar's democracy movement. Large crowds of bystanders also
gathered to watch.
Police fired tear gas and made some arrests trying unsuccessfully to
scatter the demonstrators. Protesters marched off toward the Sule Pagoda
in the heart of Yangon, but were later blocked by military trucks and
security officers with riot shields, clubs and guns. Groups of marchers
then fanned out into other streets, chased by security forces.
Officers fired warning shots and tear gas trying to disperse the main
group and began dragging monks into army trucks - the first mass arrests
since protests against the military dictatorship erupted Aug. 19.
Reporters saw some monks beaten, and an exile dissident group said about
300 monks and other protesters had been arrested in small clashes across
Myanmar's biggest city.
There were reports of destruction of property but it was unclear whether
it was done by demonstrators or pro-junta thugs who were seen among the
soldiers and police. Witnesses said a mob burned two police motorcycles.
Myanmar's government said security forces fired when a crowd that
included what it called "so-called monks" refused to disperse at the
Sule Pagoda and tried to grab weapons from officers. It said police used
"minimum force."
The junta statement, read on state radio and television Wednesday night,
said a 30-year-old man was killed by a police bullet. It said two men
aged 25 and 27 and a 47-year-old woman also were hurt when police fired,
but did not specify their injuries.
Witnesses known to The Associated Press reported seeing two women and
one young man with gunshot wounds.
Exiled Myanmar journalists and democracy activists released reports of
higher death tolls, but the accounts could not be independently confirmed.
Khim Maung Win, deputy editor of the Democratic Voice of Burma, an
opposition-run shortwave radio service based in Norway, said five monks
and three civilians were reported killed and at least four seriously
injured.
Zin Linn, information minister for the Washington-based National
Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which is Myanmar's
self-styled government-in-exile, said at least five monks were killed.
An organization of exiled political activists in Thailand, the National
League for Democracy-Liberated Area, said three monks had been confirmed
dead and about 17 wounded.
Such reports, as well as photos and video taken covertly and then sent
over the Internet and by other means, have helped keep the momentum of
the protests going. Transmitted back into the country, the dissident
views counter reports from state-controlled media ridiculing demonstrators.
Voice of Burma's chief editor, Aye Chan Naing, said activists were using
the Internet and cell phones to funnel news out of Myanmar. He declined
to discuss details because that could help the military disrupt the
messages, saying the junta already had cut some cell phone service.
Naing said activists sometimes transmitted video one frame at a time
over the Web and also hid information within seemingly innocous e-mails.
During the marches in Yangon, bystanders joined with protesters to stand
up to security forces, driving them back with a barrage of bricks and
bottles that scattered debris and broken glass on the street.
Demonstrators tried to shame one group of soldiers by chanting: "You are
the army of the people, we are feeding you! Be just to us!"
When words failed to move the 70 soldiers and the crews of two fire
trucks being used for crowd control, people began hurling stones and the
line gave way to allow protesters through, many of them monks headed
back to their monasteries.
"They will kill us, monks and nuns. Maybe we should go back to normal
life as before," said a young nun, her back pressed against the back of
a building near the scenes of chaos. But a student watching the arrival
of the demonstrators said, "If they are brave, we must be brave. They
risk their lives for us."
The two asked that their names not be used for fear of reprisals.
---
Associated Press writers Grant Peck in Bangkok, Thailand, and Edith M.
Lederer and Carley Petesch in New York contributed to this report.