Buddhist monks defy Burma protest ban

Militant Buddhist monks defied the Burma military government’s ban on public assembly today when more than 50 of them gathered near a gate to Yangon’s famed Shwedagon Pagoda as armed troops sealed its perimeter.

Some 200 supporters nearby clapped as the monks sought to enter the sanctuary through the eastern gate, but authorities ordered the crowd to disperse.

A barbed wire barricade had earlier been thrown across the gate entrance.

The junta imposed a dawn-to-dusk curfew in key cities and banned all public gatherings of more than five people after an eighth day of anti-government protests yesterday in Yangon and other areas of the country.