Military declares monastery no-go zones

Burma’s military rulers have declared no-go zones around five key Buddhist monasteries in a bid to quash anti-government demonstrations.

The move came after two days of violent crackdown on the monk-led protests killed 10 people, diplomats said today.

A Japanese journalist was among the nine people killed yesterday when security forces opened fire on groups of protesters in the streets of Burma’s biggest city, Rangoon.

One person was shot and killed on Wednesday.

Hundreds of people have been arrested since the junta began cracking down on the demonstrations by tens of thousands of monks and activists, which represent the stiffest challenge to the country’s military rulers in two decades.

The protests began on August 19 over a fuel price hike, then expanded dramatically when monks came out in support of the protests.

Authorities called in southeast Asian diplomats yesterday to inform them of the “danger zones” around five Buddhist shrines, including the key protest sites at the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas in Rangoon, one of the diplomats said.

The diplomat said regime members told the envoys that security forces had the monks “under control” and would now turn their attention to civilian protesters.

Given the reverence with which Buddhist clergy are held in Burma, any confrontations with civilian demonstrators might be expected to be tougher.

Yesterday, truckloads of troops in riot gear raided Buddhist monasteries on the outskirts of Rangoon, beating and arresting dozens of monks, witnesses and Western diplomats said.

“I really hate the government. They arrest the monks while they are sleeping,” said a 30-year-old service worker who witnessed the confrontations from his workplace. “These monks haven’t done anything except meditating and praying and helping people.”

Images of bloodied protesters and fleeing crowds have caught the world’s attention on the escalating crisis and prompted the United Nations and many governments to urge the junta in Burma to end the violence.

The United States, which imposed new sanctions yesterday on Burma’s military leaders, called on them to open a dialogue with the protesters and urged China, Burma’s main economic and political ally, to use its influence to prevent further bloodshed.

“The world is watching the people of Burma take to the streets to demand their freedom, and the American people stand in solidarity with these brave individuals,” US President George Bush said in Washington.

Ignoring the international appeals for restraint, Burmese troops yesterday fired into packs of protesters in at least four locations in Rangoon, witnesses and a Western diplomat said.

Protesters – some shouting “Give Us Freedom” – dodged road blocks and raced down alleyways in a defiant game of cat and mouse with soldiers and riot police that went on for most of the day.

At its height, some 70,000 protesters were on the streets, though the total was difficult to estimate as groups broke up and later reformed.

Some of the day’s most striking photographs showed a gunshot victim identified as the dead Japanese journalist lying in the street, camera still in hand, after two or three bursts of gunfire sent protesters running.

State radio said security forces fatally shot nine people, including a Japanese citizen, and wounded 11 people.

A Japanese Embassy official in Burma told The Associated Press that a Japanese journalist – later identified as Kenji Nagai, 50 – covering the protests for Japanese video news agency APF News was among those killed.

Japan’s new Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura told reporters in Washington his country plans to lodge a protest with Burma’s junta over Nagai’s death.

Early today, security personnel took a Burmese journalist working for a Japanese media organisation away from his home for what they said was temporary questioning.

Every other time the regime has been challenged, it has responded with force including in 1988 when it gunned down as many as 3,000 pro-democracy protesters.

“Judging from the nature and habit of the Myanmar military, they will not allow the monks or activists to topple them,” says Chaiyachoke Julsiriwong, a Burma scholar at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.