The Associated Press
"You are the army of the people, we are feeding you! Be just to us!" - Burmese demonstrators shouting at the regime soldiersYANGON, Myanmar: Myanmar security forces raided two Buddhist monasteries early Thursday, beating up and hauling away more than 70 monks after a day of violent confrontation with monk-led protesters that left at least one dead, Buddhist clergy said.
The security forces fired at protesters for the first time Wednesday in street protests that have brewed over the past month into the biggest demonstrations against Myanmar's military rulers since 1988. At least one man was killed and others wounded in chaotic clashes in Yangon.
After midnight, security forces arrested Myint Thein, the spokesman for opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi's political party, family members said. An executive of her National League for Democracy, Hla Pe, and a former member of parliament from the Chin ethnic minority, Pu Yin Shin, also were arrested, according to exiled league member Ko Maung Maung.
But an Asian diplomat confirmed that Nobel Peace Prize laureate Suu Kyi remained at her Yangon residence where she has been detained for 12 of the past 18 years. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Rumors had circulated that she had been taken away to Yangon's notorious Insein prison.
Several monasteries, hotbeds of the pro-democracy movement, were raided by security personnel early Thursday in an apparent attempt to prevent further demonstrations, which have been spearheaded by the Buddhist clergy.
A monk at the Ngwe Kyar Yan monastery, pointing to bloodstains on the concrete floor, said a number of monks were beaten and at least 70 of its 150 monks taken away in vehicles. Shots were fired in the air during the chaotic raid, he said on contition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
A female lay disciple, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said a number of monks were also arrested at the Moe Gaung monastery which was being guarded by soldiers. Both monasteries are located in Yangon's northern suburbs.
"Even a monk who was sick was taken away," she said.
Dramatic images of Wednesday's protests, many transmitted by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet, riveted world attention on the escalating faceoff between the military regime and its opponents.
Protesters and even bystanders 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 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 Suu Kyi.
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."
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 thousands.
Myanmar's government said security forces fired Wednesday 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 media 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 told The Associated Press they saw 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.
During the marches in Yangon, 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!"
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