Burma:Soldiers and police in Burma, who were deployed across Rangoon yesterday, appeared to have gained the upper hand as the number of protesters dwindled in the face of the previous day's furious onslaught by the security forces.
But the troops again fired volleys of live rounds at the pro-democracy demonstrators and there were reports of at least two wounded as riot police baton charged and beat back those who took to the streets.
Fewer protesters braved the ranks of troops and police who were out in greater force than ever after at least nine people were killed on Thursday in the biggest challenge to the repressive 45-year-old military regime since the pro-democracy uprising in 1988, when 3,000 people were massacred.
As international criticism of the junta increased, Burma's internet connections were severed, most likely to prevent damning pictures and mobile phone footage reaching the outside world. In Rangoon troops and police were stopping and searching people on the streets. Cameras and mobiles phones were destroyed and their owners beaten.
British prime minister Gordon Brown reiterated his country's outrage over the junta's violence and demanded tougher sanctions to bring the regime to heel.
"I had hoped that the Burmese regime would heed the calls for restraint from the international community. But once again they have responded with oppression and force. This must cease," he said.
The 47-country UN human rights council decided to hold an extraordinary session next Tuesday to discuss the crisis even as UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon's special envoy to the country, Ibrahim Gambari, was due to arrive in Rangoon as early as today to meet the Burmese leadership.
But the diplomacy appeared to do nothing to weaken the Burmese junta's will to restore calm to Rangoon, the country's main city, as security forces flooded every major street and erected barbed-wire barricades.
Access was barred to the Buddhist country's holiest shrine, the Shwedagon pagoda, and the downtown Sule pagoda. Both had served as focal points of the protests, which began more than five weeks ago as a demonstration against fuel price rises and mutated into demands for freedom and democracy.
But yesterday the monks, who had given the lead and moral authority to the protests, were largely absent as five important monasteries in Rangoon remained under the military's grip. Hundreds of monks remained behind bars and many others were ordered home to their towns and villages as another monastery outside Rangoon was raided yesterday morning and four monks taken into custody.
Without the monks small groups of protesters gathered but appeared uncertain. In one suburb about 40 protesters were thrown into an army truck.
But in the early afternoon as many as 2,000 demonstrators still angry over the brutal treatment meted out to the monks in the earlier raids assembled northeast of the Sule pagoda towards Rangoon's China Town.
"There's no doubt the people were very scared," said one western diplomat who has closely observed the violence. "But that they came out again after the killings illustrates just how angry they are about what happened to the monks and they want to show the military."
One demonstrator who called CNN during the rally said the group was being led by the 88 Generation of Students carrying the "fighting peacock" flag that symbolised the revolt that ended so bloodily almost two decades ago.
Australia's ambassador to Burma Bob Davis spoke of his horror. "We are appalled by the violence by the military thugs against peaceful demonstrators," he said. "The authorities admit [ nine], but we have unconfirmed reports that a significantly larger number were killed when the military opened fire on the crowds."
Troops also fired on thousands of young protesters riding around Burma's second city, Mandalay.
Soldiers isolated the monks from the other protesters by sealing off the monasteries.
- (Guardian service)