BURMA:Several hundred monks in Burma held a group of government officials for more than four hours yesterday and burnt their cars as anger deepened at last month's shock fuel price rises.
About a dozen officials had gone to the monastery in the town of Pakokku, 600km (370 miles) northwest of Yangon, to apologise for soldiers firing shots over the heads of protesting monks on Wednesday.
They had also wanted to ask the abbot of the Mahawithutayama monastery to stop monks taking part in the sporadic marches that have broken out against soaring living costs.
However, several hundred young monks locked them inside the monastery and burnt four of their cars. A crowd of up to 1,000 people gathered outside the gates and there was no sign of military or police.
In the first use of the army against two weeks of protest, soldiers had fired the warning shots to halt a march of up to 500 monks reciting Buddhist scriptures and waving banners condemning huge fuel price increases.
Hitherto, the military had responded by arresting leading dissidents and sending pro-junta gangs on to the streets of Yangon to break up protests.
Western governments and the UN have become increasingly critical of the Burmese military junta's actions, although China - the generals' main trading partner and the closest they have to a friend - has remained silent.
More than 100 people have been arrested in the crackdown, one of the harshest since the army crushed a nationwide uprising of monks, students and government workers in 1988, when about 3,000 people are thought to have been killed.
The military has been loath to put soldiers on the streets, perhaps mindful of the 1988 bloodshed, a watershed moment in Burma's post-independence history.
Intervening against monks in Pakokku is particularly risky for the junta because of its proximity to Mandalay, the religious heart of a devoutly Buddhist nation and home to 300,000 monks.
Historically, monasteries have played a major role in revolts, both in 1988 and against the former colonial power, Britain.