BURMA: Troops moved onto the streets of Rangoon in apparent readiness for a confrontation with pro-democracy protesters as the US and UK yesterday stepped up pressure on Burma's military government, threatening punitive measures against the regime.
The Burmese junta last night imposed a 60-day 9pm-5am curfew and ban on gatherings of more than five people, according to reports from the country's two biggest cities, Rangoon and Mandalay.
Truckloads of armed security forces in riot gear surrounded several of the key protest sites, including Rangoon's city hall and the nearby Sule pagoda, in advance of today's planned marches. Earlier tens of thousand of monks and pro-democracy demonstrators defied government warnings and paraded through the streets of the old capital, as they have for the past week.
Ministers from the Burmese junta met in emergency session in the new capital, Naypyidaw, to discuss the growing threat to their regime. Meanwhile, Reuters reported that the democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (62) had been moved to the notorious Insein prison on Sunday from the lakeside villa where she is under house arrest.
Trucks and cars mounted with loudspeakers toured Rangoon yesterday morning, warning people not to join the monks in the protests that pose the greatest challenge to the military dictatorship in almost two decades. The announcements warned that anyone taking part in the demonstrations - now 100,000 strong - faced prosecution, while action would also be taken against the Buddhist clergy. They also threatened to disperse any fresh "illegal" protests by force.
Until last night's announcements, Burma's military leadership had remained uncharacteristically quiet, and the silence emboldened greater numbers to take to the streets.
Yesterday's demonstration was bolstered by other smaller protests in Mandalay and as many as 10 centres across the country. As the monks in their maroon robes left Rangoon's Shwedagon pagoda, thousands of people cheered and clapped and linked arms to protect the protesters.
The international community stepped up appeals for restraint, hoping to prevent a repeat of the bloodshed of 1988, when 3,000 people were killed by the suppression of street protests. US president George Bush imposed new sanctions on the junta and British prime minister Gordon Brown called for immediate international action.
Mr Bush singled out Burma in his address to the UN general assembly in which he called on the international community to "stand up for people suffering under dictatorship".
He said: "Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," alleging that forced labour, human trafficking, and rape were common under the junta.
He said his administration would tighten economic sanctions against the Burmese leadership, and expand a visa ban against human rights violators and their families. The measures would lead to the freezing of assets held by members of the junta and companies they own.
Mr Brown, in Bournemouth for the Labour Party conference, wrote to the current holder of the EU presidency, José Sócrates, and the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, saying the Burmese regime should face tougher sanctions if it made "the wrong choices".
However, British ministers privately concede that the main international players in the crisis will be the Chinese and Indians, the key trade partners, but believe the EU may be able to exert some pressure. -