Monks leading the biggest public protest staged in Burma for nearly 20 years were today warned of a government crackdown.
Buddhist monks, accompanied by civilians, march in Rangoon yesterday
After a week of increasingly large demonstrations an estimated 100,000 people joined the Buddhists in marching across Rangoon.
It was the largest anti-government protest since a 1988 uprising that was crushed by the military.
It prompted the Burmese military government, which has been unusually muted in its response to the demonstrations, finally to speak out.
Religious affairs minister Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung warned that unless senior monks reined in their juniors who are leading the protests, the state would take action.
He accused the protestors of being instigated by the regime's critics at home and abroad.
His warning came after the march, launched from the country's most sacred shrine the Shwedagon Pagoda, was led by 20,000 monks.
It covered at least 8 kilometres (5 miles) in its first few hours, passing by the old campus of Rangoon University, a former hotbed of protest. Students were seen joining the column for the first time.
The government has been handling the monks carefully, aware that if they were seen to abuse them, it would anger ordinary citizens in the devout, predominantly Buddhist country.
The latest protests began on August 19 as a movement against economic hardship after the government raised fuel prices.
But they have their basis in long-standing disapproval of the repressive military government, and increasingly protesters are taking up the pro-democracy movement's demands of national reconciliation and freeing of political prisoners.
The usually iron-fisted junta has so far kept minimal security at the protests, and diplomats and analysts said they were under pressure from key trading partner and diplomatic ally China.
The monks, who took over a faltering protest movement from political activists, have managed to bring people into the streets in huge numbers.
Yesterday, about 20,000 people including thousands of monks filled the streets in Rangoon, stepping up their confrontation with authorities by chanting support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The increasingly strident protests have raised hopes of possible political change but also fear that the military might violently stamp out the demonstrations.