By DPA
Yangon : At least five people were killed after Myanmar troops used batons, tear gas and bullets Wednesday to keep tens of thousands of marching monks and layman protesters out of Yangon’s holiest shrines in a standoff between rifles and rust-coloured robes.
Around midnight Tuesday, the government announced on public address system that a 60-day curfew had been imposed in the city from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.
Police and soldiers at barricades beat monks and laymen back from the east gate of the Shwedagon Pagoda with batons and tear gas twice Wednesday afternoon, leaving at least five people dead, including monks, said a former high-level government official.
At least 30 monks and 50 civilians were taken away in military vehicles to an unknown destination.
Monks have used the Shwedagon Pagoda, Yangon’s most revered temple, as a launch pad for their peaceful anti-government marches for the past nine days. The show of force, however, failed to stop them from marching elsewhere.
About 10,000 monks wove their way through Yangon’s streets Wednesday afternoon, heading for the Sule Pagoda, where they were pushed back by more troops armed with shields and batons, witnesses said.
Soldiers stationed at City Hall, across from the Sule Pagoda, reportedly fired on the crowd at one point, claiming unknown casualties.
A newly arrived tourist said shots rang out for about 30 seconds as a crowd of thousands of people, mostly laymen, moved toward a barricade about 100 metres from the roundabout where the pagoda stands.
Protesters ran in panic down side streets. Some fell and were trampled by those following them. Fear showed on their faces.
“I’m going home,” one monk said.
The tourist said a 26-year-old student warned her: “You shouldn’t go any farther. They are animals,” referring to the soldiers.
Myanmar’s military, after issuing several warnings to the monks for the past two days, deployed its troops for the first time in nine days of protest marches in Yangon.
At least 12 trucks, each carrying about 40 police and soldiers, were dispatched Tuesday night to City Hall after tens of thousands of monks defied a government order to end their protest marches and return to their temples.
Dozens of military trucks and jeeps were seen parked outside the City Hall compound as police and military personnel guarded the four gates of the Sule Pagoda, which sits in the centre of a traffic circle in front of City Hall.
The pagoda in the centre of downtown Yangon has been where the monks have congregated joined by thousands of laymen, over the past four days in a show of defiance against Myanmar’s military junta.
The marching monks appeared determined to take to the streets again Wednesday despite signs that a confrontation was looming.
“We are even ready to die,” one Yangon temple abbot said.
As protesters massed near Sule Pagoda, military vehicles drove by on a cross street, eliciting fear each time among parts of the crowd. But demonstrators also responded by booing the trucks and calling for the mass of people to stand their ground, prompting the crowd to once again inch forward until the next military column raced by.
The protests began to disperse about 4 p.m. as the monks returned to their monasteries.
Various human rights groups and crisis-management organizations have called on Myanmar’s allies such as China, India and South-East Asian nations to intervene to prevent a bloodbath in Yangon.
“The Burmese military has shown in the past a willingness to kill peaceful protesters to end demonstrations,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
“If the military government is going to listen to anyone, it will be countries with which it has close military and economic ties. Now is the time for these countries to show that they care about the health and welfare of the Burmese people.”
“United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon should hold urgent talks with the foreign ministers of China, India and Singapore, the current ASEAN chair, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and lead a joint attempt to encourage peaceful dialogue in Myanmar,” said the International Crisis Group.
Yangon’s barefoot rebellion, which started Sep 18, drew up to 100,000 followers Monday and Tuesday.
But there were indications Wednesday that the junta was preparing to spill blood as it did in Sep 1988 when the army unleashed its fury on mass pro-democracy demonstrations, killing up to 3,000 people, including hundreds of protesting monks.
In 1988, Myanmar was rocked by nationwide rallies against the military regime’s incompetent rule, which had dragged the country down from one of the wealthiest in Asia prior to World War II to an economic basket case by 1987.
Economic hardships are partly behind the latest protests.
Without warning or consultations, the government more than doubled fuel prices on Aug 15, exacerbating overnight the plight of Myanmar’s impoverished people. The country has suffered double-digit inflation since 2006.
Despite the hardships, a cafe operator near Sule Pagoda expressed doubt about whether the protesters would continue for much longer. “They don’t have the heart for it,” he said. “They have been suppressed for 20 years.”
Anti-inflation protests started building on Aug 19 in Yangon, led by former student activists and opposition politicians. Last week, the monks took up the movement.
Myanmar’s 400,000-member Buddhist monkhood has a long history of political activism in Myanmar, having played a pivotal role in the independence struggle against Great Britain in 1947.