Oslo, Sep 28 (DPA) Internet connections with Myanmar were cut Friday as more confrontations were underway in the former capital Yangon, the Oslo-based opposition radio station Democratic Voice of Burma said.
The state telecommunications company referred to a break in an underwater cable, according to reports.
Meanwhile, protesters were reported to have gathered near the Sule pagoda in Yangon, defying a ban issued by the army.
The move to cut Internet connections appeared to be aimed at preventing reports including photos and video footage of ongoing confrontations between protesters and the military from reaching the outside world, the station’s news editor Moe Aye said in a telephonic interview.
Earlier, he said that at least two monasteries were raided overnight in Yangon.
The radio station has been unable to establish how many monks were arrested in Yangon.
A school near the notorious Insein prison has also been converted into a temporary detention centre housing at least 300 monks, according to accounts received in Oslo.
“The army has ordered the monks to remove their robes, but the monks have refused,” Moe Aye said, adding that the atmosphere was tense.
Late Thursday, angry crowds encircled soldiers who blocked off a monastery in South Okkalapa Township on the outskirts of Yangon.
The crowds later dispersed after some sort of deal was reached, but the army was reported to have returned to the township and arrested people, specifically targeting young men, Moe Aye said.
People are very angry over the beating of the monks in connection with the crackdown that began Wednesday, according to the reports compiled in Oslo.
In Yangon Friday, the army has blocked the main roads to the City Hall and were patrolling the downtown area by foot and in trucks.
A confrontation was also brewing in North Okkalapa Township, while people were trying to regroup in parts of Yangon.