Yangon, Sep 28 (DPA) Ignoring a brutal crackdown that has already claimed more than a dozen lives and led to hundreds of arrests, the people of Yangon returned to the streets Friday for their 11th day of protests against Myanmar’s military regime.
Shortly after noon, hundreds of people, some armed with sticks, began to congregate on the road leading to Sule Pagoda, a flashpoint of the protests over the past week.
The protesters gathered despite an army order that Sule and four other popular pagodas in the city were “no go” zones for the citizenry.
Masses were also seen gathering at Thakayta Pagoda in eastern Yangon, witnesses said.
Anti-government protests, which initially started on Sep 18 as peaceful marches led by Buddhist monks, have grown increasingly violent since Wednesday when the government unleashed riot police and soldiers on demonstrators.
After Wednesday’s crackdown on the marching monks, ordinary people took the lead in protests Thursday, which took an uglier turn.
Standoffs between people and authorities were reported throughout the city Thursday, leaving at least nine people dead, according to state media. Other sources said as many as 15 died, included one revered Buddhist abbot who received a beating as soldiers raided his temple before dawn.
The Oslo-based opposition radio station Democratic Voice of Burma said Friday that at least two monasteries were raided overnight.
The radio station has been unable to establish how many monks were arrested in Yangon, the station’s news editor, Moe Aye, said in a telephonic interview.
A school near the notorious Insein prison has 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.
The government’s actions against the monks have angered the lay population in Myanmar, a devout, largely Buddhist nation.
Late Thursday, angry crowds encircled soldiers who blocked off a monastery in South Okkalapa Township on the outskirts of Yangon, Moe Aye said.
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.
The latest round of demonstrations were started to protest the doubling of fuel prices by the authorities on Aug 15.