Four killed in Myanmar protest crackdown

YANGON: At least four people including three Buddhist monks were killed on Wednesday as Myanmar security forces used weapons and tear gas to crush protests that have erupted nationwide against the military junta.   

Two of the monks were beaten to death while another was shot when he tried to wrestle a gun away from a soldier and the weapon discharged, two senior Myanmar officials told.   

They said the monks were killed near Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest site and a key rallying point for the clergy leading the protests now posing the biggest challenge to the junta in 20 years.   

A fourth man, who was not a monk, was pronounced dead on arrival at Yangon General Hospital with gunshot wounds, a hospital source said.   

The UN Security Council was to meet in an emergency session in New York at 1900 GMT on Wednesday to discuss the spiralling crisis, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said.   

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, whose country is the former colonial power, said "the whole world is now watching Burma" and called for a UN envoy to be sent there to talk to the 'illegitimate and repressive regime.'   

The White House said reports of the deadly violence were 'troubling,' and urged the military junta to respect human rights.   

Up to 100,000 people took to the streets on Wednesday, marching and shouting abuse at police despite blunt warnings from the ruling generals who have been in power for more than four decades.   

Police opened fire and baton-charged protesters at the Shwedagon pagoda in Myanmar's main city, but later some 1,000 monks regrouped and paraded through the streets, to the delight of thousands of onlookers.   

They roared approval for the monks and shouted at security forces, "You are fools! You are fools!"    Police and troops then fired a volley of warning shots and tear gas to try to break up the march.   

Undeterred, tens of thousands of monks massed once again, marching through the main market in a protest that lasted until the early evening.   

At least 100 people were injured during the day and some 200 people were arrested, as many as half of them Buddhist monks, according to witnesses and diplomats.   

The party of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi branded the assaults on the monks -- highly revered in the devoutly Buddhist nation - 'the greatest wrong in history.'   

Protesters ignored a ban on public gatherings issued Tuesday along with a dusk-to-dawn curfew, as the generals who have turned Myanmar into one of the world's poorest and most isolated nations tried to keep a lid on the unrest.   

But Wednesday was the first time violence has been used to break up recent protests in Yangon, and analysts said they feared it could be a preview for an even more severe crackdown in coming days.   

There are fears of a repeat of 1988, the last time demonstrators rallied in such numbers in the streets of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. Then, around 3,000 people were killed by the security forces.   

There were sketchy reports on Wednesday of huge turnouts and further clashes with police in the central city of Mandalay and in Sittwe on the western coast where 15,000 people marched.   

In Yangon, a separate march headed toward the lakeside home of Aung San Suu Kyi where she has been detained for 12 of the last 18 years.    As they walked, they urged the crowd of onlookers to remain calm.   

"We monks will do this," they called out. "Please don't join us. Don't do anything violent."   

Pro-democracy politician Win Naing and the country's most famous comedian Zaganar were earlier arrested for helping the protests.   

The unrest began last month when the junta drastically raised the price of fuel overnight, deepening the misery in this already impoverished country.   

The initial protests -- rare in a nation where the military quickly crushes any show of dissent -- began with only a handful of marching demonstrators.   

But after the monks joined, the movement swelled, and around 100,000 people marched in Yangon on Monday and Tuesday.   

The international community condemned the crackdown and warned the junta it would be held to account. France said it was 'unacceptable' and the European Union, following the United States' lead, threatened tougher sanctions.