Thursday, September 27, 2007

Four killed in Myanmar Protest Crackdown

YANGON (AFP) - - Myanmar security forces used batons, tear gas and live rounds Wednesday in a violent crackdown on mass protests against the military junta, killing at least four people including three Buddhist monks.

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 AFP.

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 nine days of protests which have spread across the Southeast Asian nation.

A fourth man, who was not a monk, was shot dead, a hospital source said.

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.

State television news said that one 30-year-old protester had been killed, and another two men and one woman were injured, along with 10 police.

The report said security forces had used loudspeakers to ask the crowd to disperse but that the protesters had hurled stones and sticks at them, tried to steal their weapons, and set fire to two military motorcycles.

"Because of the difficult situation, the security forces opened fire to disperse the crowd, using just a little force against the violent protesters. Because they opened fire, the protesters dispersed," it said.


News extracted from Yahoo News section. To read full article, click HERE.

The lines highlighted in green are most likely to be the lies of SPDC.

According to inside sources, security forces started beating the monks brutally who were peacefully trying to reach Shwedagon Pagoda from East Gate. Monks and people were brutally beaten and kicked and thrown onto the trucks right in front of the onlookers. One source even reported soldiers stripped off the robes of two monks and set on fire as well as stomping the Buddhism flag held by the monks. This rough treatment set ablaze the public anger and changed the whole scenario. The protesters retaliate by throwing rocks and set on fire the motorcycles used by the Military Intelligence Agents.

0 comments: