Burma regime cracks down on protesting monks

By Xeni Jardin at 7:45 am Wednesday, Sep 26

As feared, the military regime that controls Myanmar (Burma) has begun to forcefully crack down on peacefully protesting monks. While foreign journalists are banned, some photos of protests this week are showing up on Flickr, and protest video footage is available on news sites like Democratic Voice of Burma (based in Norway, run by Burmese expats, see Wikipedia).

Shown here, a shot uploaded to Flickr yesterday by "gmhembree" -- "A monk bleeds from his head where he was beaten during the clash with police. This is on U Thaung Po road, east of Shwedagon." More photos here, and a search for "Burma" plus "monk" yields more.

Snip from BBC item:

Several thousand Burmese monks and other protesters have begun new marches in Rangoon despite a bloody crackdown by police at the city's holiest shrine.

Police beat and arrested demonstrators at Shwedagon Pagoda and warning shots were fired at another site as a ninth day of marching got under way.

One march started for the city centre while another headed for the home of opposition head Aung San Suu Kyi. Police and troops are surrounding key Buddhist sites around the city. Analysts fear a repeat of the violence in 1988, when troops opened fire on unarmed protesters, killing thousands.

And (yesterday) BoingBoing reader Rick told us,

The Burma campaign's sources in Rangoon say soldiers have been ordered to shave their heads and 3,000 monks' robes have been bought so that the military could infiltrate the protesters, spark violence and the Junta can launch a crackdown.

Below, another snapshot of protests before the military attacked, by Flickr user racoles.

(Thanks, John Parres)