Police use tear gas against Buddhist monks
Troops in Rangoon have attacked Buddhist monks who defied the Burmese military government’s ban on public assembly today with tear gas, dragging some into trucks and driving them away.
The change in tactics came after soldiers fired warning shots in a showdown outside the symbolic Shwedagon Pagoda.
About 5,000 monks and 5,000 students along with members of the party headed by detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi set off from Shwedagon to the Sule Pagoda in the heart of Burma’s largest city but were blocked by military trucks along the route.
Other protestors at the Sule Pagoda were confronted by warning shots.
Some carried flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock, symbol of the 1988 civil protests which were brutally suppressed by troops who gunned down more than 3,000 people.
Today’s confrontation came after around 100 monks stayed behind at the eastern gate of the Shwedagon refusing to obey orders to disperse, despite coming under attack from the tear gas and baton charges.
Witnesses said an angry mob at the pagoda burned two police motorcycles.
