Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Police Fire Warning Shots In Myanmar

Breaking news today from here and here.

YANGON, Myanmar - Police in riot gear fired warning shots to disperse more than 100 Buddhist monks who defied the military government's ban on public assembly Wednesday by trying to penetrate a barricade blocking Yangon's famed Shwedagon Pagoda. The junta had banned all public gatherings of more than five people and imposed a nighttime curfew following eight days of anti-government marches led by monks in Yangon and other areas of the country, including the largest in nearly two decades.
Firing shots into the air, beating their shields with batons and shouting orders to disperse, the police chased some of the monks and about 200 of their supporters while others tried to stubbornly hold their place near the eastern gate to the vast shrine complex.
Some fell to the ground amid the chaos and at least one monks was seen struck with a baton.

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