Burma: 'go home or risk being shot'

Last Modified: 27 Sep 2007
By: James Blake

Burma's military government tightens the screw on the pro-democracy demonstrators, with reports of troops firing into the crowds.

Video footage from outside a Buddhist temple, the Sule Pagoda, show pictures of a group of monks standing in defiance of the police - in the heart of Yangon. The monks are then quickly surrounded and protected by hundreds of civilians. It's not known exactly when these images were filmed - and details are uncertain. But witnesses this morning - say they heard police issuing a warning to the crowds disperse in ten minutes or face "extreme action".

It led to panic in the streets. It's thought hundreds of protesters were arrested. And many others hurt. One monk on camera says he was hit on the head.

The standoff at the Sule Pegoda was one of several confrontations in Yangon. Outside the traders hotel - hundreds of protesters have been seen throwing bricks at police lines. And there are reports that police raided the Ngure Kyar Yan Monastery at dawn this morning...

One Burmese blogger - put disturbing images of that monastery on his website this morning. (moemaka.blogspot.com). They can't be confirmed - but they appear to show ransacked rooms - and blood-stained floors. It's thought police have seized more than 500 monks at similar raids across the capital.

Perhaps because of these raids - monks have been mostly absent from protests today. And police are taking a tougher line - gunfire has been heard across the city. There are reports that two foreign journalists - including a Japanese cameraman - have been killed.

The British ambassador in Burma says the violence has escalated today. Europe and America have called for UN sanctions. Burma's long time ally China - doesn't support that demand. But it has - finally - called for restraint.