Burma: protests grow, tension mounts

Last Modified: 26 Sep 2007
By: Nick Paton Walsh, Jon Snow

Despite the deaths of three protesters, today has seen the biggest anti-government demonstrations so far in Burma.

Warning shots, baton charges, tear gas - signs, perhaps, that the regime's iron grip is slipping.

They demanded from the junta both change and peace. So today the outcome many feared finally came.

At first there warning shots, then baton charges against lines of monks, nuns and civilians. And tear gas - anything to clear the streets of a protest that's now eight days old. These were signs, perhaps, that the regime's iron grip is slipping.

20 years ago they shot 3,000 people dead for the same protest. Today the world was watching. And gone was the fear that held the junta in power.

One source inside Burma told Channel 4 News that a nun was among the dead. And the bodies of 10 monks lie discarded at the Shwedagin pagoda.

One comedian has been arrested and taken in for "temporary questioning".

The regime was eventually forced into the unthinkable: an explanation as to how they had killed a monk, one of a revered brotherhood in this country.

The protest began at 0845 and first approached the Shwedagin pagoda at about nine o'clock. It continued around the parliament building and headed south, then looped back on itself.

Part of the protest then headed a little further north, where police used tear gas and baton charges in Alone Street at about 10 am.

During last night the military tried to get a grip on the main city, Rangoon. But the sit-down protests simply carried on. So they arrested a comedian known as Zarganar, who had been encouraging people to join the protests. He has been taken in for "temporary questioning", his relatives were told.

The barricades are going up in Rangoon as fear of the regime begins to crumble.

The arrest of comedians - perhaps a little desperate.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has just called on French companies to freeze their substantial investments in Burma because of the reaction to the protests.

And in the next hour the UN Security Council will meet to try and fashion a tough response against today's violence.

Rangoon was tonight emptied by a curfew, but full of resolve to march again tomorrow. The barricades are going up as fear of the regime begins to crumble.