Junta 'behaving like occupying army'

Yangon/Paris: Security forces charged two crowds of protesters in the centre of Myanmar's main city Yangon yesterday, firing warning shots, beating people with batons and arresting about five, witnesses said.

At Bogyoke Aung San market, a major tourist destination also known as Scott's Market, warning shots were fired to disperse some 500 anti-government demonstrators. An unknown number were arrested, they said.

Nearby at the Pansoedan bridge in downtown Yangon, another 100 protesters gathered. As soon as they started to clap their hands, a squad of about 50 security forces swooped and began attacking them, witnesses said.

"They beat people so badly. I wonder how these people can bear it. I saw the security forces arrest about five people on the streets," said one Yangon resident who witnessed the scene. Those who were not detained managed to disperse, the witnesses said.

Crucial time

In Paris, exiled opposition leader Sein Win said the Myanmar military was "behaving like an occupying army" and called on the West to increase pressure on the country's regime. Win spoke during a demonstration of several hundred people, including Buddhist monks, near the Eiffel Tower. "Western countries must put pressure, lots of pressure now," said Win, who met with President Nicolas Sarkozy last week.

Win said increased pressure was "very crucial now". "The military is now behaving like an occupying army in its own country," said Win, an exiled prime minister trying to promote democracy in his homeland. He said the capital city "is looking like an occupied city" where even the monasteries were surrounded.

The protests were believed to be the only incidents in Yangon yesterday, as an overwhelming security operation successfully choked off mass rallies that attracted 10,000 on Friday and tens of thousands earlier in the week.

"Security members are outnumbering protesters downtown. The protesters dare not to come downtown as they would certainly be badly beaten and arrested," another witness at the scene said.

At least 13 people were killed when troops opened fire and launched baton charges on Wednesday and Thursday, but the United States and Britain, as well as Burmese opposition groups, have raised fears the death toll could be far higher.

The regime deployed large numbers of soldiers near the Sule Pagoda downtown yesterday, where up to 100,000 protesters led by Buddhist monks took to the streets earlier in the week, the witnesses said.

The two Yangon-based army divisions which have spearheaded the crackdown have now been joined by 66 Division from Pago, which lies northeast of the city.

As well as the tight security and vicious beatings that have deterred protesters, buses and taxis abandoned the streets, making it difficult for people to travel to the city centre.

Eyewitness accounts have also related how ordinary people caught up in the onslaught of the military crackdown have been bashed, kicked and shot at with rubber bullets.

Meanwhile, the UN World Food Programme yesterday said that authorities in Myanmar have allowed emergency food distribution to resume from the northeastern city of Mandalay. "The good news is that things will be moving again from Mandalay," the WFP's country director in Myanmar, Chris Kay, said in an e-mail. The food agency however still does not have access to the western port of Sittwe, Kay said.