http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/27/world/asia/27cnd-myanmar.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Nine Deaths Reported in Myanmar Crackdown

By SETH MYDANS
Published: September 27, 2007

BANGKOK, Sept. 27 — Brutality and defiance marked the second day of an armed crackdown in Myanmar today as the military junta tried to crush a wave of nationwide protests in the face of harsh international condemnation.
Tear gas hovered above the steps of the Shwedagon Pagoda on Wednesday in Yangon as the riot police broke up demonstrations.
The violence began before dawn with raids on Buddhist monasteries and continued through the day with tear gas, beatings and volleys of gunfire in the streets of the country’s main city, Yangon, according to witnesses and news agency reports from inside the closed nation.
Witnesses said soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of protesters. State television in Myanmar reported that nine people had been killed and that 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers were injured. The numbers could not be independently verified, and exile groups said they could be much higher.
Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that one Japanese national had been killed, and there were unconfirmed reports of several other deaths, including another foreigner. The Japanese Embassy said one of the dead was a Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai.
International pressure on Myanmar built when President Bush asked countries in the region with influence on the country’s authorities to urge them to cease using force, and the Treasury imposed economic sanctions on 14 named senior Myanmar government officials.
Despite a heavy military and police presence, protests gained momentum through the day in several parts of the city. But with the authorities clamping down on telephone and Internet communications, human rights groups and exiles said they were having increasing difficulty in getting information.
The violence of the past two days has answered the question of whether the military would fire on Buddhist monks, the highly revered moral core of Burmese society. For the past 10 days, the monks have led demonstrations that grew to as many as 100,000 before the crackdown began.
“The military is the one who proudly claims to preserve and protect Buddhism in the country, but now they are killing the monks,” said Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine based in Thailand that has extensive contacts inside Myanmar.
Like others monitoring the crisis, which began on Aug. 19 with scattered protests against steep fuel price increases, he said it was difficult to learn the numbers of dead in a chaotic situation in which hospital sources are sometimes reluctant to talk. Mr. Aung Zaw said he had been told of one death today when soldiers attacked two columns of monks and other people.
“The military trucks, I was told, just drove in, and soldiers jumped out and started shooting,” he said, describing a scene that was reminiscent of the mass killings in 1988, when the current junta came to power after suppressing a similar peaceful public uprising. On Wednesday, the junta acknowledged the death of one man, but news agencies and exile groups put the number as high as seven.
Myanmar’s chief international patron, China, blocked an effort on Wednesday by the United States and European countries to have the United Nations Security Council condemn the violent crackdown. But today China added its important voice to criticism from abroad when it publicly called for restraint.
“As a neighbor, China is extremely concerned about the situation in Myanmar,” the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said at a news briefing in Beijing. “China hopes that all parties in Myanmar exercise restraint and properly handle the current issue so as to ensure the situation there does not escalate and get complicated.”
In January, China vetoed another move by the United States at the United Nations to censure Myanmar, saying Burmese internal affairs had no effect on peace and stability outside its borders.
Speaking in Beijing today, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who was taking part in international talks on North Korea’s nuclear program, said, “We all need to agree on the fact that the Burmese government has got to stop thinking that this can be solved by police and military.”
In his statement today, President Bush said he felt admiration and compassion for the protesters. “I call on all nations that have influence with the regime to join us in supporting the aspirations of the Burmese people and to tell the Burmese junta to cease using force on its own people, who are peacefully expressing their desire for change,” he said.


On Sept.27 in Bangkok, Thailand, military junta had use automatic weapons shooting through the protester. 9 peoples were killed, 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers were wounded. Monks which had been the most respective of, had been killed continuesly. The violences act of the military had the United Nation involved in which include different countries around Bangkok. Many people seeking news has lost contact in Burma because they had cut all mobile telephones and internet access.