Burma riot police charged a chanting crowd of more than 1 000 protesters after they pelted soldiers with rocks and water bottles in central Yangon on Thursday and at least one person collapsed as shots were fired, witnesses said.
One man was on the ground, unconscious, but it was not clear whether he was alive or dead or whether he had been hit by a bullet or a smoke bomb cannister, they said.
The trouble began when three truckloads of soldiers drove up the road to Sule Pagoda — the end point of daily mass protests this week against 45 years of military rule and dire economic hardship — where the crowd was demonstrating.
The crowd parted to let the trucks through, but then pelted them with whatever was to hand. The soldiers responded with what appeared to be smoke bombs, shots were fired and the protesters fled in several directions, the witnesses said.
One group of about 200 people retreated about 200m and took up their chants again, calling on the junta not to arrest monks, release political prisoners and cut prices.
The military government has admitted one person was killed on Wednesday in the latest mass demonstration which grew from small protest marches against massive fuel price increases in August.
Overnight, police arrested two senior members of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), the party’s spokesperson said. Two opposition politicians from other parties were also detained.
China rules out sanctions
Meanwhile, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called the situation a ”tragedy” and urged the generals to allow a United Nations envoy to visit and meet detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
”The regime has reacted brutally to people who were simply protesting peacefully,” Rice said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he would dispatch special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to South-east Asia in hope the hope that the generals would let him in.
However, in a sign of rifts within the international community at an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York, China ruled out sanctions or an official condemnation of the use of force.
History suggests the junta will not be moved by threats from France and Britain — former imperial powers — that leaders would be held responsible for bloodshed. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said the ”age of impunity” was over.
The United States and the 27-nation European Union called on the generals to start a dialogue with pro-democracy leaders, including Nobel laureate Suu Kyi, and ethnic minority groups.
Foreign ministers of the Group of Eight industrial nations agreed on a similar formula but without a call for sanctions, in deference to Russia.
Participants said Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has sided with China in blocking UN moves against Burma, clashed over the sanctions issue.
Washington and Paris called on China to use its influence to convince the junta to stop the crackdown.
Diplomats say China has privately been speaking with the Burma generals to convey international concern, but Beijing has so far refrained from any public criticism. – Reuters