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Myanmar officers fire on protesters, killing 1

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar security forces opened fire on Buddhist monks and other prodemocracy demonstrators for the first time Wednesday, killing at least one man and wounding others in chaotic confrontations across the capital, formerly known as Rangoon.

Dramatic images of the protests, many transmitted from the secretive Southeast Asian nation by dissidents using cell phones and the Internet, riveted world attention on the escalating faceoff between the ruling junta and its opponents.

Clouds of tear gas and smoke from fires hung over streets, and defiant protesters and even bystanders pelted police with bottles and rocks in some places. Others helped monks escape arrest by bundling them into taxis and other vehicles and shouting "Go, go, go, run!"

The government said one man was killed when police opened fire during the ninth consecutive day of demonstrations, but dissidents outside Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths.

Some reports said the dead included monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyr figures could stoke public anger and escalate violence.

As the stiffest challenge in two decades, the crisis that began Aug. 19 with protests over a fuel price hike has drawn increasing international pressure on the isolated military regime, especially from its chief economic and diplomatic ally, China.

The United States and the European Union issued a joint statement decrying the assault on peaceful demonstrators and calling on the junta to open talks with democracy activists, including detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

"What's going on in Burma is outrageous," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

There was no sign the government had any intention of backing down, and monks said the violence would not deter them from pressing on with what has become the most sustained anti-junta protest since a failed 1988 democracy uprising. In that crisis, soldiers shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators, killing thousands.

The junta issued an edict late Tuesday banning gatherings of more than five people, but the order was ignored by democracy activists and the public alike.

Thousands met at the golden Shwedagon Pagoda, including monks, students, members of Suu Kyi's democracy movement and protesters waving flags emblazoned with the fighting peacock, a symbol of Myanmar's democracy movement.

They marched off to the Sule Pagoda in the heart of Yangon but were blocked by military trucks and security officers with riot shields, clubs and guns. Groups of marchers then fanned out into other streets, chased by security forces.

Officers fired warning shots and tear gas trying to disperse the crowds and began dragging monks into army trucks, the first mass arrests since protests erupted Aug. 19.

Reporters saw some monks beaten, and an exile dissident group said about 300 monks and other protesters had been arrested across the city.

Myanmar's government said security forces fired when a crowd that included what it termed "so-called monks" refused to disperse at the Sule Pagoda and tried to grab weapons from officers. It said police used "minimum force."

Exiled Myanmar journalists and democracy activists released reports of higher death tolls, but the accounts could not be independently confirmed.

FAST FACTS

Other developments

-The U.N. Security Council urged Myanmar's military government on Wednesday to exercise restraint toward peaceful protesters and expressed concern at its violent response to demonstrations in the reclusive Asian nation. First lady Laura Bush also pleaded Wednesday with Myanmar's ruling military regime to resist using force against protesters.

-Myanmar has been ranked as one of the world's most corrupt nations in Transparency International's 2007 index, released Wednesday. The index scored 180 countries based on the degree to which corruption is perceived among public officials and politicians. Myanmar and Somalia received 1.4 out of 10. Denmark, Finland and New Zealand were ranked the least corrupt, each scoring 9.4.

[Last modified September 27, 2007, 00:34:17]