Asia Exile blog: pictures from Rangoon

World split over response

Burma’s military regime today launched a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests as the United Nations Security Council prepared to meet to discuss the crisis.

There were deaths on the streets of Rangoon as the ruling junta's security forces fired teargas and rubber bullets and used batons against the thousands of Buddhist monks and civilians seeking to march for a ninth consecutive day to call for political reform.

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Amid a chaos of conflicting reports it was not clear how many had died, with the reported death toll ranging from one to five, and over 100 injured. Hospital sources said that some of the casualties suffered gunshot wounds, suggesting that riot police may have used live rounds against the unarmed protesters and the crowd.

In one incident at least 17 Burmese monks were injured when security forces baton-charged pro-democracy protesters near the Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's holiest shrine and the starting point of pro-democracy marches which have brought Rangoon to a standstill .

Among the wounded was an 80-year-old monk who had been carried on the march because he was too weak to walk, according to the AFP news agency.

There were other unconfirmed reports that four monks and a civilian had been shot dead. The reports came from witnesses speaking to The Irrawaddy, a news website based in Thailand run by exiled Burmese journalists.

As reports of the escalating violence emerged, the UN Security Council prepared for an emergency meeting on the situation in Myanmar.

Ibrahim Gambari, the UN special envoy for Myanmar, was to brief the council on the situation. He hopes to go to Burma next month, but the timing of his visit is still under discussion with the ruling junta.

The Security Council has been divided about action against Burma. In January, China and Russia vetoed a resolution calling for Myanmar to stop persecuting minority and opposition groups and take concrete steps toward democracy, and today the Russian foreign ministry issued a statement dismissing the violence as an "internal matter".

"We hold the opinion that the processes underway in Myanmar pose no threat to international or regional peace and security," said the ministry, saying that expected that the situation would soon be "normalised".

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