To the handful of monks still remaining at Ngwe Kya Yan monastery — bruised, scared and in shock — it must have seemed that everything was over. The soldiers and police made their first swoop in the early hours, cracking skulls, firing rubber bullets and dragging away more than 70 monks to secret detention centres.

The ones who escaped returned at daybreak to their smashed and looted monastery, the blood of their brothers still glistening on the stone of the courtyard.

By late afternoon, the soldiers and police returned to finish the job, but then something remarkable happened: thousands of men, women and children emerged from the surrounding houses of South Okkalopa township, converged on the narrow streets leading up to the monastery and trapped the soldiers and police inside. For more than six hours, the unarmed crowd prevented security forces from taking the monks away — until they were dispersed in a onesided street battle in which police reportedly shot dead at least two people.

It was a scene repeated at monasteries and pagodas across Rangoon. At nearby Kyaik Ka San, Moe Kaung and Mahar Bawdi, local people defended the monks with their lives. In the end, their attempts appear to have been unsuccessful, but the remarkable risks they took demonstrate the depth of popular affection for the monks and the continuing loathing for the junta, despite its success in quelling last week’s Saffron uprising.

Who will win? Can the world help?

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BACKGROUND

• Burmese bloggers defy the censors

• After 45 years, is this the end?

• How monks became threat to regime survival

• World split over response to Burma crisis

• Burma: a travellers' guide

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• Lawyers can no longer be quiet about Burma

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“People knew that they had no weapons, no strength at all against the armed military,” said a local. “But still they can raise their voices to demand the safety of the monks.”

Rumours of local people defending monks have been circulating since last week. Yesterday The Times met two men, an engineer and a merchant seaman, both in their 40s, who witnessed the struggle at Ngwe Kya Yan. It took place last Thursday, at the height of the Government’s crackdown on the pro-democracy demonstrations. After a week and a half of swelling protests, the junta finally made its move and removed the heart of the protests — the monks.

Under cover of the recently announced curfew, security forces raided monasteries and pagodas across the city. At about 2am they descended on Ngwe Kya Yan, smashing windows, decapitating statues of Buddha, stealing gold jewellery and cash, and thrashing the monks with cudgels made from freshly cut bamboo.

Early the next morning, the director-general of Burma’s Religious Affairs Department visited the monastery to ask its abbot to leave for the Kaba Aya Pagoda in another part of the city. The engineer, who was there, said that the abbot told the official: “I will not abandon this place.” He said: “The director-general told the monks to clean up all the blood, but they refused, because they wanted to show what had happened.” At 11.30am, after the official delegation left, the soldiers and police returned, accompanied by members of an official militia called Masters of Force, which is frequently used by the Government to terrorise its political opponents. The engineer said: “From every side . . . people came out and surrounded the monastery. The soldiers and police inside began to panic because they cannot leave.”

Ngwe Kya Yan played a pivotal part in the last mass uprising against the junta, in 1988. The junta killed thousands of people in response while protesters lynched and beheaded several suspected government spies. The merchant seaman said: “The monks at this pagoda were very famous as negotiators between the people and the military in 1988. They saved the lives of some spies.” He said that the locals had great affection and respect for their religious neighbours. “They \ give free lessons to the children before their exams, and they are very respected by the people.”

The stand-offs at Ngwe Kya Yan and nearby Kyaik Ka San took a turn for the worse after military reinforcements arrived. Soldiers surrounded the protesters and at 2pm began firing smoke grenades and rubber pellets at them. Burmese journalists claimed that they also fired live rounds at the crowds, killing two, including an 18-year-old schoolboy. The engineer said: “I didn’t see it myself, but people who were in the crowd said that he \ was shot through the forehead. They kneeled down and took up shooting positions and aimed. They were deliberately targeting him.”

Security forces reportedly shot dead two people at Kyaik Ka San, and fatally wounded another when he accidentally leaned on his car horn after being ordered to turn around. It took the forces until 6pm to disperse the crowds and arrest the monks.

Yesterday Reuters reported that 80 monks and 149 women believed to be Buddhist nuns had returned to their monasteries in the first large-scale release of detainees. Five journalists were also released, including Min Zaw, a veteran correspondent for the Japanese newspaper Shimbun. The engineer said: “We have no leaders now, and there is such an imbalance of power between the people and the Army. We have no arms, no equipment, but we cannot let the military Government carry on with this situation.”

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