The Hindu : Front Page : 3 monks killed in Myanmar crackdown

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 27, 2007
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3 monks killed in Myanmar crackdown

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: Three Buddhist monks were killed on Wednesday in an attack by security forces on protesters in Yangon, Myanmar, according to the dissident National Council of the Union of Burma (NCUB).

The three were beaten up near the iconic Shwedagon pagoda during a clash between the country’s junta and the protesting monks.

It was a day of dramatic defiance by the newly formed All-Burma Monks Alliance and its supporters from all walks of life even as the military regime braced for a crackdown.

By nightfall, another two monks were reported killed in clashes with security forces in Yangon.

But dissidents in exile in Thailand could not confirm this.

The dissidents, as also some Yangon residents, however, confirmed that gunshots were fired by some military personnel. The protesters were also teargassed once.

NCUB spokesman Soe Aung told The Hindu over telephone from Bangkok that on Wednesday too, students and activists belonging to Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy joined the monks in the protest marches.

NCUB general secretary Maung Maung told The Hindu over telephone from the Thailand-Myanmar border that 40 monks, 20 nuns and 20 students were taken to “a police quarantine.”

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