posted September 28, 2007 10:11 AM
Internet cut as violence continues * Story Highlights
* Unconfirmed reports of bodies in the streets, protesters shot.
* New video appears to show point blank shooting of protester in Yangon
* Internet links severed, reports say.
* Protesters defy orders to stay off the streets a day after deadly crackdown
* Next Article in World »
* Read
* VIDEO
* PHOTOS
* TIMELINE
* EXPLAINER
Decrease font Decrease font
Enlarge font Enlarge font
YANGON, Myanmar (CNN) -- Shots were fired to clear crowds defying a brutal crackdown in Myanmar Friday as authorities reportedly cut Internet connections and graphic new video footage showed troops using deadly force.
art.myanmar.shooting.jpg
A still from a video released by Myanmarese opposition shows crowds fleeing gunshots in Yangon on Thursday.
Click to view previous image
1 of 3
Click to view next image
more photos »
more photos »
Witnesses told CNN that police opened fire on crowds to disperse demonstrators resulting in fatalities. Other sources said they had spoken to a Western witness who had seen up to 35 bodies lying in the streets.
CNN could not independently verify the claims.
A day earlier, troops with automatic rifles fired into crowds of anti-government demonstrators, reportedly killing at least nine people in the bloodiest day in more than a month of protests demanding an end to military rule.
The governemt also cut Internet connections Friday, according to reports, severing a vital information link that has been used to digitally smuggle images of the violent suppression out of the secretive state.
British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN that troops had opened fire in Yangon on Friday.
"We have heard shots in the last 15, 20 minutes," British Ambassador Mark Canning told CNN.
U.S. Charge d'Affaires Shari Villarosa said crowds were not as large as on previous days, when thousands of red-robed Buddhist monks swarmed the streets of major cities.
Meanwhile, a Western diplomat told CNN that witnesses said security forces were firing rubber bullets into a small crowd outside Sule Pagoda -- the site of previous clashes with government forces.
Another diplomat told CNN that a Western witness had reported seeing about 35 bodies lying in rows on a street near Sule Pagoda, with civilians praying over them. CNN could not independently confirm the report, and it was not known if the bodies were from Friday or the result of earlier violence.
With tough controls over foreign journalists reporting on the situation, details from inside Myanmar were sketchy. Both opposition and official Web sites that have been a major source of information showed few updates Friday.
Ko Htike, who runs one of the main opposition blog Web sites from London, said the military government had cut the Internet across the country, hampering access to photographs.
He said he was still receiving information from people inside Myanmar and would continue to post pictures received via other means.
A resident of Yangon, who did not wish to give his name, told CNN that police in had told people to remain indoors after midday.
Friday's restrictions came after the government had imposed a night curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people, the U.S. Embassy said, effectively clearing streets overnights, according to witnesses.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) reported that many privately-owned weekly news journals in Myanmar had decided to stop publication in protest of official demands to publish pro-government propaganda.
According to the DVB, authorities are ordering the publications to print articles written by state media and other stories blaming the All Burma Student's Democratic Front and the National League for Democracy for the protests.
The opposition National League for Democracy party won general elections in 1990, but the military refused to honor the results and has repeatedly placed party leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest.
DVB also released video on Friday that appeared to show someone being shot at close range in Yangon a day earlier. The person flies backward into the street as shots ring out and the crowd scatters. Video Watch police open fire on crowds. »
According to state media, nine people were killed on Thursday. The victims include a Japanese news photographer.
Witnesses' reports of other deaths, including a university student shot in the head, could not be confirmed. The Democratic Voice of Burma (Myanmar) reported the same incident.
In another account of Thursday's violence, at least 10 people were shot in Yangon, said Aung Zaw, editor in chief of the opposition Web site Irrawaddy.org. CNN could not independently confirm the reports.
Don't Miss
* Q&A: Protests in Myanmar
* China pleads for calm in Myanmar
* Junta leaders' U.S. assets frozen
* China quietly prods Myanmar leaders to calm tensions
* Time.com: Will China Intervene?
Gunfire broke out Thursday afternoon when troops confronted thousands of demonstrators who had marched from Yangon's center to its eastern Tamwe township, Irrawaddy.org reported. Troops sealed the huge crowds off and then opened fire, the report said.
Meanwhile, on its state-run Web site, the government offered its own account of its response to the protests, saying security officials were provoked into violence.
Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung called on senior monks to rein in the protests. Buddhist monks were at the forefront of the demonstrations before government forces surrounded their temples and monasteries.
ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, has taken the unusual step of openly condemning Myanmar, which has repeatedly embarrassed the trade bloc in the past.
In Malaysia on Friday, hundreds of Myanmarese exiles joined a rally outside their country's embassy calling for an end to the crackdown.
advertisement
U.S. President George Bush has urged Beijing, Myanmar's main trading partner, to use its influence to persuade the military junta end its crackdown. China on Thursday issued a statement urging restraint.
The U.N. special envoy to Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, has made his way to southeast Asian neighbor Singapore, according to the city-state's Foreign Ministry. The Myanmar government has said it will issue him a visa on Saturday. E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/28/myanmar.protests/index.html