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YANGON - Myanmar security forces Thursday fired warning shots over a crowd of 10,000 protesters near downtown Yangon, just three hours after soldiers dispersed a much larger crowd in the city, witnesses said.
Shots were rapidly fired over the protesters, who quickly ran through the eastern edge of downtown Yangon, just blocks from where tens of thousands had earlier braved a government crackdown.
The protesters in that part of the city had repeatedly defied military orders to disperse throughout the day, constantly regrouping after each crackdown, witnesses said.
At least two other protests took place in neighbourhoods near monasteries that were raided by security forces during the night, witnesses said.
Those rallies were also dispersed with teargas, baton charges and warning shots, the witnesses said.
Security forces raided the two monasteries during the night, arresting about 100 Buddhist monks at one of them, witnesses added.
British diplomatic sources said that at least four people were shot and wounded during the course of the day.
They also said there was evidence the monks may have been badly beaten during a raid one of the monasteries, with at least 70 of them arrested.
"There's blood in the dormitories and heavy bleeding at the gates. Dormitories were ransacked, a bit of the pagodas which are really sacred were smashed and rubber bullets have been used to destroy walls, doors and Buddhist relics," the source said.
"There's evidence of looting of Buddha images and other gold donations, and I've heard reports of similar stories at three other pagoda this morning," the source added.
- AFP /ls
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