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YANGON: Hundreds of Buddhist monks have taken about 20 members of Myanmar's security forces hostage inside their monastery, one day after clashes broke out at an anti-junta protest, residents told AFP on Thursday.
The security forces came to the monastery to apologise for the violence on Wednesday in the central town of Pakokku, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) north of the country's commercial capital Yangon, residents said by telephone.
At least three monks were injured after security forces fired shots into the air and used bamboo sticks to disperse a crowd of 300 monks who were protesting against a massive hike in fuel prices, they said.
The monks locked the security forces inside the monastery and set four of their vehicles on fire, the residents said.
"The monks told the people in the town not to participate in this matter. They want to solve the problem themselves," one resident told AFP.
The gates to the Aletaik monastery, where about 700 monks live, have been locked since 10:30 am (0400 GMT), the residents said.
All the town's shops had closed as hundreds of people poured into the streets to applaud the monks from outside the gate, one resident said.
"The security forces outside the monastery are too afraid to go near the crowd. They won't even show their walkie talkies," said another resident.
"I fully support the monks. They were just peacefully praying for the people. The monks are absolutely right," he said. "I'm surprised that these security people would dare to harm Buddhist monks in this country."
Monks are important cultural standard-bearers in this devoutly Buddhist nation formerly known as Burma. Their participation was credited with helping to bring popular support to a pro-democracy uprising in 1988.
Those protests were brutally crushed by the military, when soldiers opened fire on the crowds in the streets of Yangon and killed hundreds, if not thousands.
The protest Wednesday in Pakokku was the first time that uniformed soldiers are believed to have been deployed to break up one of the near-daily protests that have erupted around the country since August 19.
Until now, plainclothes police and militia had been used to break up crowds that have been protesting against a massive hike in fuel prices, which has left some unable to afford even bus fare to work.
- AFP/so
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