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UNITED NATIONS : Support poured in from around the world for protesters in Myanmar on Monday as the country's military rulers threatened to "take action" against Buddhist monks who have led the country's largest demonstration in nearly 20 years.
World leaders urged Myanmar to show restraint and warned the military government would be held accountable for any violent crackdown on the march, which numbered 100,000 people on Monday.
Among those praising the peaceful nature of the demonstrations but urging against retaliatory action was UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Ban "commends the peaceful approach the demonstrators are using to press their interests and he calls upon the Myanmar authorities to continue to exercise restraint," he said in a statement.
Washington said it was keeping a close eye on the protests and expressed hope that dialogue would emerge.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown offered his support to protesters in Myanmar - formerly called Burma - and other countries.
"There is a golden thread of common humanity that across nations and faiths binds us together, and it can light the darkest corners of the world," Brown said.
"A message should go out to anyone facing persecution, anywhere from Burma and Zimbabwe: human rights are universal and no injustice can last forever."
Brown's spokesman Michael Ellam said they were "deeply concerned by reports of further acts of violence perpetrated this week by security officials against peaceful demonstrators," in an apparent reference to the reported use of tear gas and warning shots on September 18 to disperse 1,000 monks in Sittwe, west of Yangon.
The latest show of dissent follows weeks of protests sparked by a massive fuel price hike, leaving observers concerned about a potential repeat of the violence seen in a 1988 crackdown on protesters that left hundreds if not thousands dead.
In the first official reaction to the protests on Monday, state media reported that the religion minister, Brigadier General Thura Myint Maung, had met with senior clergy on Monday to deliver a warning.
"If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of the Buddhist teachings, we will take action under the existing law," state television quoted the minister as saying.
In a message released in Paris, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama offered urged the military government not to react with violence.
"I extend my support and solidarity with the recent peaceful movement for democracy in Burma," he said in a message datelined Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government in exile in northern India.
"I fully support their call for freedom and democracy and take this opportunity to appeal to freedom-loving people all over the world to support such non-violent movements," he said.
French foreign ministry spokesman Frederic Desagneaux said the military government "will be held accountable before the international community for the security of the protesters" and urged authorities to "open the real process of reform and of national reconciliation that the country needs."
Germany expressed its "sympathy" with the demonstrations and demanded the release of protesters arrested during the marches.
German foreign ministry spokesman Martin Jaeger also renewed calls for the liberation of pro-democracy leader and Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who is under house arrest.
In Oslo, Geir Lundestad, the head of the Nobel Institute, hailed the "spirit" of the opposition in Myanmar and said he hoped the swelling protests would culminate in Suu Kyi's house arrest being lifted.
Singapore and Slovakia also voiced concern over the situation, with the left-dominated Slovak government voicing "support and solidarity with the ongoing peaceful and non-violent movement towards democratisation in the country." - AFP/de
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