Myanmar authorities drag residents from their homes

After squashing a pro-democracy uprising with guns, Myanmar’s military government has begun dragging people from their homes at night and announcing that others are marked for detention.

Yangon residents near the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar’s most revered shrine and a hotbed of unrest, reported that police swept through several dozen homes about 3 a.m., dragging away many men for questioning.

Military vehicles patrolled the streets with loudspeakers blaring, “We have photographs. We are going to make arrests!”

A United Nations Development Program employee, Myint Nwe Moe, and her husband, brother-in-law and driver were among those taken away by police, the U.N. agency confirmed.

“People are terrified,” said Shari Villarosa, acting U.S. ambassador in Myanmar, also known as Burma. “People have been unhappy for a long time. Since the events of last week, there’s now the unhappiness combined with anger, and fear.”

Buddhist monks in Yangon, the former capital also called Rangoon, were ordered to vacate their monasteries -- where protests boiled over last week -- and return home to prevent unrest.

Scores of monks jammed Yangon’s main train station, but it was not clear who had ordered them to leave. Some in Myanmar say the older abbots are closely tied to the military regime and the younger monks are more sympathetic to the democracy protesters.

The security forces on Wednesday were looking for people who had participated in the pro-democracy demonstrations, which troops brutally crushed last week with gunfire, tear gas and truncheons.

The government says 10 people were killed in the crackdown, but dissident groups put the toll at 200. In addition, they say about 6,000 people have been arrested, including thousands of monks who led the demonstrations.

Some of those arrested were reportedly freed. The Democratic Voice of Burma, a dissident radio station based in Norway, said authorities released 90 of the 400 monks who had been detained in Kachin state’s capital, Myitkyina, during a Sept. 25 midnight raid on monasteries.

In Brussels, European Union nations agreed to expand sanctions against the military regime.

Diplomats said extra sanctions would include an expanded visa ban for members of the military junta, a wider ban on investment and a ban on trade in metals, timber and gemstones.

But the new measures do not include a specific ban on European oil and gas companies doing business in Myanmar, diplomats said.