Burmese Troops Leave Rangoon to Avoid Protesters

Burmese leaders ordered troops out of central Rangoon on Tuesday to avoid clashes with demonstrators protesting authoritarian rule as tens of thousands of people marched in the capital and in four other cities, diplomats and news reports said.

President Maung Maung’s government acknowledged the two days of massive protests late Tuesday. State-run Radio Rangoon also reported the first shooting by security forces since the rioting that toppled hard-line President Sein Lwin on Aug. 12.

The broadcast, monitored in Bangkok, said security forces in Moulmein, 44 miles southeast of Rangoon, fired on protesters Monday night. It did not say if anyone was injured.

The report said that demonstrators looted and destroyed a customs warehouse there Tuesday morning, sank a motorboat and made off with the agents’ weapons. Sunday night, protesters destroyed a government building in Sandoway, 90 miles northwest of Rangoon.

The broadcast also reported demonstrations in Rangoon, the northern city of Mandalay and Meiktila south of Mandalay. It gave no crowd estimates, but Japan’s Kyodo News Service said 200,000 demonstrated in Mandalay, Burma’s second-biggest city.