4 Die as Troops Fire at Marchers in Myanmar
Security forces in Myanmar (formerly Burma) opened fire Wednesday on a peaceful dawn march led by Buddhist monks in Mandalay, killing at least four people, Western diplomats in the capital said.
Diplomats quoted witnesses as saying 5,000 people took part in the march, which marked the second anniversary of huge protests against the military government and reflected growing tension over the delay in a transfer to civilian rule since May elections.
One diplomat, contacted by telephone from Bangkok, said two monks and two students were shot to death and one monk and one student were injured. Another diplomat said as many as seven monks may have been killed.
Troops immediately sealed off the area in central Mandalay, Myanmar’s second largest city about 375 miles north of Yangon (formerly Rangoon). Scattered demonstrations had broken out in the city in the past three days.
No major demonstrations were reported in the capital or other cities, but diplomats said there was a heavy troop presence in Yangon.
A government official contacted in Yangon dismissed the reports of the shooting as “merely a rumor spread by unscrupulous elements.”
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