Myanmar Military Junta Violently Cracks Down on Peaceful Protesters

In Burma, military forces have killed up to eight people, including five Buddhist monks. The military used batons, tear gas and live rounds in a violent crackdown on mass protests against the military junta. Hundreds of monks have been rounded up in raids on several monasteries. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York and called on the government to show restraint.

Hundreds of Burmese troops attempted to clear the streets of central Rangoon on Thursday, firing shots into the crowd as the military junta intensified its two-day crackdown on the most vocal popular uprising against its rule in nearly two decades.

Thursday's protests follow reports of overnight raids on six monasteries. According to witnesses, soldiers smashed windows and doors and beat the sleeping monks. Some escaped but as many as 500 monks were taken away in military trucks. Two members of the National League for Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, were also arrested overnight. A hotel in which foreign journalists have been staying in Rangoon has also been surrounded and ransacked.

On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York and called on the military junta to show restraint -- a call also made by China on Thursday. The United States and the European Union wanted the council to consider imposing sanctions, but the proposal was rejected by China. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would dispatch a special envoy to Southeast Asia in hope the military junta would let him in.

JUAN GONZALEZ: In Burma, security forces used batons, tear gas and live rounds in a violent crackdown on mass protest against the military junta. Up to eight people have been killed, including five Buddhist monks. Hundreds of Burmese troops attempted to clear the streets of central Rangoon on Thursday. Soldiers fired shots into the crowd as the military junta intensified its two-day crackdown on the most vocal popular uprising against its rule in nearly two decades.

Thursday's protest followed reports of overnight raids on six monasteries. According to witnesses, soldiers smashed windows and doors and beat the sleeping monks. Some escaped, but as many as 500 monks were taken away in military trucks.

Two members of the National League for Democracy, the party led by Aung San Suu Kyi, were also arrested overnight. A hotel in which foreign journalists have been staying in Rangoon has also been surrounded and ransacked.

AMY GOODMAN: On Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting in New York and called on the military junta to show restraint, a call also made by China on Thursday. The U.S. and European Union wanted the council to consider imposing sanctions, but the proposal was rejected by China. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he would dispatch a special envoy to Southeast Asia in the hope the military junta would let him in.

Jeremy Woodrum is the co-founder of the U.S. Campaign for Burma. He helped spearhead a successful nationwide boycott of the Burmese military government and organized delegations to visit refugee camps near the Burma-Thailand border. He joins us from Washington, D.C.

JEREMY WOODRUM: Thanks, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: We are also joined on the telephone by Bo Kyi, a Burmese human rights activist living on the Thailand-Burma [border]. Bo Kyi was a political prisoner in Burma for seven years. We are also joined on the phone by Ko Htike. He joins us from London, a Burmese-born blogger. He's in contact with about ten people inside Burma who send him information and photographs to post on his blog.

Let us begin with the blogger in Britain, with Ko Htike. Tell us what you understand is happening inside Burma right now.

KO HTIKE: Well, in fact, Burma right now, just in the moment, is really bad, you know. It looks like a totally war zone in the city. You know, they are shooting, and I got some photos that people are, you know, fell down on the street and bloodshed on the street. You know, it's a really bad situation right now. It's really bad.