Nine Deahs Reported in Myanmar Crackdown.docVIP

September 27, 2007 From New York Times Nine Deaths Reported in Myanmar Crackdown By SETH MYDANS BANGKOK, Sept. 27 — Brutality and defiance marked the second day of an armed crackdown in Myanmar today as the military junta tried to crush a wave of nationwide protests in the face of harsh international condemnation. The violence began before dawn with raids on Buddhist monasteries and continued through the day with tear gas, beatings and volleys of gunfire in the streets of the country’s main city, Yangon, according to witnesses and news agency reports from inside the closed nation. Witnesses said soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of protesters. State television in Myanmar reported that nine people had been killed and that 11 demonstrators and 31 soldiers were injured. The numbers could not be independently verified, and exile groups said they could be much higher. Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported that one Japanese national had been killed, and there were unconfirmed reports of several other deaths, including another foreigner. The Japanese Embassy said one of the dead was a Japanese photographer, Kenji Nagai. International pressure on Myanmar built when President Bush asked countries in the region with influence on the country’s authorities to urge them to cease using force, and the Treasury imposed economic sanctions on 14 named senior Myanmar government officials. Despite a heavy military and police presence, protests gained momentum through the day in several parts of the city. But with the authorities clamping down on telephone and Internet communications, human rights groups and exiles said they were having increasing difficulty in getting information. The violence of the past two days has answered the question of whether the military would fire on Buddhist monks, the highly revered moral core of Burmese society. For the past 10 days, the monks have led demonstrations that grew to as many as 100,000 before the crackdown began. “The military