Myanmar's junta deployed hundreds of soldiers and riot police in its biggest city yesterday, after Buddhist monks defied warnings of a crackdown and led 100,000 people in another day of mass protests.
Eleven military trucks -- each with about 20 soldiers and riot police -- were deployed around the Yangon city hall, where hours earlier some 30,000 monks and 70,000 supporters had massed in an extraordinary gesture of defiance.
The security forces stayed in the vehicles, while about 500 onlookers gathered warily on a nearby sidewalk, witnesses said.
Myanmar's military government had sternly warned the protesters not to continue their rallies, which have run for eight consecutive days in Yangon and drawn massive turnouts since the weekend.
But the monks, dressed in saffron and red robes, swarmed around city hall and the Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, praying and chanting and holding colorful religious banners and images of Buddha.
Thousands of people linked hands to form a human chain around them, while many more bystanders thronged to the sidewalks to clap and cheer, offering water to the demonstrators under the blazing tropical sun.
"National reconciliation is very important for us. People and monks are gathering here, and the monks are standing up for the people," famed poet Aung Way said in a speech to the crowd delivered through a small microphone.
Some of the monks chanted "We want dialogue" or carried banners reading: "May people's desires be fulfilled."
Large contingents of students joined the march, carrying the red flags emblazoned with yellow peacocks that symbolize the National League for Democracy (NLD) of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
The protest swept on through the city and paused outside the UN office, where the monks called for the democracy icon to be freed from house arrest.
"Release Aung San Suu Kyi and political prisoners," they chanted, while the crowd behind them replied "Our cause."
The NLD joined calls for a peaceful resolution to the demonstrations.
"We have no fear at all," one young protester said. "This is the only thing we can do. We will continue to act according to Buddhist teachings in this protest."
Clearly alarmed by two days of mass gatherings, including a crowd of 100,000 which took to the streets on Monday, government officials drove through central Yangon using loudspeakers to warn against new protests.
State media said protests had taken place in seven of the 14 provinces, and accused foreign media of instigating the marches.
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