From The Australian

Death toll rises in Burma crackdown

Correspondents in Rangoon | September 28, 2007

EIGHT protesters and a Japanese journalist were killed yesterday as pockets of pro-democracy supporters defied Burmese troop threats of "extreme action" against those who did not leave the streets of Rangoon.

Another 11 demonstrators were injured including one woman, while 31 security forces were injured, Burma's state media said in an evening television bulletin.

Large numbers of protesters emptied from the streets of central Rangoon yesterday after the threats. Soldiers and police worked systematically through the city centre to ensure that no protesters remained, witnesses said. The protesters were given 10 minutes to disperse or face the "extreme action".

But when a crowd of 1000 protesters refused to disperse, police charged, firing automatic weapons.

A Japanese video journalist, Kenji Nagai, from APF news in Tokyo became the first foreigner killed since the protests began 10 days ago. [...]

[...]

"General Aung San would never order the military to kill the people," they yelled, referring to Burma's late independence hero and the father of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Security forces sealed off the area immediately around the Sule Pagoda, a key rallying point in recent anti-government protests led by Buddhist monks, leaving the crowd to gather in surrounding streets.

In eastern Rangoon, security forces clashed with protesters in at least three locations yesterday, after hundreds of people rushed to protect monks who were being hauled away, witnesses said. [...]

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