Wed Sep 26, 12:50 AM ET

YANGON, Myanmar - Myanmar's military leaders imposed a nighttime curfew and banned gatherings of more than five people Tuesday after 35,000 Buddhist monks and their supporters defied the junta's warnings and staged another day of anti-government protests.

The country's hard-line military rulers have not used force so far to stop the biggest anti-government demonstrations in nearly two decades, led by the monks. But soldiers in full battle gear were deployed in the country's largest city of Yangon, setting the stage for a showdown with a determined pro-democracy protest movement.

In Myanmar's second largest city of Mandalay, more than 100 soldiers armed with assault rifles deployed around the Mahamuni Paya Pagoda on Wednesday, erecting a barricade and barbed wire at the entrance through which protesting monks had marched out to protest.

"We are so afraid; the soldiers are ready to fire on civilians at any time," a man near the pagoda said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.

If protesters defy the restrictions and the military responds with force, it could further alienate already isolated Myanmar from the international community. It would almost certainly put pressure on Myanmar's top economic and diplomatic supporter, China, which is keen to burnish its international image before next year's Olympics in Beijing.

If monks who are leading the protests are mistreated, that could outrage the predominantly Buddhist country, where clerics are revered. But if the junta backs down, it risks appearing weak and emboldening protesters, which could escalate the tension.

When faced with a similar crisis in 1988, the government harshly put down a student-led democracy uprising. Security forces fired into crowds of peaceful demonstrators and killed thousands, traumatizing the nation.

Authorities announced the ban on gatherings and a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew through loudspeakers on vehicles cruising the streets of Yangon and Mandalay. The announcement said the measures would be in effect for 60 days.

A comedian famed for his anti-government jibes became the first well-known activist rounded up after the curfew was imposed.

Zarganar, who uses only one name, was taken away from his home by authorities shortly after midnight, with family members saying authorities told them the 45-year-old had been "called in for temporary questioning."

Zarganar, along with actor Kyaw Thu and poet Aung Way, led a committee that provided food and other necessities to the Buddhist monks who have spearheaded the protests. He earlier had been imprisoned twice and his comedy routines were banned for their satirical jokes about the regime.

The fates of the actor and poet were not immediately known.

Earlier Tuesday, the army began deploying troops in the heart of Yangon after tens of thousands of people led by barefoot monks in maroon robes defied orders to stay off the streets and marched for the eighth straight day against the junta.

The potential for a violent crackdown already had aroused international concern, with pleas for the junta to deal peacefully with the situation coming from government and religious leaders worldwide. They included the Dalai Lama and South Africa's Archbishop Desmond Tutu, both Nobel Peace Prize laureates like detained Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

President Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, accusing the military dictatorship of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that denies basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma," Bush said in an address to the U.N. General Assembly in New York.

Bush said the U.S. would tighten economic sanctions on leaders of the regime and their financial backers, and impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for human rights violations and their families.

The European Union also threatened to strengthen existing sanctions against the regime if it uses violence to put down the demonstrations.

The protests could bring increased scrutiny on China's close relations with Myanmar. China is the country's major trading partner and Chinese energy companies are investing in exploration of natural gas in Myanmar.

Myanmar has about 19 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, only about 0.3 percent of the world's total reserves, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy at the end of 2006. Although it doesn't currently export gas to China, its supply could potentially help feed a rapidly growing Chinese economy hungry for energy.

Myanmar's imposition of new restrictions after a week of relative inaction by the military government throws down a challenge to its opponents, testing their mettle when faced with almost certain arrest.

It was not clear what the penalty for defying the curfew would be. But breaking the section of the law restricting gatherings carries a possible jail term of two years.

The new restrictions were announced late at night, and many residents did not seem aware of them.

The current protests began Aug. 19 after the government hiked fuel prices in one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military rule that has gripped the country since 1962.

The protests were faltering when the monks took the lead last week, assuming the role of a moral conscience they played in previous struggles against British colonialism and military dictators.

At least 35,000 Buddhist monks and sympathizers defied official warnings Tuesday and staged another anti-government march.

"The protest is not merely for the well-being of people but also for monks struggling for democracy and for people to have an opportunity to determine their own future," one monk told The Associated Press. "People do not tolerate the military government any longer." He spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of official reprisals.

On Monday, a massive monk-led protest drew as many as 100,000 people in Yangon — the biggest street protest since the failed 1988 uprising.

The head of the country's official Buddhist organization, or Sangha, issued a directive Monday ordering monks to stick to learning and propagating the faith, saying young monks were being "compelled by a group of destructive elements within and without to break the law," the state-run New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

Wed Sep 26, 12:03 AM ET

BEIJING - China has gently urged Myanmar's military rulers to ease the strife that has seen tens of thousands take to the streets in protest, diplomats said Tuesday, even as Beijing said publicly it would stick to a hands-off approach toward its neighbor.

China has quietly shifted gears, the diplomats said, jettisoning its noninterventionist line for behind-the-scenes diplomacy. A senior Chinese official asked junta envoys this month to reconcile with opposition democratic forces. And China arranged a low-key meeting in Beijing between Myanmar and State Department envoys to discuss the release of the leading opposition figure.

For a country that has been Myanmar's staunchest diplomatic protector, largest trading partner and a leading investor, the shift is crucial. Asian and Western diplomats in Beijing and Southeast Asia said China's influence in Myanmar is second to none and could be decisive in restraining the junta from a violent confrontation with protesters.

"China has been working to convey the concerns of the international community to the Burmese government," a Western diplomat in Beijing said on condition of anonymity, citing policy. "But it could definitely do more to apply pressure."

Diplomats and experts cautioned that China's communist leaders may not be willing to push harder. Myanmar's junta has resisted Western economic sanctions and appeals from Southeast Asian neighbors and the United Nations. China has deftly filled the diplomatic and economic vacuum, eyeing Myanmar as a strategic path to the Indian Ocean, investing in its teak forests, gas and mineral fields and picking up an ally in the junta.

Myanmar has about 19 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, only about 0.3 percent of the world's total reserves, according to BP's Statistical Review of World Energy at the end of 2006. Although Myanmar doesn't currently export gas to China, its supply could potentially help feed a rapidly growing Chinese economy hungry for energy.

State-run China National Offshore Oil Corp. has taken a stake in a Bay of Bengal gas field in Myanmar, while China National Petroleum Corp. is reportedly looking at building a pipeline network.

Myanmar "was a vassal state of China's for centuries, and it's fast reverting to that status," said Sean Turnell, an economist and expert on the country at Australia's Macquarie University.

Beijing protected Myanmar, also known as Burma, from scrutiny and sanction in the U.N. Security Council earlier this year. On Tuesday, two officials — one from the Communist Party's international affairs office, the other from the Foreign Ministry — said China would stay out of Myanmar's affairs.

But Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu tempered the pledge with an appeal for calm. "We hope Myanmar and its people will take proper actions to resolve the issue," Jiang told reporters in Beijing.

China's political and economic interests in Myanmar are spurring it to act, diplomats and experts said. With an Olympics in Beijing next year already bringing China heightened scrutiny, Chinese leaders are likely loath to be associated with another repressive, unpopular regime.

Criticism from foreign governments and international activist groups already have caused Beijing to pare back lending to Zimbabwe and put pressure on Sudan to accept a U.N. peacekeeping force for Darfur.

Democracy campaigners in Myanmar took note of the success of the Darfur activists, who warned the games would be tarnished as the "Genocide Olympics" if Beijing did not act, said David Mathieson, Burma consultant for Human Rights Watch.

"China has made some significant concessions recently on its links to Sudan, but it hasn't gone that far on its links with Burma," said Mathieson. "If things heat up on the border, that's not going to look good for China in the lead up to the Olympics at all."

Beijing's dual approach — saying one thing in public while waging quiet diplomacy — has also characterized its policy shifts on Sudan and in persuading North Korea to join disarmament negotiations, the diplomats said.

In June, Beijing hosted two days of talks between junta envoys and U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Eric John. The State Department and U.S. Embassy declined to disclose details. Diplomats from other Western embassies said among the topics was relaxing house arrest for Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Myanmar's democratic opposition.

As protests against the junta began gathering momentum, the Chinese government's senior diplomat told visiting Myanmar leaders to seek a peaceful resolution.

"China, as a friendly neighbor of Myanmar, sincerely hoped Myanmar would restore internal stability as soon as possible, properly handle issues and actively promote national reconciliation," China's official Xinhua News Agency paraphrased State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan as telling junta leader Gen. Than Shwe and Foreign Affairs Minister U Nyan Win.

In May, Beijing telegraphed its frustration with Myanmar's rulers. The Foreign Ministry briefly posted on its Web site a critical account of the junta's decision to move the capital from Yangon to Naypyidaw, a remote site with a shoddy airport and no cell phone service.

China has a sizable presence in Myanmar, constructing dams and laying a road that is supposed to stretch from the Chinese border across Myanmar to its shore.

China became Myanmar's No. 1 trading partner in 2005, with trade heavily lopsided in China's favor topping $1.7 billion, according to Turnell. China's Commerce Ministry says the value rose 20 percent last year and jumped nearly 40 percent in the first seven months this year compared to the same period in 2006.

Tue Sep 25, 11:41 PM ET

YANGON - Myanmar's military junta ordered troops and riot police to pagodas and Buddhist monasteries Wednesday to stop the mass protests that have marked the biggest challenge to the regime in 20 years.

Authorities also imposed a night-time curfew and a ban on public gatherings -- and were reportedly arresting activists -- to prevent a repeat of demonstrations that have drawn up to 100,000 people onto the streets.

Witnesses said security forces were deployed around the Shwedagon and Sule pagodas in Myanmar's biggest city Yangon, which have been focal points for the marches led by the country's revered Buddhist monks.

The pagodas were not closed but everyone was searched before being allowed to enter.

Security was also tight around key monasteries in the city apparently in a bid to prevent the monks from assembling, witnesses said.

A dusk-to-dawn curfew was announced for Yangon and Myanmar's second city, Mandalay, to try to curb the protests, which have escalated into the most potent show of public anger against the regime in two decades.

The curfew, including the designation of Yangon as a "restricted area," and the ban on public gatherings of more than five people were to remain in effect for 60 days.

Separately, the country's most famous comedian Zaganar, who had thrown his support behind the monks, was arrested at his home during the night, a friend told AFP.

The BBC also reported the arrest of U Win Naing, a prominent pro-democracy activist.

Zaganar, along with other prominent movie stars and artists, had urged the public to support the monks and earlier this week delivered food and water to them.

Over the weekend, he had spoken on short-wave radio broadcasts into Myanmar from outside the country.

"The monks are the ones out praying for us while we're at home watching TV. I'm ashamed of us," he said in one interview.

An estimated 200 troops and riot police had already deployed late Tuesday around Yangon's city hall near the Sule Pagoda.

Earlier, the streets appeared calm as the city woke up. Children were seen going to school while shops appeared to be preparing to open as they normally would.

Some commuter buses plied the streets, although numbers have fallen since a massive fuel price hike on August 15.

The price increase triggered initial protests, but the movement took off earlier this month with the emergence of the monks, who have revered status in devoutly Buddhist Myanmar.

By drawing in ever more supporters, who often formed human chains to shield the clergy, it quickly turned into the biggest mass movement since the regime violently quelled student-led protests in 1988.

Some of the monks at Tuesday's protest in Yangon chanted "We want dialogue" or carried banners reading: "May people's desires be fulfilled."

Analysts believe the junta, which has maintained an iron rule over Myanmar for more than four decades, has held back for fear any violence against monks would spark a huge outcry.

On Saturday some protesters were allowed a glimpse of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been detained for most of the past 18 years, but she has since been shuttered from view again.

Pictures of the protests have gone around the world, sparking international calls for restraint from the junta and messages of support for the protesters.

US President George W. Bush ramped up pressure by imposing fresh sanctions against key regime figures and their backers.

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," he told the UN General Assembly.

"The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable."

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the situation would improve when Aung San Suu Kyi, whose opposition party won 1990 elections but was never allowed to govern, "takes her rightful place as the elected leader of a free and democratic Burma."

China, one of the regime's closest allies, called for stability but said it would stick to its policy of non-interference.

Tue Sep 25, 11:34 PM ET

YANGON - Troops and riot police took up positions outside at least six big activist monasteries in Yangon on Wednesday as Myanmar's junta tried to prevent monks leading new protest marches against military rule, witnesses said.

Hundreds more waited in a park behind the Sule Pagoda, the city centre focus of the biggest protests against the generals in 20 years, apparently prepared to prevent any repetition, they said.

There was no immediate word from the monks on whether they would risk their first major confrontation with the junta by trying to march again despite fears of a repetition of the bloody end to a 1988 uprising, primarily in the Sule Pagoda area.

If they did, they would face hundreds of security personnel who poured into the area after a huge demonstration ended on Tuesday.

Their arrival was the first significant action by the junta against protests which grew from handfuls of people marching against sudden huge fuel price rises last month into mass demonstrations against military rule.

Maroon-robed monks, revered in the staunchly Buddhist nation, have led the way, drawing in people first to watch, then to applaud, then to march with them. On Tuesday, they clogged several blocks of a city centre road.

The junta, which so far appears to be reluctant to risk a repetition of 1988, when an estimated 3,000 people were killed, waited until demonstrators had left on Tuesday to move soldiers and riot police into the area.

It also waited late into the evening, when most people in Yangon, a city of 5 million, and the second city of Mandalay, home to about 800,000, had gone home to send loudspeaker trucks into the streets to announce a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

It appeared the generals did not use radio and television because they have only national networks and on Wednesday morning few outside the two main cities were aware curfews had been imposed.

ACTIVISTS ARRESTED

But they picked up at least two activists overnight, relatives said.

Prominent comedian Za Ga Na, who had joined the monks on Monday in urging people to support the protests, was arrested at his home in Yangon along with activist Win Naing, relatives said.

In another move against monks, whose leadership on Monday was told to rein them in or face military force, a bus owner said drivers had been ordered not to pick up monks.

The escalating tension in the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma gripped the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, where world leaders -- mindful of the 1988 violence -- called on the junta to exercise restraint.

U.S. President George W. Bush, in a speech to the assembly, called on all countries to "help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom" and announced fresh sanctions against the generals, their supporters and families.

The 27-nation European Union said it would "reinforce and strengthen" sanctions against Myanmar's rulers if the demonstrations were put down by force.

The U.N. human rights investigator for Myanmar, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, said he feared "very severe repression."

"It is an emergency," he said, singling out China as a regional power that could play a "positive role" in defusing it.

Tue Sep 25, 7:42 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS - President George W. Bush announced new U.S. sanctions against Myanmar on Tuesday and Western leaders warned the southeast Asian nation's army rulers against crushing pro-democracy protests by force.

Urging all countries to "help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom," Bush told the annual U.N. General Assembly he was imposing financial sanctions and a visa ban on more members of the junta, their supporters and relatives.

His call came before the authorities imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew and poured security forces into Yangon to try to end the biggest demonstrations against military rule for two decades. Earlier, 10,000 Buddhist monks again defied the generals by marching through the city chanting "democracy, democracy."

"Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear," Bush told the world body in his annual speech.

Myanmar was formerly called Burma and its capital Rangoon.

"The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers," Bush said.

The 27-nation European Union said it would strengthen existing sanctions that include an arms embargo, a travel ban and an assets freeze on junta members "should they resort to using violence against the unarmed and peaceful demonstrators."