Rhythms of the dictators in Burma

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Thousands of Buddhist monks and pro-democracy activists marched toward the center of Yangon today in defiance of the military government's ban on public assembly.

The march followed a tense confrontation between the protesters and police who fired warning shots, beat some monks and dragged others away into waiting trucks.

Police in riot gear fired warning shots to disperse more than 100 Buddhist monks who defied the military government's ban on public assembly today by trying to penetrate a barricade blocking Yangon's famed Shwedagon Pagoda.

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.

Firing shots into the air, beating their shields with batons and shouting orders to disperse, the police chased some of the monks and about 200 of their supporters while others tried to stubbornly hold their place near the eastern gate to the vast shrine complex.

Some fell to the ground amid the chaos and at least one monks was seen struck with a baton.

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The junta is in a jam. It can further alienate the population and the rest of the world by cracking the heads of the monks, or it can appear weak in the face of the challenge that the monks and the people are making to their despotic rule. If past practice is a pattern, they will crack heads and tell everyone to stuff it.

CNN reports that one monk has been killed in the crack down. It appears that the junta is doing its part to uphold past practice. It will now be up to the monks and the people to see if they will continue to put up with it.