Myanmar junta sets curfew

By Aung Hla Tun

YANGON (Reuters) - Myanmar's junta imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in the country's two main cities on Wednesday after pouring security forces into Yangon to try to end the biggest protests against military rule in 20 years.

Troops and police on Tuesday had surrounded the Sule Pagoda in Yangon, the focus of two days of mass demonstrations led by thousands of maroon-robed Buddhist monks.

The area around the pagoda was the scene of the worst bloodshed during a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 1988 in which 3,000 people are thought to have been killed.

The escalating tension in the Southeast Asian country formerly known as Burma gripped the annual U.N. General Assembly in New York, where the international community -- mindful of the 1988 violence -- urged restraint by the junta.

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 by Washington 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 generals have been living with sanctions for years.

In another sign of a potential clash, a well-placed source said detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi had been moved to the notorious Insein prison on Sunday, a day after she appeared in front of her house to greet marching monks.

Loudspeaker announcements in Yangon, the former capital of 5 million people, and in the second city of Mandalay said the curfew would run from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., witnesses said. The announcements also said both cities would be under direct control of the local military commanders for 60 days.

Some analysts said the junta was caught off guard by how sporadic marches over a sharp hike in fuel prices in mid-August mushroomed into mass action against 45 years of military rule.

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 the crisis.

DEFIANCE

Tuesday had echoed with reminders of one of the darkest days of Myanmar's modern history.

Vehicles with loudspeakers toured Yangon, blaring threats of action under a law allowing troops to break up illegal protests. People came in huge numbers anyway and, in Taunggok, a coastal city 250 miles to the northwest, witnesses said thousands of monks and civilians took to the streets.