Troops fired warning shots yesterday as some young Buddhist monks and other people were still staging demonstrations in some areas of Myanmar's biggest city of Yangon despite imposition of curfew order and a ban of demonstrations in the city.
Three people were killed and five wounded by bullets in Yangon, a hospital source said, but it was not known whether any of the victims were monks, who have been at the forefront of the demonstrations.
The UN Security Council will meet at 1900 GMT yesterday to consult on the situation in Myanmar, UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.
The UN special envoy for Myanmar, Ibrahim Gambari, will brief the council on the confrontation between government and Buddhist monks and other demonstrators, the spokeswoman said.
The protests began a month ago after sudden fuel price rises and have become a mass movement against military rule and economic hardship.
"They are marching down the streets, with the monks in the middle, and ordinary people either side. They are shielding them, forming a human chain," one witness said.
Riot police fired tear gas at columns of monks trying to push their way past barricades sealing off the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's holiest shrine and the starting point of marches over the past month.
World leaders have appealed to Myanmar's government to exercise restraint since the protests mushroomed into a major revolt after warning shots were fired over protesting monks in the central town of Pakokku on September 5.
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown called for a United Nations Security Council meeting on Myanmar yesterday, vowing there would be "no impunity" for human rights violators in the country.
Singapore also called for restraint. The city state is the current chairman of ASEAN, which Myanmar joined in 1997.
"We urge the Myanmar authorities to exercise the utmost restraint," Singapore's foreign ministry said. "We call upon all parties to avoid provocative actions and to work towards reconciliation and a peaceful resolution of the situation."
Source: China Daily/agencies
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