Hope Wanes Among Protesters in Myanmar

[Akoto]

Source: Associated Press

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — Watching soldiers firing their guns and beating die-hard protesters with clubs in the streets of Myanmar, a distraught man decried the bloodbath and pleaded for American intervention.

With the streets eerily quiet Saturday after the military's brutal crackdown on three days of demonstrations, many protesters were losing hope and falling back on such familiar pleas for help from the outside world.

It's a call made every time the pro-democracy movement has dared stand up against Myanmar's 45 years of harsh military rule, only to be crushed.

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Monks and civilians called diplomats to report that troops had shown up at three different monasteries late Saturday, but were prevented from entering by people in the neighborhood who massed outside them. The soldiers departed, but with threats of returning in larger numbers.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iy-MfhLN9Q7MwtQ1VlrvexLjr2dAD8RVAU9O0