Update 9pm Eastern. The junta gains the upper hand…

Soldiers and police took control of the streets Friday, firing warning shots and tear gas to scatter the few pro-democracy protesters who ventured out as Myanmar’s military junta sealed off Buddhist monasteries and cut public Internet access.

On the third day of a harsh government crackdown, the streets were empty of the mass gatherings that had peacefully challenged the regime daily for nearly two weeks, leaving only small groups of activists to be chased around by security forces.

“Bloodbath again! Bloodbath again!” a Yangon resident yelled while watching soldiers break up one march by shooting into air, firing tear gas and beating people with clubs.

Update 1:30pm Eastern. White House blasts Burmese government for Internet shut-off:

he White House criticized Myanmar on Friday for cutting off Internet access and called on “all civilized nations” to pressure the military-run government to end its violent crackdown on protesters. “They don’t want the world to see what is going on there,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said.

Update 11:30am Eastern. Worldwide condemnation:

Myanmar’s crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators drew condemnation and sparked protests Friday, with the top U.S. diplomat in the reclusive nation calling the violence “tragic” and the European Union denounced “gross and systematic violations of human rights.”

The United Nations said it will convene an emergency session on human rights abuses and dispatched an envoy to Myanmar who could arrive as early as Saturday. Britain demanded an end to “oppression and force” against the demonstrators.

Myanmar’s Asian neighbors expressed “revulsion” at the violence and urged the military rulers to seek a political solution. Japan said it had asked China to use its influence with junta to resolve the crisis. In neighboring Thailand, officials said airplanes were standing by to evacuate foreigners if conditions deteriorated further.

On Friday, soldiers clubbed activists in the streets and occupied Buddhist monasteries to try to put down the largest protests since The government said 10 people have been killed since Wednesday, although exile groups say the toll may be much higher.

Update 10:45am Eastern. The Lede points to more Burmese bloggers continuing to report despite the clampdown.

Update 9:50am Eastern. PJM pays tribute to monks and bloggers.

And read Agam’s Gecko, an Asian-based blog that has followed the Burmese democracy movement for many, many years. Agam has all the latest, including video of the junta propaganda news broadcast I mentioned below blaming foreign “destructionists” for the protests:

Update: Photo of Japanese journalist Kenji Nagai as he lay dying…

Video here.

***
As I noted the other day, Burmese bloggers have been crucial whistleblowers and eyewitnesses to history–supplying the world with round-the-clock coverage and photos of their oppressive regime’s crackdown. Now, just as the Western press is lauding their role, the military junta has reportedly cut off Internet access:

Myanmar’s government appeared to have cut public Internet access and troops occupied key Buddhist monasteries on Friday, witnesses and diplomats said, in an effort to end demonstrations against the ruling junta.

The moves raised concerns that the military government may be preparing to intensify a crackdown on civilians that has killed at least 10 people in the past two days. The Internet in particular has played a crucial role in getting news and images of the pro-democracy protests to the outside world.

According to AFP, government officials are blaming a “damaged underwater cable.”

After two days of unrest in Yangon’s streets, Myanmar’s main link to the Internet has stopped working, according to a telecom official who blamed the problem on a damaged cable.

“The Internet is not working because the underwater cable is damaged,” an official with Myanmar Post and Telecoms told AFP on condition of anonymity.

Myanmar’s Internet service is tightly controlled and only sporadically available even in the best of times, but the military has tightened its controls amid anti-government protests.

In Bangkok, an official at a Thai telecom that provides satellite services to Myanmar also said some Internet service inside the country had been cut.

One western source inside Myanmar said she had not been able to access emails or Internet since late morning.

Yes, question the timing.

***

Several popular dissident blogs had already gone dark the past few days before the “damaged underwater cable” shut down Internet accesss.

The fate of one prolific Burmese blogger, Moezack, is unknown. The entire blog has been wiped.

***

The Times of London has gripping photos of murdered journalist Kenji Nagai of Japan, who was shot to death while covering the protests on a Rangoon street.

Go here.

What’s being done?

— The United States ordered a freeze on the assets of Burma’s military leader and 13 other top officials

— President Bush urged Burmese troops “not to use force on their fellow citizens”

— Foreign ministers of the Association of SouthEast Asian Nations (Asean) expressed “revulsion” at the treatment of protesters. “They were appalled to receive reports of automatic weapons being used,” said George Yeo, the Singaporean Foreign Minister

— Burma issued a visa to Ibrahim Gambari, who was dispatched by the UN Security Council to investigate the crisis.

Also: The VOA has doubled its broadcasting in Burmese as the junta’s state-run TV broadcasts blame “foreign instigators” in the West for the protests.

The Democratic Voice of Burma continues to broadcast.

It’s day two of the crackdown in Myanmar. The NYT says “security forces raided at least two Buddhist monasteries, beating and arresting dozens of monks, according to reports from the capital, Yangon.” Latest wire dispatches report protesters are being fired upon:

Soldiers fired automatic weapons into a crowd of anti-government protesters Thursday as tens of thousands defied the ruling military junta’s crackdown with a 10th straight day of demonstrations.

A Japanese Foreign Ministry official told The Associated Press that several people, including a Japanese national, were found dead following Thursday’s protests.

The information was transmitted by Myanmar’s Foreign Ministry to the Japanese Embassy in Yangon, the official said on condition of anonymity citing protocol.

The chaos came a day after the government launched a crackdown in Yangon that it said killed at least one man. Dissidents outside Myanmar reported receiving news of up to eight deaths Wednesday.

Some reports said the dead included Buddhist monks, who are widely revered in Myanmar, and the emergence of such martyrs could stoke public anger against the regime and escalate the violence.

Irwadaddy has wall-to-wall, breaking news coverage and a rallying cry:

Gunfire resounded through the air on Wednesday as Buddhist monks chanted the “Metta Sutra” (the Buddha’s words on living kindness). Soldiers and riot police beat many monks who bravely resisted by sitting down in front of security forces.

Monks in Rangoon on Thursday said five fellow monks were shot dead or beaten to death by security forces on Wednesday. The tragedy, unfortunately, is only beginning: more blood will flow on the road to democracy in the coming days.

The bloodshed has unfolded despite calls for restraint by the international community. The UN secretary-general repeatedly called on the regime to seize this opportunity to restore democracy and national reconciliation with all parties in the country, but to no avail.

The United Nation Security Council will meet on Thursday. But what can the council do? Just this year, a critical resolution on Burma proposed by the US and Britain was vetoed by China and Russia, two strong supporters of the junta.

For a long-term perspective, we can turn to the writing of Aung San Suu Kyi, the people’s beloved democracy leader, who has always acknowledged the enduring strength of the Burmese people, while also calling for help from all people who support democracy and human rights.

“It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights,” Suu Kyi wrote in “Freedom from Fear.” “There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.”

“The quest for democracy in Burma is the struggle of a people to live whole, meaningful lives as free and equal members of the world community. It is part of the unceasing human endeavor to prove that the spirit of man can transcend the flaws of his nature.”

The current military crackdown, despite the killings and beatings, can’t stop Buddhist monks who practice loving kindness and sacrifice for the well-being of the suffering people of Burma. As Suu Kyi said, this is a “revolution of the spirit”—it must transcend inhumanity.

A true religion of peace.

***

Yesterday: The Saffron Revolution

Richard Fernandez at PJM takes a closer look at the efforts of peaceful protesters in Myanmar to overthrow Burma’s military government and comparisons to the “People Power” revolution in the Philippines in 1986:

The situation hangs on a knife’s edge; the next few days will show which way things will break. But one can only hope that a combination of the Burmese “People’s Power”, Western pressure and Chinese non-intervention can jointly engineer a Buddhist miracle in 2007 to match that ascribed to the Virgin Mary in the Philippines in 1986. “The old order changeth, yielding place to new, And God fulfills Himself in many ways, Lest one good custom should corrupt the world.”

…In “People’s Power” situations it is the psychological momentum which counts the most. The Burmese junta looks to be timing its counterstrokes to first slow, then break the will of the resistants. Unless some dramatic defection or collapse provides fresh impetus to the protesters, the process of peaceful protest will either be smothered or risk transformation into violent confrontation.

Latest news from the front is that 17 monks have been beaten and one reportedly shot dead outside Rangoon’s holiest shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda:

Anti-government protesters turned out again today to march in their thousands in defiance of a ban on public gatherings.

Burma troops fire shots and tear gas at monks But crowds outside Rangoon’s holiest shrine, the Shwedagon Pagoda, were left severely bloodied after they were beaten by troops wielding batons. Witnesses said at least 17 monks were injured in the beatings, while hundreds of people were arrested and dragged onto waiting trucks.

A radio station run by the protest movement reported that one monk had been killed. A crowd of around 700 protesters, many of who were wearing masks or wet towels to protect against tear gas, was confronted by troops near the pagoda.

Warning shots were fired at around one hundred monks who refused to be chased away and tried to hold their positions near the eastern gate of the vast pagoda complex. Several thousand demonstrators later regrouped to march to the city’s Sule Pagoda, with the monks in the middle and members of the public on either side.

Gordon Brown has called for a UN Security Council meeting on what are the biggest anti-government protests in 20 years.

“The whole world is now watching Burma,” he said.

Bloggers are watching, too.

The Age profiles Burmese bloggers bringing the truth to the world:

Savvy young bloggers in Burma are breaking through the military junta’s tight internet controls to post photos and videos of swelling anti-government protests.

The government blocks almost every website that carries news or information about the South-East Asian country, and even bars access to web-based email.

But an army of young techies in Rangoon works around the clock to circumvent the censors, posting pictures and videos on blogs almost as soon as the protests happen.

Many of these images have been picked up by mainstream news organisations because bloggers have managed to capture images that no one else can get.

Aung Zaw, editor of Irrawaddy, a news magazine for expatriate Burmese living in Thailand told The Age bloggers and underground journalists in Burma were risking arrest in communicating with the outside world.

He said Irrawaddy had several reporters in Burma who used the internet, email and mobile phones to send stories and images to their colleagues in Thailand.

Ko Htike blogs from the protest scene and has first-hand photos:

The Burmese blog Justice and Injustice also has photos and up-to-date reports and a live chatbox.

And soneseeyar is also photo-blogging with fresh pics from this morning’s protests:

Stateside:

Gateway Pundit has a breaking news round-up with photos.

Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés weighs in on “An Insane Regime Dedicated to Beating Up The Sane.”