The headers from a Reuters e-mail service practically tell the story:
September 27, 2007,
- 12:40 a.m.: "Troops read barricades to block Yangon protests."
- 3:02 a.m.: "Crowds swell in central Yangon to more than 1,000."
- 3:20 a.m.: "Riot police charge Yangon crowd, shots fired."
- 4:09 a.m.: "Yangon troops tell residents to go home or be shot."
- 5:00 a.m.: "More shots near Yangon railway station - witness."
Well, that's how it begins in the nominally communist state Myanmar that seems to have become a de facto nationalist and fascist enterprise.
Here's the drama: "Crowds scattered as 200 soldiers marched slowly through the streets, rifles at their sides and loudspeakers blaring out warnings . . . ." [1]
Around it grows the vapors: the same Reuters page this morning includes as a related header, "US presses China on Myanmar. . . ."
1. Tun, Aung Hla. "Myanmar troops threaten to shoot." Reuters, September 27, 2007.
2. Lutterbeck, Deborah. "US presses China on Myanmar." Reuters video, September 27, 2007.
Correspondence and Permissions: James S. Oppenheim
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