Some 20,000 people led by Buddhist monks and nuns demonstrated against Myanmar's military junta today, in what has quickly become the largest anti-government demonstrations in Burma since the failed democratic uprising in 1988.
The monks marched from Yangon's famous Shwedagon Pagoda to the nearby Sule Pagoda before passing the US Embassy, witnesses said. Monks shouted support for detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, while the crowd protected them by forming a human chain along the route.
It was the sixth straight day monks have marched in Yangon, and came a day after they were allowed to walk past Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Suu Kyi's compound in a symbolic gesture of support. Their activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices.
A monk gave a speech today calling for Suu Kyi's release and national reconciliation before the monks set off from the Shwedagon Pagoda, the witness said.
The protest was the largest in the latest series to erupt in Yangon.
Earlier, the government had deployed about 20 pro-junta security officials and 20 riot police on the road leading to Suu Kyi's compound, witnesses said.
While authorities had not intervened in today's march, plainclothes police trailed behind the marchers and some with shotguns were posted at street corners along the route.
By linking their cause to Suu Kyi's pro-democracy struggle, which has seen her detained for about 12 of the last 18 years, the monks increased the pressure on the junta to decide whether to crack down or compromise with the demonstrators.
It was the first time she had been seen in public since her latest detention began in May 2003. For many onlookers, already stunned by police allowing marching monks through the barricades sealing off her street, it was overwhelming.
Wearing an orange blouse and a traditional wraparound skirt, she emerged from a small door in the iron gate to the house, her hands held palm to palm in a gesture of Buddhist supplication.
The generals are due to hold a quarterly summit in their new capital of Naypyidaw, carved out of the jungle, perhaps as early as tomorrow.
The protests, which began on August 19 after huge fuel price increases prompted a midnight round up of the democracy activists who organised them and now face up to 20 years in jail, appear far from over.