Terror behind monastery walls

But there was a difference between this morning and that of yesterday's: There were hardly any monks on the streets, and much of the city remained relatively quiet.

It has become apparent that Myanmar's armed forces appeared to have succeeded in sealing tens of thousands of protesting monks inside their monasteries. At least 10 monasteries were raided and sacked this week, and hundreds of monks were arrested on apparent suspicion of spearheading the marches.

Brutal attacks on monasteries and a heavy military presence outside their gates appeared to have choked off, at least for now the huge demonstrations led by monks.

Eye witnesses said that numerous monasteries were raided on Friday with reports that many monks were beaten and arrested. Whole monasteries were reported to have been trashed with blood and broken glass seen everywhere.

Exile groups passed on many vivid, unconfirmed reports about brutality toward monks and their superiors. Many monks were reported to have been seized and driven away in trucks and armed soldiers were said to have been preventing others from leaving.

An unconfirmed account had it that a monastery at an obscure neighborhood of Yangon, called Ngwe Kyar Yan (on Wei-za-yan-tar Road, Yangon) was raided early in the morning of Sept 28, 2007.

A troop of "lone-tein" - the local name for the riot police which comprises mainly of paid thugs and protected by the military, attacked the monastery which had 200 monks studying there.

They systematically rounded up all the monks and ordered them to line up. Then, one after another, brute force was used to bash their heads against the brick wall of the monastery, in many cases crushing the monks' skulls.

One by one, the non-resisting monks fell to the ground, screaming in pain. The "lone-teins" then tore off the red robes from the monks, threw the bodies into the military trucks (like rice bags) and were then taken away to an unknown location.

The head monk of the monastery, who was tied up in the middle of the monastery was tortured and bludgeoned. He was said to have died later in the same day.

Meanwhile, tens of hundreds of people who had gathered outside was unable to protect the helpless monks from being slaughtered inside the monastery. Their every effort to force into the monastery was warded off by troops with bayoneted rifles.

When all was done, only 10 out of 200 monks remained alive, hiding in the monastery. Blood stains was reported everywhere on the walls and floors of the monastery.

For now, there seems to be a state sanctioned policy of genocide adopted by the brutal military regime against  the monks.  Arresting and imprisoning members of the holy order - already utterly evil by itself - is seen as inadequate: They have to be bludgeoned to death.

In another report filed in, it was said that Moe Kaung Sayadaw, the abbot of Yankin Monastery has been killed. No other details was available at press time.