Burmese Streets Quiet; Monks to be 'Sent Away'

The violent Burmese government crackdown appeared successful as heavily-armed police patrolled the quieted streets of Yangon today, and the BBC reported that some 4,000 detained monks were to be vanquished to prisons in the far north. BBC correspondents say the populace is afraid and helpless after riots that left 10 dead by government count—and many more by diplomat and activist reckoning.

With so many monks behind bars, where many are reportedly refusing food, protests that rocked Burma for two weeks have quieted. In the streets, soldiers outnumbered civilians, stopping people to prevent images from being smuggled to foreign journalists. “It's outwardly quite normal,” said the UK’s ambassador. “They've obviously for the moment squeezed things off the streets.” (More Burma stories.)