In Burma, the military junta has intensified its crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising. Foreign diplomats say soldiers are pulling people from their homes in the middle of the night. Military vehicles are patrolling the streets vowing to arrest pro-democracy activists. Government employees are being forced to sign declarations of support to the junta. U.S. envoy Shari Villarosa says embassy staffers have found monasteries virtually empty or barricaded by the military. Estimates of those detained in the crackdown have entered the thousands. Agence France-Presse is reporting at least 1,700 people are being held at a college campus in Rangoon. The death toll remains unknown.

Buddhist monk U Chee Hrape: “The SPDC (State Peace and Development Council) is out of their mind to solve the problem with violence and by killing a number of people, which is against their religion as a Buddhist country. Buddhists are not doing this killing.”

Meanwhile, U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari wrapped up his four-day visit Tuesday after meeting with the junta chief Than Shwe and the detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won elections in 1990 but has been prevented from taking office.