So far, it appears to be working.
FEW MONKS SEEN
"Peace and stability has been restored," state-run newspapers declared on Saturday. Security forces had handled the protests "with care, using the least possible force", they said.
Monks were scarcely seen on Friday or Saturday in crowds facing off against security forces around the barricades in a city terrified of a repeat of 1988.
Their monasteries surrounded by soldiers, few monks went out on the daily alms collection on which they depend for food, residents said. Many young monks had evaded arrest by casting off their maroon robes and pretending to be laymen.
The scene was similar in the second city of Mandalay, home to many of Myanmar's more than 400,000 monks, where troops surrounded major monasteries, a Chinese official said.
"Basically the situation is quiet. Armed police are stationed along major streets and at intersections," he said.
In the northwestern coastal town of Sittwe, one resident said many younger monks had been forced to go back to their home towns. The only security officials on the streets were police, he said.
"Now in Sittwe very quiet. No more demonstrations, everything disperse," he said. "No more fighting here."
Monks have reported six monks killed since the army started cracking down on Wednesday to end mass protests by columns of monks flanked by supporters who filled five city blocks.
State-run media said 10 people had been killed since the crackdown began and prompted international outrage. Among the dead was a Japanese journalist, apparently killed at the hands of a soldier firing at point-blank range.
"I am afraid we believe the loss of life is far greater than is being reported," British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Friday after talking to U.S. President George W. Bush.
Bush and Brown discussed the need to maintain international pressure on Myanmar's rulers and the White House condemned the present crackdown as "barbaric".
Bush authorised new U.S. sanctions against the junta, which has been operating under similar restrictions for years and turns a deaf ear to any criticism of how it handles dissidents.
