Protesters brave Burmese crackdown

About 300 people marched through the city's Chinatown district waving the peacock-emblazoned flags of the democracy movement. They were greeted by applause from onlookers before the army arrived in force to break up the protest. Witnesses said several men were dragged away to waiting trucks.

The latest protest came as UN envoy Ibrahim Gambari began his mission, hoping to convince the military junta to end its brutal crackdown that has virtually strangled a people's movement to end 45 years of military rule. "We are not very hopeful, but it's the best shot we have," Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said at the United Nations in New York.

For ordinary Burmese people, however, hope was slipping away rapidly with soldiers and police seizing control of the streets, scattering the few demonstrators who dared to venture out.

Buddhist monks who had spearheaded the movement during the past month, galvanising crowds of some 70,000 to denounce the military regime, have been sealed in their monasteries. Elsewhere in Rangoon, housewives and shop owners had boldly taunted troops before quickly disappearing into alleyways.

Gambari arrived at Rangoon airport on Saturday afternoon and was briefed by UN officials. He was to proceed to Naypitaw, the remote new bunker-like capital where the country's military leaders are based.

It was not immediately clear if Gambari would meet junta leader General Than Shwe during his brief visit, or pro-democracy figures such as Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the past 18 years under house arrest.

"Gambari is coming, but I don't think it will make much of a difference," said one hotel worker, who like other residents asked not to be named, fearing retaliation. "We have to find a solution ourselves."

Western diplomats said it was unlikely, noting that the schedule had been set by the government, but the envoy told reporters before arriving: "I expect to meet all the people that I need to meet."

Daily protests began last month and had grown into the stiffest challenge to Burma's ruling junta in decades. They were initially started by people protesting massive fuel price increases, with crowd sizes mushrooming to tens of thousands after monks joined in.