y, hoping to persuade him to accept the people's demands for democracy. On the streets, troops removed road blocks and appeared to ease their stranglehold on Yangon. After days of intimidation that snuffed out public protests, soldiers and riot police redeployed from the city center to the outskirts Monday, but were still checking cars and buses, and monitoring the city by helicopter.
Traffic was still light and most shops remained closed. Some monks were allowed to leave monasteries to collect food donations, watched by soldiers lounging under trees.
"It's outwardly quite normal at the moment. The traffic seems to be flowing, there's a lot of military tucked away in less visible locations," said British Ambassador Mark Canning.
"They've obviously for the moment squeezed things off the streets," he said.
Public anger, which ignited Aug. 19 after the government hiked fuel prices, turned into mass protests against 45 years of military dictatorship when Buddhist monks joined in. Soldiers responded last week by opening fire on unarmed demonstrators, killing at least 10 people by the government's account. Dissident groups say at least 200 people may have died.
On Monday, Shwedagon and Sule pagodas, the two main flash points of unrest, were reopened, but there were few visitors.
Monks appeared to be paying a heavy price for their role in spearheading the demonstrations.
An Asian diplomat said Monday all the arrested monks were defrocked _ stripped of their highly revered status and made to wear civilian clothes. Some of them are likely to face long jail terms, the diplomat said on condition of anonymity, citing protocol.
A resident, who identified himself as Ko Hla, wrote on his Internet blog that the monks arrested for staging protests are being detained in a race course. "They are forced to squat down as prisoners under the sun during the day time and are forced to change into civilian clothes," he wrote.
It was not possible to confirm the report within the highly restricted country.
"What the government is doing is very bad, especially beating up the monks," said a grocer who did not wish to be identified further for fear of reprisals. He said it is unlikely people will protest again in such large numbers. "I think it is over now."
