Soldiers Set Up Security in Rangoon:

The Burmese military government has increased security at several locations around Rangoon in recent days, according to sources in Rangoon.

A monk in Rangoon said that he had seen several trucks carrying uniformed soldiers who were fully armed. The soldiers appeared only at nighttime and occupied areas such as Shwedagon Pagoda, People’s Park and Square, Resistance Park and the Kyaikkasan football ground, he said.

In the meantime, the military government has no plans to call a state of emergency, Associated Press reported on Friday.

“The Myanmar [Burma] government will not declare a state of emergency. You can see the government is handling the situation peacefully,” the Information Ministry’s Ye Htut told AP news agency in an email response.

A local resident and witness in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy on Friday that he saw several soldiers in full military uniform, carrying guns, and assuming positions in some areas of Sanchaung Township during the day. They had red cloths wrapped around their arms with the word “duty” written in Burmese.

But he said that they could not see which military unit they were from because their insignia was covered with the red cloth.

In recent days, the Light Infantry Division 77 has reportedly taken up positions in Rangoon.

A source close to an ethnic ceasefire group and local Burmese authorities told The Irrawaddy on Wednesday that the junta has secretly ordered a state of emergency in order to authorize regional and local authorities to control demonstrators, including an order to open fire on protesters if necessary.

Police officials in Naypyidaw, the regime’s new capital, issued a state of emergency order to local authorities in early September, the source said. The order came a day after the local authorities had violently cracked down on monks marching in a peaceful demonstration in Pakokku in Magwe Division.

The Burmese military government is also preparing the San Pya Hospital in Rangoon’s Thingangyun District by clearing out the patients, according to a patient who was ordered to leave the hospital.