Burmese Troops Fire on Demonstrators

RANGOON, Burma--A day after a military coup, soldiers loyal to the new government opened fire on thousands of angry demonstrators who surged into the streets yesterday to protest the power shift. About 100 people were reported killed in Rangoon.

Demonstrations also broke out it other cities, including Mandalay. Witnesses and other reports said a total of about 150 people, including 17 soldiers, had died in the violence that swept Burma after Sunday's coup.

The wave of violence comes a day after military commander Saw Maung overthrew the government of civilian President Maung Maung. The former president's whereabouts remain unknown.

Undaunted opposition leaders vowed that students, Buddhist monks, and striking civil servants would continue to protest in favor of liberalizing reforms. Maung Maung had promised multiparty democratic elections before his ouster.

Military spokesman Kyaw Sann said the clashes began Sunday night when "the violent mob attacked security forces with catapaults and jinglees [metal darts] and the troops had to disperse the mob by shooting in many parts of the town."

Kyaw Sann said crowds yesterday raided two police stations, stealing rifles, pistols, and ammunition. Reports said that protesters, some carrying swords, spears and crossbows, were taking the weapons of the fallen soldiers.

The military yesterday placed the death toll at 23, but gave no details.

A Western diplomat familiar with Burma said from Bangkok, Thailand, that "We're into possibly one of the final acts now...a naked confrontation with the army...Either the students win or the army wins."

The soldiers were trying to enforce a ban on public gatherings imposed immediately after the coup by Saw Maung, the defense minister before the coup and a right-hand man of former President Sein Lwin. Sein Lwin resigned Aug. 12 after riots in which hundreds of protesters reportedly died.

Protesters blame the country's sole legal party, the ruling Burma Socialist Program Party, for 26 years of repression and economic ruin. Other analysts believe the military may have simply acted to assert its traditional authority.

Reports indicated soldiers shot at mostly unarmed protesters near the main government administrative building, the U.S. Embassy, Sule Pagoda and Rangoon General Hospital, which has become a major rallying point for the protesters. An Asian diplomat said the hospital subsequently admitted 67 people.

Witnesses said corpses were taken away by military trucks while residents dragged some of the dead and wounded into their houses or put them in three-wheeled taxis to be taken to hospitals.

In Washington, the Reagan administration said it was reviewing assistance programs to Burma that total $14 million annually to determine whether aid should be cut off in light of the coup and violence.

"The United States urges Burmese military authorities immediately to cease shooting at demonstrators and calls upon those demonstrating to refrain from provocative actions," White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said.