Burma: Hundreds may be dead, as junta tries to keep brutality unseen

At this seedy little port town in the far south of the country the teenage touts on the quayside give you their thoughts about Beckham and offer to sell you viagra before you've reached dry land. At a shabby open-air coffee shop by the port there are two large modern televisions going, one tuned to a Japanese samurai soap, the other to CNN. About half the American channels' news coverage yesterday was devoted to the uprising in Burma, with blogged images of clashes on the streets, lorries full of troops, trashed monasteries. The customers in the coffee shop watched round-eyed and in silence.

Two young semi-official guides take me round the approved sights of Kaw Thaung. One tells me without coaxing, "A lot of trouble in Yangon (Rangoon). There was trouble here too, weeks back. Monks paraded through the town. Just one day. All finished now. Now only trouble in the big cities – Yangon, Mandalay, Moulmein, some others. People in the big cities are different..."

We are alone in the deserted temple complex, yet as soon as conversation turns to forbidden topics – the regime, resistance – his voice drops to a mumble, his eyes glaze, he gives every indication of discomfort. The walls have ears.

"You have been watched all the way, all the time," he says later. I ask him if he can help me meet monks or others involved in the demonstration here. No, he can't, he says, with un-Asian bluntness. "We are being watched all the time," he repeats.

As usual in Burma, nothing can be said because the man at the next table may squeal on us

Forty monks and about 20,000 people met at Jakhasan Street just before 2pm on Thursday. The crowd was mixed – young students, women and some Muslims too. The message had come from the monks the day before to meet there. A few monks had managed to get out of the temple for the meeting, although the temples are closed by the government.

The leader of the monks said to us all: "Just pray, don't shout, don't throw rocks. Pray for peace, protection and love." The civilians were very moved and some were crying. Some people were clapping, many were praying. They were inspired by the monks and very angry at the government.

Then the crowd came down along Jakhasan Street. Everyone was trying to help and give them water. The crowd was not afraid, until the police came. We heard that there was some Swan Ar Shin [plain-clothes paramilitary] in the crowd, dressed as monks who were going into the houses to demand money. It was all false, set up by the government to confuse people.

By now maybe 60,000 people had come and the crowd turned left at the junction. Then police and soldiers started to come towards us banging their shields. They had batons and guns. There seemed so many. Some of the crowd ran, but the rest just sat down and started to pray. They didn't throw stones, they did not shout against the government, they just sat down and prayed. The police told everyone to move but we stayed where we were.

The police fired into the crowd. First they shot rubber bullets and tear gas. Everyone was running and screaming. People were hit. I turned round and I tried to take pictures of everything.