BANGKOK—Myanmar’s military rulers imposed a nighttime curfew and banned assemblies Tuesday after thousands of Buddhist monks defied their warnings and mounted another day of prodemocracy protests to the cheers of crowds in the streets of Yangon.

Although Tuesday’s demonstration was allowed to proceed peacefully, several truckloads of soldiers and armed police were seen taking up positions in Myanmar’s largest city late in the day, according to news agency reports and videos e-mailed from the isolated Southeast Asian country. The ban on assemblies and the appearance of reinforcements, including anti-riot troops carrying shields and truncheons, suggested the military junta may be preparing to crack down despite appeals from around the world that it avoid using force and enter into negotiations with its opponents.

After a day of protest by an estimated 10,000 monks and lay supporters, some shouting “democracy, democracy,” junta supporters were seen driving around Yangon warning via loudspeakers that “action” would be taken against anyone who continues to support the demonstrations, news agency reports said. Others announced a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew and said gatherings of five or more persons were banned, setting the stage for confrontation if the monks continue to protest, the reports said.

“A crackdown is imminent,” predicted Bertil Lintner, a veteran Myanmar specialist based in neighboring Thailand.

Similar protests in 1988 were put down by soldiers firing weapons into crowds of demonstrators, killing several thousand. But this time security forces so far have remained in the background during more than a week of antigovernment agitation that has built into the most serious challenge of the military junta since the 1988 disturbances.

The junta warned on government-controlled television Monday night that security forces could step in unless the current wave of demonstrations came to a halt. The threat followed a daylong protest march in Yangon estimated to have included more than 50,000 people, perhaps up to 100,000, which was much larger than previous demonstrations and several times larger than Tuesday’s march.

At the same time, the religious affairs minister, Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung, ordered senior Buddhist leaders to rein in younger monks leading the charge in the streets. “If the monks go against the rules and regulations in the authority of Buddhist teachings, we will take action under existing laws,” the television quoted him as saying.

In what could be a foretaste of things to come, several hundred monks protesting in the northwestern city of Sittwe were attacked with tear gas and roughed up by security forces, the Reuters news agency reported. Others were reported arrested, sparking anger among their fellow monks in Yangon.

The protests started on August 19, set off by a stiff rise in fuel prices. But they have escalated into a head-on political challenge against the military leadership that has run Myanmar, also called Burma, for most of the past half-century. Spearheaded by the Buddhist monks who are revered by the nation’s 56 million inhabitants, the demonstrations in recent days also have broadened to embrace lay students and members of the National League for Democracy, the political party headed by Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

The Asian Human Rights Commission in Washington said in a statement that the demonstrations, although they started over the economic strains, have evolved into an “uprising to end the country’s military dictatorship.”

In addition, the protests have drawn the attention of the world to the long-festering political stalemate, where the military junta has kept Suu Kyi under virtual house arrest and prevented her party from taking power despite its victory in elections in 1990. Reuters reported Tuesday that Suu Kyi, who has become a symbol for many of the protesters of their longing for democracy, was taken to a prison Sunday in an attempt to prevent her from emerging as a leader of the new antigovernment campaign. In a brief appearance at the gate of her home Saturday, she drew cheers from hundreds of protesters who were allowed to approach her residence.

From President Bush’s announcement of tougher sanctions Tuesday at the United Nations to an appeal for national reconciliation from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), the junta and its leader, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, have been urged to abandon their exclusive grip on power as public concern over the increasingly tense situation surges across Asia and beyond.

Foreign correspondents have been barred. But voluminous images of the protesting monks, striking in their maroon robes and sandals, have been dispatched out of the country during the past week by e-mail and cell phone, providing vivid television footage and newspaper photographs.

China, which is a close strategic ally and trading partner of the Myanmar government, has not joined the chorus of condemnation. Instead, it reiterated its refusal to pressure for change in public. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said the Chinese government hopes Myanmar’s rulers can “maintain stability and resolve the issue in its own way,” according to news agency reports from Beijing.

Crackdown

BANGKOK—Myanmar’s military rulers imposed a nighttime curfew and banned assemblies Tuesday after thousands of Buddhist monks defied their warnings and mounted another day of prodemocracy protests to the cheers of crowds in the streets of Yangon.

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