On Monday, Sept. 24, a spokesman at Germany's foreign ministry, Martin Jäger, said Berlin also called for the release of demonstrators taken into custody by police and that opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi should be released from house arrest.

The German government welcomed "the peaceful course of demonstrations'' and noted its support for "any peaceful expression of opinions'' in Myanmar. "If the government of Myanmar is serious about its reform plans, then it must not prevent this expression of opinions,'' Jäger said at a news conference.

Over the weekend and on Monday, the protests that erupted five weeks ago escalated, with tens of thousands demonstrating on Monday against 45 years of army rule. It was the biggest protest since a student-led movement almost two decades ago which was crushed by the generals who control the nation of 53 million. Media reports say 100,000 people participated in Monday's demonstrations.

Monks and nuns have recently been in the forefront of the protest movement, which began as civilian anger at last month's sharp fuel price increases. In the capital Yangon, five columns of monks in maroon robes marched from the Shwedagon Pagoda, the devoutly Buddhist country's holiest shrine, to the city center where thousands of people filled five blocks. Myanmar's 400,000 monks are revered by the public, posing a problem for the generals in how to handle the unrest.

Detentions

While the protests have been largely peaceful, a watchdog group on Monday said the country's military rulers have detained 218 people over the protests, sometimes subjecting them to beatings during interrogations.

"Activists have not only been beaten while in detention, but have also been under extreme physical and mental torture," Bo Kyi, head of the Thailand-based Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma), told the AFP news agency.

Once a political prisoner himself, Bo Kyi said 46 of those detained are being held in squalid conditions at a police base in Yangon. International rights groups have alleged that abuse and torture are common in Myanmar's prisons.

The country's most famous detainee, democracy icon Suu Kyi, made her first appearance in public in four years on Saturday, who has spent 12 of the last 18 years in some type of confinement. She is now under house arrest.

News of her appearance spread rapidly and was seen initially as a sign the military was being flexible. However, on Sunday, police moved fire engines, police vans and dozens of police to the entrance of her street and refused to let a group of 200 marching monks through.

Censorship and suppression

Journalists trying to cover the event have been the victims of government censorship and violence, according to Reporters with Borders and the Burma Media Association.

In a press release, the two groups said the government was trying to prevent journalists from covering the protests and that there have been at least 24 "serious violations" of the freedom to report news and information since Aug. 19. No visas have been granted to foreign journalists since the beginning of the demonstrations.

Government media outlets, on the other hand, have accused foreign journalists of creating unrest. They have described the protesters as violent agitators.