Up to 100,000 people in Myanmar’s major cities have taken to the streets again today to protest the military dictatorship that rules their country.

The government of Myanmar (also known as Burma) said earlier today that it may break up street protests in Yangon with military force.

Loudspeakers mounted on vehicles trawled the streets of Yangon (formerly Rangoon), warning that participation in the street protests there would result in military action. Myanmar’s colonial-era criminal code allows the government to break up any illegal assembly with military force. Any group of five or more can be considered illegal.

The street demonstrations began last month and have grown to tens of thousands of people, led by buddhist monks and nuns. The protests are aimed at the government’s anti-democratic behavior and its inept handling of the economy. Monks have refused to accept alms from the military, a crushing gesture of rejection akin to a Catholic priest refusing to receive confessions from certain people.

The last time demonstrations grew this large, in 1988, the government came down hard, killing approximately 3000 people and beating and jailing many others.

In 1990, Myanmar’s opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), won parliamentary elections in a landslide but the junta has never recognized the results. NLD’s leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has been under house arrest for 12 of the 17 years since then. She is not allowed a telephone.

• International Herald Tribune: Monks defy junta’s orders, resume protests
• The Times: Burma’s rulers threaten military force against protesters
• UN: Statement of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
• Roundup: Complete coverage