About 4,000 monks have been rounded up in the past week as the military government has tried to stamp out pro-democracy protests. The detained monks have been disrobed and shackled, according to sources quoted by BBC Radio's Burmese service.
The reports follow claims from a former intelligence officer in Burma's ruling junta that thousands of protesters have been killed and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle. News of the jailings comes after a former intelligence officer for Burma's ruling junta revealed the true extent of killings to clamp down on protests. The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: "Many more people have been killed in recent days than you've heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand." Mr Win said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. His defection will raise a faint hope among tens of thousands of Burmese who have fled to villages along the Thai border.