JAKARTA ~ Dozens of Indonesian Buddhist students rallied outside the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta on Wednesday to back anti-junta protestors in Yangon.

About 70 students wearing the uniform of the Union of Indonesian Buddhist Students laid out banners reading “Solidarity for Burma, Peace-Democracy-Freedom” on the road.

They shouted “Reject, reject the military junta,” “Free Aung San Suu Kyi,” and “Solidarity for the People of Burma,” before they sat cross-legged on the ground and began to meditate, oblivious to passing traffic.

One of the banners featured a photograph of the monks marching in the rain during recent protests in Myanmar, and another a picture of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some 30 uniformed and plainclothes police were on standby in the area.

In Yangon, soldiers and police fired warning shots into the air and used tear gas to break up thousands of people who had gathered to cheer 1,000 marching monks.

The move followed days of peaceful but swelling protests against the ruling military junta in Myanmar formally known as Burma.