YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - Myanmar's junta broadcast warnings from trucks
that soldiers were searching for protesters, while a U.N. envoy
remained tightlipped Wednesday about his mission to convince the
military rulers to end their crackdown on democracy advocates.

Military vehicles patrolled the streets of Yangon overnight and blared
from loudspeakers that soldiers were searching for protesters: "We
have photographs. We are going to make arrests!"

After day broke, an eerie quiet prevailed in Yangon, as some semblance
of normality returned to Myanmar's biggest city, with some shops
opening and light traffic plying on roads.

However, "people are terrified, and the underlying forces of
discontent have not been addressed," Shari Villarosa, the acting U.S.
ambassador in Myanmar, said in a telephone interview.

"People have been unhappy for a long time," she told The Associated
Press in Bangkok, Thailand. "Since the events of last week, there's
now the unhappiness combined with anger, and fear."

Simmering hatred for the military's 45-year rule exploded in
mid-August after it hiked fuel prices by as much as 500 percent, a
crushing burden in this impoverished nation. The marches soon
ballooned into mass pro-democracy demonstrations led by the nation's
revered Buddhist monks.

The military crushed the protests on Sept. 26 and 27 with live
ammunition, tear gas and by beating up demonstrators. Hundreds of
people were carted off to detention camps. The government says 10
people were killed in the violence. But dissident groups put the death
toll at up to 200. They say 6,000 people were detained.

The U.N.'s special envoy, Ibrahim Gambari, went to Myanmar on Saturday
to convey the international community's outrage at the junta's
actions. He also hoped to persuade the junta to take the people's
aspirations seriously.

Gambari was in transit in Singapore Wednesday after his four-day
mission, during which he met junta leader Senior Gen. Than Shwe, his
deputies. He also talked to detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu
Kyi twice.

Gambari avoided the media in Singapore, refusing to answer questions
by reporters gathered at his hotel. He was not expected to issue any
statement until he had briefed the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
on Friday.

The junta also has not commented on Gambari's visit.

The United Nations has only released photos of Gambari and a somber,
haggard-looking Suu Kyi _ who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years
under house arrest _ shaking hands during their meeting in a state
guest house in Yangon.

In Singapore, Gambari met with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the
chairman of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations bloc of which
Myanmar is a member.

A Singapore government statement said Lee told Gambari that ASEAN "is
fully behind his mission" to bring about "a political solution for
national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy."

On Tuesday, Buddhist faithful prayed and touched their foreheads on
the ground at a shrine in downtown Yangon while two dozen soldiers
patrolled outside. But there were no barricades along the street and
stores were open.

Still, a sense of fear prevailed everywhere.

"From what we understand, military police ... are traveling around the
city in the middle of the night, going into homes and picking up
people," said Villarosa, the U.S. diplomat.

She said embassy staff went to some monasteries and found them
completely empty. Others were barricaded by the military and made
off-limits to outsiders.

Also, "there is a significantly reduced number of monks on the
streets. Where are the monks? What has happened to them," she said.

In Geneva on Tuesday, the U.N. Human Rights Council condemned the
military's crackdown and urged an immediate investigation of the
situation.

The 47-nation council said it "strongly deplores continued violent
repression of peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar, including through
beatings, killings, arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances."

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962, and the current junta came
to power in 1988 after snuffing a much larger pro-democracy movement
in which at least 3,000 people were killed. The generals called
elections in 1990 but refused to give up power when Suu Kyi's party
won.

Still, people were hopeful that democracy would come.

"I don't believe the protests have been totally crushed," said Kin, a
29-year-old language teacher in Yangon, whose father and brother had
joined the 1988 movement.

"There is hope, but we fear to hope," she said. "We still dream of
rearing our children in a country where everybody would have equal
chances at opportunities," said Yin.