More than 40 civilians have been detained Saturday by government troops in downtown Yangon before the arrival of United Nations special envoy Ibrahim Gambari.

Protesters gathered outside a hotel in the city’s centre where Gambari was expected to spend the night, but troops broke up the planned demonstration and arrested nearly 40 people.

Gambari’s visit was seen by people as another opportunity to stage mass protests against the military regime. But the UN special envoy didn’t inspect the site of this week’s violent clashes and flew directly to the capital Naypyidaw after arriving at Yangon International Airport Friday afternoon.

Yangon is now under the control of military forces, who installed numerous roadblocks across the city in strategic points and detained the demonstrators gathered outside the Trader Hotel, taking them to an unknown location in two trucks.

Hundreds of people tried to initiated another protest Saturday and marched towards the hotel, but they were quickly dispersed by security forces.

Aside from those skirmishes, the city was peaceful for the first time after weeks of unrest and massive protests against the ruling junta and the country’s deteriorating economy.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon assigned Gambari to assess the situation in Myanmar, where continuous demonstrations against the iron-fisted regime led to street clashes between security forces and thousands of people.

Gambari visited the country last year in May and is now expected to hold discussions with religious leaders, several political detainees including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since 2003.

The protests were peaceful in first instance and began on August 19, when the government decided top double fuel prices. But the junta didn’t tolerate the marches and cracked down on them, more than 100 activists being arrested.

Those severe measures didn’t stop the protests because Myanmar’s monkhood took up the movement 12 days ago and began marching through the streets of Yangon. Soon, dozens and then hundreds of people decided to join the marches and that was the turning point for the peaceful protests.

Security forces were deployed on the streets and fierce clashes erupted when thousands of monks supported by laymen faced out the military regime once again.

On Wednesday, riot police and soldiers used tear gas, baton charges and bullets to push the monks away from Yangon’s renown pagodas of Shwedagon and Sule. The violent crack down was followed by raids on monasteries Thursday morning, hundreds of monks being arrested and some even beaten.

The raids and violent measures outraged the population who took to the streets Thursday, clashing with police and military forces in several areas of the city. At least nine people were killed Thursday, including a Japanese journalist shot dead by soldiers.

Nearly two decades ago a similar uprising ended with a bloodbath after the security forces opened fire on the anti-military demonstrators and killed about 3,000 people, including hundreds of monks who had joined the protests.