About 2,000 Myanmar people gathered outside their country's embassy in Malaysia on Friday for a noisy protest against the violent crackdown on anti-government protests in their homeland.

Shouting in Burmese and English, they carried placards that read, "Don't kill our monks" and "Stop crackdown".

They also held pictures of Myanmar's detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We want democracy!" they shouted.

The protesters said they were from Aung San Suu Kyi's opposition party, the National League for Democracy (NLD), as well as from other Myanmar groups including the umbrella organisation, All Burmese Democratic Force.

"This protest is to let the world know that the evil government has cracked down on monks," Kyaw Kyaw Min, who said he was a Myanmar refugee and NLD member, told AFP.

"We would like the international community to stop that. We would like the UN to stop that."

A two-day crackdown on mass protests in Myanmar's main city of Yangon has left at least 13 people dead and hundreds more behind bars.

About 10 Malaysian policemen with riot shields and helmets stood between the shouting protesters and the embassy gate. A large group of regular police also monitored the gathering.

In a statement, the demonstrators said they "strongly condemn the regime's brutal crackdown against peaceful demonstrators and urge upon the regime to peacefully settle the crisis in the country."

They called for international pressure on the junta, and demanded the military regime release political prisoners and enter into a dialogue.

After about 20 minutes they marched to the embassy of Myanmar's close ally, China, where the demonstrators delivered a copy of their written statement.

They said they also gave a copy to the Myanmar embassy before they moved on.

Before dispersing without incident, the protesters also stopped at the embassy of Russia, which on Wednesday said the Myanmar crackdown was an internal matter.

Malaysia hosts a large number of migrant workers from Myanmar, many of them illegal.