Rangoon Monks' protest swells
Monks' protest swells
Rangoon - Up to 15,000 Buddhist monks and laymen marched through the streets of Rangoon Sunday in the sixth day of escalating peaceful protests against the Burmese military regime.
The dictatorship has thus far refrained from cracking down on the saffron-robed rebellion.
More than 3,000 monks, joined for the first time by 300 nuns, from various townships marched to the Shwedagon Pagoda, and then continued to Sule Pagoda and wove their way north, drawing more followers as they proceeded.
There is speculation that the protesters are bound for the Rangoon compound of Aung San Suu Kyi, whom they visited on Saturday. The Nobel peace laureate appeared in public for the first time in years.
Eyewitnesses said Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest since May, 2003, repeatedly told the monks "sandu," or "well done," and shed tears of joy when they departed.
On Sunday the monks carried banners reading "Untruth will be overcome by truth," and "Injustice will be overcome by justice," giving their protest more of a political tone than previous marches.
They were joined by more than 10,000 laymen, making Sunday's protest march the largest anti-government gathering in more than a decade.
Some of the laymen followers shouted political slogans such as "Free Aung San Suu Kyi." Others stressed economic issues."Lower commodity prices, that is our cause," was one popular chant.
Burma's military rulers last month unleashed pent-up frustration with the deteriorating economy when they more than doubled fuel prices on August 15.
Peaceful demonstrations against the fuel hikes started in Rangoon on August 19, but were quickly suppressed by authorities who arrested more than 100 protest leaders.
The protest movement was picked up by Burma's revered monkhood earlier this month, and has now spread nationwide, and the monks are getting more daring in their tactics.
The monks' protest movement appears to have caught the military junta off guard, and seasoned Burma-watchers are unsure where the rebellion is heading.
"It's hard to know," said Professor Robert Taylor, author of The State in Burma. "But I don't see the regime is tottering," said Taylor, who is currently in Rangoon.
The junta has kept a tight lid on discontent for the past 19 years, cracking down on all shows of student-led protests and dissent from opposition politicians such as Suu Kyi's supporters.
Thus far, none of Burma's Buddhist leaders have come out openly in favour or against the protests.
It is estimated that anywhere between 5,000 to 50,000 of Burma's 400,000-strong monkhood has joined the non-violent movement to protest the country's deteriorating economic conditions.
The monks' movement has put the regime in an awkward position. If the rulers do not crack down on the protests, the demonstrations are likely to spread, but if they attack the monks, they would enrage the people.
Buddhist monks have a long history of political activism in Burma, a predominantly Buddhist country.
The monkhood played a prominent role in the struggle for independence from Great Britain, which came in 1948, and joined students in the anti-military demonstrations that rocked Burma in 1988 and ended in bloodshed.
Like the recent protests, the 1988 mass demonstrations were sparked by rising discontent with the military's mismanagement of the economy and refusal to introduce some semblance of democracy.
On September 8, 1988, the army cracked down on the pro-democracy movement, leaving an estimated 3,000 dead.
The generals at the time vowed to never allow a repeat of 1988, a vow they have carried out through the suppression of any show of unrest in the country.
Although the military allowed a general election in 1990, it ignored the outcome when 80 per cent of the votes went to the National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi's party. Its reaction made the junta a pariah in the West. (dpa)
Yangon Monks refuse to return to temples
Monks refuse to return to temples
Yangon - More than 30,000 Buddhist monks, nuns and laymen marched through the streets on Yangon Monday in a swelling display of barefoot rebellion against the country's military regime.
For the seventh consecutive day thousands of monks marched first to the Shwedagon Pagoda, in the heart of Yangon, by noon before spreading out to other holy spots in the former capital.
Up to 5,000 of the monks passed by the headquarters of the opposition National League for Democracy (NLD), which is headed by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. NLD officers cheered the monks as they passed.
The road to Suu Kyi's house, where she has been kept under arrest since May, 2003, was heavily barricaded to prevent the monks from visiting her as they did on Saturday, eyewitnesses said.
A sea of monks and their followers had surrounded the Sule Pagoda, in the heart of downtown Yangon, by Monday afternoon, and another 15,000 protesters gathered around the Kyimyindine Pagoda, in the northern part of the city.
It was the seventh straight day of Burma's maroon-robed rebellion which has thus far been without violence. But on Monday, there were signs that a clash was looming.
Laymen who joined the monks carrying placards with political slogans were roughed up by pro-government thugs and had their posters taken away, eyewitnesses said.
The monks marched in the streets Monday despite an order by the military-controlled Buddhist clergy, the Sangha Nayaka Committee, to city temples to send all visiting monks back to their provinces.
Many of the participating monks are from temples outside of Yangon, visiting the former capital for religious studies during Buddhist lent.
Monday's protest was bigger than Sunday's, when more than 10,000 laymen joined approximately 3,000 marching monks and 300 nuns, many of whom shouted political slogans for the first time, calling on the ruling regime to free opposition leader Suu Kyi.
A confrontation between the military and monks seems inevitable, Western diplomats said.
"We expect some kind of a resolution in the next few days," said one Western diplomat. "Either the protests go up or go down, but it can't go on like this."
Burma's military, which has ruled the country since 1962, has killed protesting monks before, most recently in the 1988 anti-government demonstrations.
But this is the first time Myanmar's 400,000-strong Buddhist monkhood has taken a lead in the protest movement, pitting rifles against robes in a looming confrontation that could easily spark an uprising if mishandled.
The ruling State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has a long history of mismanagement. It was their decision on August 15 to more than double local fuel prices overnight, without a system of gradual hikes and no prior warnings to the public, that has led them to the current predicament.
Peaceful demonstrations against the fuel hikes started in Yangon on August 19, but were quickly suppressed by authorities who arrested more than 100 protest leaders.
The protest movement was then picked up by Burma's monkhood earlier this month, and has now spread nationwide.
Myanmar's junta has kept a tight lid on discontent for the past 19 years, cracking down on all shows of student-led protests and dissent from opposition politicians such as Suu Kyi's supporters.
The monks' movement has put Burma's regime in an awkward position. If the rulers do not crack down on the protests, the demonstrations are likely to spread, but if they attack the monks, they would enrage the people.
Buddhist monks have a history of political activism in Myanmar, a predominantly Buddhist country.
The monkhood played a prominent role in Burma's struggle for independence from Great Britain, which came in 1948, and joined students in the anti-military demonstrations that rocked Burma in 1988 and ended in bloodshed.
Like the recent protests, the 1988 mass demonstrations were sparked by rising discontent with the military's mismanagement of the economy and refusal to introduce some semblance of democracy.
In September 1988, the army cracked down on the pro-democracy movement, leaving an estimated 3,000 dead. (dpa)
