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[bucheon bum]

Over 1,000 Monks protest in Myanmar

Things aren't very stable right now in Myanmar. Over the past month, there have been more and more protests. Kinda gives one hope that the junta might be in trouble. Probably not, but at least people there have become so upset that they're willing to risk their lives and protest.

[Mosley]

Unfortunately, the last time Burmese were willing to risk their lives en masse was 1988 and we know how that turned out. I'm not optimistic about a regime change in Myanmar.

[igotthisguitar]

Doesn't Beijing essentially DICTATE what occurs in this region politically?

Quite similar to the realpolitik vis a vis exertion of US influence in the west

SPHERE OF INFLUENCE
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphere_of_influence

[Adventurer]

[igotthisguitar]

Myanmar Monks Defy Junta With 3rd Day Of Protests
Wed Sep 19, 10:54 AM ET

YANGON (AFP) - More than 2,000 monks protested across Myanmar Wednesday for the third straight day against the country's junta, one month after a huge fuel price hike sparked a wave of rarely-seen public discontent.



Chanting Buddhist prayers, about 300 monks marched through Yangon in the rain toward the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most important landmark, while two smaller groups protested in other parts of the country's main city.

Another 500 monks demonstrated in Mandalay, Myanmar's second city, while in Sittwe, 560 kilometres (350 miles) west of Yangon, more than 1,000 monks staged a sit-in outside a police station, a Yangon-based Western diplomat said.

In Prome, 300 kilometres north of Yangon, another group of about 500 monks staged a protest against the junta, the diplomat told AFP.

The marches by monks across this devoutly Buddhist country followed similar rallies Tuesday, the biggest anti-junta demonstration in a decade, as the clergy emerge as key players in a protest movement that erupted last month.

Myanmar's junta normally does not tolerate even the slightest show of public dissent, but monks are widely respected and important cultural standard-bearers in the country.

In Yangon, nearly 1,000 onlookers clapped and smiled under the watchful eyes of plainclothes police at the Sule Pagoda, as more than 300 monks marched by.

They initially headed for the Shwedagon Pagoda, but entrances have remained closed since Tuesday, forcing the marchers through the downtown area.

Dozens of plainclothes officials followed the monks with video cameras, but the three-hour march was not impeded by police. Authorities made no attempt to break up the crowd of well-wishers at the Sule Pagoda.

Two other groups of about 100 monks staged separate marches in other parts of the city on Wednesday. Witnesses said about 50 ordinary people joined the evening march.

There were no reports of violence during the protest in central Mandalay, which is home to 300,000 monks.

In Sittwe, police used a megaphone to urge the public not to join the protest, the Western diplomat said. Reports said the monks were demanding the release of three detainees.

The junta used tear gas and fired warning shots in the town on Tuesday to break up a 1,000-strong protest by monks.

The state-run newspaper New Light of Myanmar said authorities "had to use tear gas and fired three shots in the air to disperse the crowd" as protesters had become "violent".

One official and nine policemen were injured, the paper said in a rare admission about the junta's use of violence. But it added no protesters were hurt or arrested.

The Myanmar-language service of US-funded Radio Free Asia said at least three people had been arrested on Tuesday.

Since protests began a month ago, authorities have arrested more than 150 people, but Win Min, a Thai-based analyst, said the generals were cautious about stirring a public backlash if they acted against the clergy.

"It's a dilemma for the junta. If they don't crack down on protests by monks, more people will join protests. But if they do, it could trigger massive public outrage against the government," he said.

Two weeks ago, soldiers beat protesting monks with bamboo sticks in Pakokku, near Mandalay, prompting young monks to briefly kidnap officials at a monastery.

Monks have demanded a government apology over the Pakokku incident, with threats to step up street protests.

Tuesday's protest in Yangon was also significant because the monks took an oath to refuse alms from senior military officers -- a powerful sign of dissent here.

"This is the beginning of popular mobilisations against the junta," said Aung Thu Nyein, a Thai-based Myanmar analyst.

Monks were credited with helping to rally popular support for a 1988 pro-democracy uprising crushed by the military when soldiers opened fire on protesters, killing hundreds if not thousands of people.

[yawarakaijin]

[igotthisguitar]

Monks Put Myanmar Junta In Tight Spot
By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer
Fri Sep 21, 5:04 PM ET

BANGKOK, Thailand - Armed only with upturned begging bowls, chanting Buddhist monks in Myanmar have caught the country's military rulers off guard with their peaceful protests.

They have emboldened the public to take to the streets by the thousands to support the most dramatic anti-government protests the isolated Southeast Asian nation has seen in a decade.

Braving monsoon rains, monks in traditional maroon robes demonstrated for a fourth straight day Friday in the country's largest city, Yangon. Followed by clapping onlookers, about 1,500 monks marched after praying at the Shwedagon Pagoda, the nation's holiest shrine and a gathering place for anti-government demonstrations including the failed 1988 democratic uprising.



The monks, who are widely respected in the mostly Buddhist society, bring moral authority to the movement with their nonviolent practices and sheer numbers: There are 500,000 in monasteries across the country.

Their assumption of a leadership role in protests poses perhaps the gravest threat to the junta since the 1988 uprising when the military fired on peaceful crowds, killing thousands and terrorizing the country.

It has put the regime in a quandary over whether to crack down or take a chance and allow the protests to run their course.

Josef Silverstein, a Myanmar expert and retired Rutgers University professor, said the junta may be hesitating to act until it assesses how many monks support the protests and who is actually leading them. Yet waiting much longer could be risky.

"The monks are showing that without arms and nothing more than prayers and marching that they are capable of having greater freedom than people have had," he said. "This could encourage people to be more resistant. The longer this stalemate goes on, the weaker the military looks to the country and outside."

Images of the monks have increased support for the opposition's cause worldwide. Washington, the United Nations and Hollywood stars have called on the junta to enact democratic reforms and release the leader of the pro-democracy opposition, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, along with other political prisoners.

The current demonstrations are the most militant since December 1996, when students gathered in Yangon to demand improvements in education and the right to organize in a union.

The military, which has controlled Myanmar since 1962, has withstood waves of domestic and international protests since 1988 and shows no signs of yielding now. Even if the people are angry and emboldened, and the junta is "treated as a pariah by the West", there are no signs of disunity in the army. And the support of neighboring nations, most notably China, as well as oil and gas revenues, keep the military in a commanding position.

Aung Zaw, a Burmese editor of The Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based magazine that covers Myanmar, said the military knows that brutalizing the monks could prompt the wider public � which has largely remained on the sidelines_ to join the protests.

"Authorities are at odds over how to deal with the monks at the point. As you know, monks are respected and influential people," Aung Zaw said. "If you are going to physically attack them, it could really provoke public anger and invite more troubles."

Aung Zaw said in the history of Burma, as Myanmar is also known, the military leadership has always resolved such challenges by force.

"Sooner or later, there will be a crackdown," Aung Zaw said. "They will never compromise or open dialogue."

Myanmar ranks among the 20 poorest countries in the world, according to the United Nations, with most people living on less than $200 a year. The United Nations and others have blamed inept military leaders for bungling Myanmar's economy, spending excessive amounts of money on a new capital and on maintaining one of the world's largest armies.

The latest protests were triggered when authorities raised fuel prices as much as 500 percent in August. Strapped for cash, the regime was forced to slash the subsidies it had used to keep fuel cheap.

The cost of public transport skyrocketed and families suddenly found themselves having to walk to work and sell household goods to survive.

The government, which has a monopoly on fuel sales, raised prices of fuel from about $1.40 to $2.80 a gallon, and boosted the price of natural gas by about 500 percent.

Government opponents began demonstrating over the price hikes Aug. 19, but the protests were quickly contained by the junta with waves of arrests and beatings. With activists in jail or hiding, the leadership role fell to the monks.

The monks launched their protests Tuesday after the junta failed to apologize for allegedly roughing up Buddhist clergy during a demonstration in the northern town of Pakokku on Sept. 5.

Monks are demanding the government reduce fuel prices, release all political prisoners and begin negotiations with Suu Kyi and other democratic leaders.

What makes this week's protests different than the student-led uprising of 1988 are the monks' non-confrontational tactics � their orderly marches and religious chanting has yet to provoke the military.

Monks leading the procession have carried upside-down alms bowl � a symbol of protest. Some monks are refusing alms from the military and their families � a religious boycott deeply embarrassing to the junta. In the Myanmar language, the term for "boycott" comes from the words for holding an alms bowl upside down

Penny Edwards, a professor of Southeast Asian history at the University of California at Berkeley, said the monks' protests posed a great challenge to the government's moral legitimacy and claims of support for Buddhism.

Since similar protests in 1990, Edwards said the junta has invested massive amounts of money and publicity in their campaign to materially support Buddhism, partly through temple renovations.

"This is the first sustained challenge by the monkhood to this Buddhist-centered campaign of the junta, which has at least superficially been able to claim that it has some legitimacy as a primary material sponsor of Buddhism," said Edwards.

The junta has tried to blame the trouble on Suu Kyi's political party and Western powers.

"You can see the government handles the situation peacefully," the Information Ministry's Ye Htut told The Associated Press on Thursday. "Anti-government groups want to see the state of emergency because their objective is to exploit and provoke sangha (monks), students, workers and innocent people into making another 1988-style riot," Ye Htut said.

Plainclothes police and pro-junta thugs, who in the early days of the demonstrations rounded up and beat activists, have mostly left the monks alone.

But if the protests gain traction, Silverstein and other analysts say it's possible that the military may make concessions, perhaps including drafting a more democratic constitution

[hogwonguy1979]

having just been there this summer i pray that the monks can have some impact. the myanmar people were some of the nicest people i've met in my travels

the problem is like with north korea, china, as long as they refuse to do anything about the situation the juanta will continue to rule

[hogwonguy1979]

10,000 protested today in Mandalay

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_as/myanmar

this aint going away

[Adventurer]

Monks allowed past Suu Kyi's house 1 hour, 3 minutes ago



YANGON, Myanmar - The wave of anti-government demonstrations sweeping Myanmar touched the doorstep of democracy heroine Aung San Suu Kyi Saturday as Buddhist monks marched past her home and said they were greeted by the detained political leader.


The encounter, described by a monk to a crowd of anti-government protesters and confirmed by several witnesses, ties together a month-long movement of protest against the ruling military's economic policies with the country's decades-old uphill struggle for democracy.

On Friday, about 1,500 barefoot Buddhist monks marched more than 10 miles through Yangon's flooded streets, sometimes in knee-deep water, in a raging tropical downpour. More than 1,000 sympathizers marched with them.

"I feel so sorry to see the monks walking in heavy rain and taking such trouble on behalf of the people. I feel so grateful as well," said a 50-year-old woman with tears rolling down her face. Like most onlookers, she asked not to be named for fear of drawing unwelcome attention from authorities.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070922/ap_on_re_as/myanmar


[I am certainly touched by these monks who are braving harsh conditions for their people, and I pray for them and for the people of Burma...
Peace, Namaste, Shalom, Salam, Paix, Paxa, Shlama to you monks of Burma and to the people of Burma. May you see democracy. ]

[igotthisguitar]

[hogwonguy1979]

20,000 today:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070923/ap_on_re_as/myanmar

lets hope it keeps up but i'm afraid for them

[Vicissitude]

Moral pressure is very powerful, especially combined with acts of civil disobedience. It worked quite well in India to put down the British Imperialists and bring about India's independence.

These monks (though large in numbers) have yet to brave acts of civil disobedience. Should this be the case and the junta military shed the blood of monks, many of whom are young boys, it would certainly shake up the country as well as neighboring countries such as Thailand and Laos.

[igotthisguitar]

Nuns Join Anti-Junta Rallies

The protest is gaining strength, observers say
About 5,000 Burmese monks have been joined by nuns for the first time on the seventh day of protests calling for an end to the military government.



Cheered on by 10,000 onlookers, up to 150 nuns joined the march through the heart of Rangoon.

But unlike a day earlier, police barred a group of monks from entering the road that leads to the home of detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aung_San_Suu_Kyi

[Manner of Speaking]

Wow, isn't this amazing?

Who wants to make a bet?

I'll bet $20 to your favorite charity that the Myanmar junta will be gone by the end of October!

Winner pays up by PayPal!