MYANMAR (BURMA): 30, 000 ON YANGON'S STREETS, 50 PCT MONKS

(AGI) - Yangon, 24th September - The crowds spilling onto the streets of Yangon(formerly Rangoon) have been swelling rapidly, reaching numbers of at least thirty thousand people, half of whom are monks. It was they who set off on yet another march against the military junta which has ruled Myanmar (Burma), for the past 45 years. In doing so they were in disobedience of their Buddhist hierarchies, which are under regime control, who ordered them to return to their monasteries and stop their protests. Today's protests come after five consecutive weeks of daily demonstrations, sparked off by unannounced fuel price rises which are unaffordable to the inhabitants of one of the world's poorest countries. Not only are today's marches the most threatening, they are also the most widespread in the past twenty years in former Burma. The monks ignored the ban against marching, which came from the 'Sangha Nayaka' committee, the organ at the top of the Buddhist clergy, deciding instead to continue with their peaceful demonstration. To begin with, only around five hundred monks set off on a march, but they soon turned into thousands, with a minimum of five thousand pouring onto the streets of the old capital together with a swarm of supporters.