Protests against Burma junta escalate

By Dominic Faulder in Bangkok and agencies

Published: September 23 2007 17:49 | Last updated: September 24 2007 03:09

Protests against Burma’s military junta escalated yesterday as thousands of bystanders joined an estimated 5,000 monks in a march through the streets of the former capital, Rangoon.

It was the sixth day of rallies against the military regime, in the country’s biggest act of protest since the junta violently quashed pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988.

According to reports from Burma, as many as 20,000 people took to the streets of Rangoon yesterday. A further 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, were reported to have demonstrated against the junta in the northern city of Mandalay on Saturday.

Yesterday police barred monks from approaching the home where Nobel laureate and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is held under house arrest.

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On Saturday an estimated 1,000 monks had been allowed past police barricades and Ms Suu Kyi, 62, is reported to have come to the gates of her lakeside home to pay her respects to them and wave to the crowd. It was the first public sighting of Ms Suu Kyi since her incarceration in May 2003.

The visit to Ms Suu Kyi’s house marked the first time the monks had actively linked their protest to the pro-democracy movement. “The monks have drawn her back into into the political frame,” said a Burmese exile.

Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said her government was monitoring the situation. ”The brutality of this regime is well known and so we’ll be speaking about that and I think the president will be speaking about it as well.” She added, ”The Burmese people deserve better. They deserve (the) right to be able to live in freedom, just as everyone does.”

Regional leaders have called for the junta to restrain from a violent crackdown.

“I hope the relevant authorities in Myanmar [Burma] will not take any strong action and turn the protests into a big confrontation,” Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the Association of South East Asian Nations, told the AP. Burma is one of the 10 members of Asean.

In 1988, after some initial violence, demonstrators were allowed to carry on for almost six weeks before the military stepped in, using extreme force that left an estimated 3,000 unarmed civilians dead.

The monks’ protests began last month, following a decision by the regime to increase the price of fuel by as much as 500 per cent.

There are 400,000-500,000 monks and novices in Burma, making them members of the only institution in the country of comparable size to the military. Some monks are refusing to minister to the military and their families. “They are younger monks and have obviously become very political,” said one Burmese commentator.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007