Thousands Of Monks Protest Against Burma's Military Government

Mayur Pahilajani - AHN News Writer

Myanmar, Burma (AHN) - More than two thousand Buddhist monks marched through the streets in Myanmar on Saturday, the sixth day of anti-military government protests. The demonstrators marched and prayed in rain as they sought to continue their protests until the military regime collapses.

Protests were taking place in almost seven different towns across Burma including Mandalay and Rangoon where large number of monks had gathered to participate in the rally.

According to reports, one of the main reasons of the protest was the sudden doubling of fuel prices last month.

Additionally, an underground Buddhist group, The Alliance of All Burmese Buddhist Monks, showing their support for the protest, has called for nationwide prayer vigils. "We ask every citizen to join our vigils," a spokesman from the Buddhist group told AFP.

The vigil will begin Sunday and continue for three days for 15 minutes at 8:00 p.m. each night, the spokesman told AFP. The citizens were asked to stand outside their homes to pray during the vigil.

Burma's ruler cannot stand against the monks publicly because of fear it will enrage the citizens, according to BBC News.

Win Min, a Thai-based Myanmar analyst, said to AFP, "Monks are representing people's sufferings. They want the junta to address economic issues. [And] the anti-junta movement is certainly gaining momentum because the sheer number of monks has risen sharply over the past week."

Moreover, no signs of violence were reported. The organizers of the demonstration were determined to continue their protests peacefully, reports say.

10,000 Myanmar Monks Protest in Mandalay

Saturday September 22, 2007 8:46 AM

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) - About 10,000 Buddhist monks marched through Myanmar's central city of Mandalay on Saturday, witnesses said, in one of the largest demonstrations against the country's repressive military regime since a democratic uprising in 1988.

Monks from various monasteries started their march in Mandalay - a hotbed for activist monks - while about 1,000 Buddhist monks began marching from Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda, the country's most revered shrine and a historic center for protest movements. From there, witnesses said, they planned to march to downtown Yangon, which is the nation's largest city.

It was the fifth straight day the monks have marched in Yangon and the numbers showed the anti-government protest were growing in size. The monk's activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices, sparking demonstrations against policies that are causing economic hardship.

Meanwhile, Buddhist monks in the country urged the public for the first time to join in protesting the ``evil military despotism,'' stepping up their campaign against the junta after days of peaceful marches.

``In order to banish the common enemy evil regime from Burmese soil forever, united masses of people need to join hands with the united clergy forces,'' The All Burma Monks Alliance said the statement, received by The Associated Press Saturday.

``We pronounce the evil military despotism, which is impoverishing and pauperizing our people of all walks including the clergy, as the common enemy of all our citizens,'' the statement read, which was translated from Burmese by Burma Net, a news site that covers Myanmar.

A day earlier, some 1,500 barefoot Buddhist monks marched through the rain-flooded streets of Myanmar's biggest city, drawing even more public sympathy to ongoing anti-government protests that have put the ruling military on the defensive.

The protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact, but they gained new life when the monks joined.

The government has been handling the situation gingerly, aware that forcibly breaking up the monks' protest in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar would likely cause public outrage.

The protests at the Shwedagon pagoda resonate with many people, as it is best remembered as the site of a vast Aug. 26, 1988, rally where independence hero Gen. Aung San's daughter Aung San Suu Kyi, took up leadership of a pro-democracy movement.

The 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed by the military, and Suu Kyi has spent nearly 12 of the past 18 years in detention.

GET TO KNOW BURMA-SO-CALLED MYANMAR!!

By Kevin A. Stoda

Since 10,000 Burmese monks made the Voice of America Radio news, I thought I would enquire how many readers know of Burma and the people's suffering and struggle there.???

Too few Americans can find Burma on the world map. This is partially because a military regime, called SLORC, changed the name of this ancient land a few years ago.

Burma is still located between India and Thailand and has been economically and socially stagnant under the extended elite regime's leadership of the past 5 decades. Most "people in the know" and "lovers of Burma" refuse to call the country Myanmar in support of the many indigenous peoples and monks who have bravely fought SLORC and its supporter, but they have been put down many times. All around the border of the country of Burma are dozens of refugee camps-some 4 or more decades old.

I visited one of the camps on the border near Mae Sot, Thailand a decade ago. I met very wonderful Burmese-Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Chin, Shan, Mon and others-many more have been forced to live in jails, enslavement, or live abroad in exile over a very long period of time. They are fantastic people. I was even blessed to donate money and medicines to the humble yet famous Dr. Cynthia's Clinic.

It was an honor to meet Dr. Cynthia for a few minutes in 1994. Read her tale in a review of Journey of the Heart: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/cythia.html

In the early and mid-1990s, there were regular reports that whole Burmese villages or--in some cases-only healthy youths-were being forced at gunpoint to carry out lengthy duties and build roads for the SLORC soldiers. U.S. companies, like Unical and Chevron Oil , have continued to be allied with the SLORC regime as have several European and Asian firms.

These companies are still there despite the fact that an executive order was issued in 1997 banning U.S. firm involvement in Burma/Myanmar.

DAW AUNG SAN SUU KYI

One of the more famous individuals from Burma is Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been imprisoned by the SLORC government in Burma for most of the past two decades. Suu Kyi led a successful & peaceful election campaign to oust the military dictators in 1990, but the elections were thrown out by the military junta.

As is occurring in Burma today in 2007, many Burmese Buddhist monks in 1990 had begun to protest the government's behavior by refusing to accept alms from the military personnel of the land. The government repressed even the monks at that point.

Meanwhile in 1991, the world community called on the Noble Prize Committee to select Aung San Suu Kyi as Peace Prize winner. This, in fact, did occur.
[Get to know Suu Kyi by checking out one of the websites on her below in the NOTES section of this writing.]

GEOGRAPHY OF PROTEST: BURMA

For the fifth day in a row monks in the capital of Rangoon, thousands of orange-dressed monks have been marching and demanding respect from the national government and military in Myanmar/Burma.

Why is this marching happening now in Burma?

In short, "[T]he protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact, but they gained new life when the monks joined." This week, Aung San Suu Kyi was able to wave at the 10,000 monks who marched by her home, where she has been under house arrest for far too long.According to an Australian reporter, "The monks also strike a strong chord of public sympathy by gathering at the Shwedagon [pagoda], which is not only a religious centre but also a historical focal point for social and political protests. Student strikers against British colonial rule gathered there in the 1920s and 30s, and the country's independence hero, Gen. Aung San, took up the same cause there in a famous 1946 speech."

General Aung San is Aung San Suu Kyi's own parent. Suu Kyi had grown up in a semi-exile abroad and had been married in the UK, but she had returned to her homeland just prior to the 1988 uprising in order to take care of her aged mother.

The Australian press adds that "to many people, the pagoda [Shwedagon] is best remembered as the site of a vast Aug. 26, 1988, rally where Aung San's daughter Aung San Suu Kyi, took up leadership of a pro-democracy movement. The 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed by the military, and Suu Kyi has spent 11 of the past 18 years in detention.

"WORRIED? ... AND WHAT CAN ONE DO?

This is a sobering moment for the Burmese. Many are happy and supportive of the Monks current stand on their behalf. However, in 1988 and again in 1990 similar protests were put down by the SLORC regime and its predecessors.

Besides prayer, what can one do?

I'd suggest that interested parties go first to Burma support organizations, like at the Burma Guide address: http://burmaguide.net/index_html

See what various groups things can be or should be done.Second, contact the more-than-a-dozen senators on the Senate Relations Committees, like Sen. Biden or Sen. Lugar. Let them know that you want freedom and justice to be what the U.S. is seen as as supporting abroad in 2007 .

Try this link for help in contacting these senators: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sforeThird, continue to push for the U.S. to back up prior executive orders and prior congressional demands that U.S. firms stay out of Burma.

Chevron bought Unical some time ago and has become the largest foreign investor in Burma. Surely, Chevron should be expected to do what justice and freedom demand, too. Let Bush and Congress know that Americans are concerned and watching whether Chevron will continue to be blatantly ignore the executive branch to thwarting the laws of the land.

For example, the following is what has been reported by Marco Simons in Thomas Paine reported on the horrors that Unical/Chevron have been up to with their SLORC buddies over the past days and years:

"When refugees who had suffered rape, torture, enslavement, and murder at the hands of soldiers protecting the Yadana pipeline sued Unocal in U.S. court, the Bush administration intervened to try to convince the courts that the lawsuit should not proceed. The administration essentially argued that, even if the case would not actually interfere with U.S. relations with Burma, holding Unocal liable would create a precedent that could conflict with U.S. foreign policy in other parts of the world. (The lawsuit, Doe v. Unocal Corp., was ultimately resolved before the courts considered the administration's position, with Unocal compensating the victims in a historic settlement-see http://www.earthrights.org/legal/unocal/.) If the Bush administration opposes accountability for human rights violations committed by the oil and gas industry in a pariah state such as Burma, the situation is even worse when oil companies commit abuses in countries friendly to the United States. In the troubled Indonesian region of Aceh, security forces hired by ExxonMobil have committed rape, murder and torture against local villagers. When the victims filed suit in federal court against the oil giant for compensation, the Bush administration sent a letter to the court stating that the case could cause a 'serious adverse impact' on 'the ongoing struggle against international terrorism.' The judge subsequently dismissed parts of the case."

In short, the struggle for the Burmese people is related to the struggle for- and with Big Oil dependence.

We are all part of this struggle. Find time to do something.

Finally, get your peace- and other community organizations supportive and provide teach-ins on the multi-ethnic and long suffering peoples of Burma.

Thanks.

P.S. SLORC leadership, by the way, have recently signed a contract with Russia to build a Nuclear power plant-a la Iran? Or North Korea?

NOTES

1991 Nobel Piece prize Winner, Aung San Suu Kyi"
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1991/kyi-bio.html

"10,000 Monks Protest in Burma", http://www.voanews.com/english/2007-09-22-voa4.cfm

"A Land of War: A Journey of the Heart", http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/special/burma/

Burma Guide to Rights and Democracy", http://burmaguide.net/res-en/BIG17_39_en/view

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi", http://www.dassk.com/

"Over 1500 Monks Protest in Burma", http://www.thewest.com.au/aapstory.aspx?StoryName=420714

Russia to Build Nuclear Reactor in Burma, http://www.dw-world.de/dw/function/0,,12215_cid_2516959,00.html?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-rdf

Simons, Marco, "Big Oil Trumps Freedom", http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/26/big_oil_trumps_freedom.php

Key facts about Myanmar

Key facts about Myanmar, which is experiencing the largest protests since a failed democratic uprising in 1988.

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COUNTRY: Myanmar, also known as Burma, is a Southeast Asian nation bordered by Bangladesh and India to the west, China to the north and Thailand and Laos to the east and southeast. Its total land area is 679,000 square kilometers (262,000 square miles), or slightly smaller than Texas. Its population is 54 million.
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POLITICS: Myanmar has been ruled by the military since 1962. Dictator Ne Win was replaced in 1988 by another group of generals who crushed a pro-democracy movement that left thousands dead. The junta held general elections in 1990, but refused to honor the results when Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won. Suu Kyi has been under house arrest for almost 12 of the past 18 years. In 1993, the government launched a self-described, seven-step democratic "road map." The first step was completed in September with the completion of guidelines for a new constitution. No date for a referendum on the constitution or elections has been set.
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ECONOMY: Once Southeast Asia's most prosperous country, Myanmar today is one of the world's 20 poorest nations, with a per capita income of about US$200 (euro141). Economic problems are related to the military's misrule and exasperated by sanctions imposed by Western countries to force political change. Poverty is endemic and AIDS and other diseases are spreading rapidly. In recent years, the government has opened up the economy. Neighboring countries including China, India and Thailand have rushed in to tap its vast reserves of oil and natural gas, which has propped up the regime.

Nobel laureate Suu Kyi back in focus as anti-government protests in Myanmar grow

YANGON, Myanmar: As Myanmar's most sustained anti-government protests in two decades gain critical mass, the focus is again on a woman who until Saturday had not been seen in public in more than four years — detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Suu Kyi — who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest — greeted more than 500 monks who briefly chanted prayers after they were unexpectedly allowed to pass a roadblock and gather outside her home.

The charismatic Nobel Peace Prize laureate has long been the linchpin in the struggle to bring democracy to Myanmar and an end to the brutal decades-long rule of the ruling generals.

Charismatic, steely-willed and outspoken, it is Suu Kyi's popularity that has made her freedom an unappealing prospect for Myanmar's rulers. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 and is currently the only laureate under house arrest.

She is also the head of Myanmar's most popular political party, the National League for Democracy. The generals, who ignored the results of a landslide 1990 NLD election victory to hold onto power, insist they are guiding the country back to orderly democratic rule.

With Suu Kyi under house arrest, the current protests — which began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices — have so far been led by her party faithful and other activists, but gained a boost when thousands of monks rallied to the cause.

"The fact that monks have gone to see Aung San Suu Kyi is really symbolically very important," Myanmar analyst Larry Jagan told The Associated Press in Bangkok.

"The key is the monks and Aung San Suu Kyi have one thing in common; peaceful protest. They want to see change through peaceful means. What we're seeing is a coming together of the main political force in the country, and the main religious leaders," he said.

Suu Kyi, 62, is the daughter of Gen. Aung San, who led Myanmar's nationalist struggle against British colonial rule after World War II.

Except for her name, she was an unknown figure in Myanmar. But as many as a half-million people turned out for her political debut on Aug. 26, 1988, a public speech at the foot of Yangon's Shwedagon Pagoda — the country's most revered shrine that has again become a focus of the current protests.

The speech was the high-water mark of a pro-democracy uprising that sort to end military rule that began in 1962. It was ruthlessly crushed by the army, who shot down thousands of people nationwide and later imprisoned Suu Kyi and other pro-democracy leaders.

There are few signs that the ruling junta is willing to pick up the pace of its avowed road map for democracy, which calls for a constitution and free elections at some unspecified point in the future.

Neither is Suu Kyi, incarcerated or not, likely to back away from her insistence that her party play a leading role in determining the country's future.

Despite her forced isolation, Suu Kyi commands world attention and respect, her freedom a major demand of many Western leaders and the United Nations, as well as admirers around the globe.

Suu Kyi has been under detention continuously since May 2003 at her home in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon.

Allowed no visitors or even access to a telephone, uncovering information about Suu Kyi's life in detention has been difficult.

Her most recent period of detention began after she began making political trips to the countryside, where — despite open intimidation by the government — huge crowds turned out to see her.

It was during one of those trips in northern Myanmar that her motorcade was ambushed by a government-backed mob.

The government — apparently stunned at her popularity — used the violence as a pretext to lock her up, saying that she presented a threat to public order.

She had been freed only a year earlier — in May 2002 — from 19 months of house arrest. In 1989, detained on trumped-up national security charges, she was held until 1995.

Born in Rangoon, now Yangon, in 1945, she was only two years old when her father was assassinated by political rivals in 1947, a year before independence for the country then called Burma.

Raised by her mother, who served abroad in Myanmar's diplomatic corps in the 1960s, Suu Kyi earned a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford in 1967, then worked for the United Nations in New York and Bhutan.