Monks Put Myanmar Junta in Tight Spot

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Buddhist monks march for a fourth straight day on Friday Sept. 21, 2007, in Yangon, Myanmar. About 1,500 Buddhist monks marched through Myanmar's main city Friday in their biggest turnout yet for a month-long wave of protests against the military government, which insisted it will not impose a state of emergency. (AP Photo)

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By MICHAEL CASEY – 2 days ago

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — 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.

Associated Press writer Michael Casey has covered Southeast Asia for five years. Associated Press writer Lily Hindy contributed to this report from New York.

Witnesses Say 10,000 Buddhist Monks Held Protest Against Military Regime in Myanmar

YANGON, Myanmar — A decision by Myanmar's military regime to allow Buddhist monks to march passed the home of detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi should not be seen as a sign the junta is preparing to release its iron grip on power, analysts warned Sunday.

The military — struggling to deal with the most-sustained wave of anti-government protests in two decades — could still launch a bloody crackdown as it has in the past, an analyst and UN official warned.

On Sunday, the junta beefed up security on both ends of the road leading to Suu Kyi's house, witnesses said, in what appeared to be an effort to prevent a repeat of Saturday's march. About 20 pro-junta thugs and a dozen riot police were posted on the street, the witnesses said.

Monks have been marching for the past five days in Myanmar's biggest city and around the country as a month of protests against economic hardship under the junta have ballooned into the biggest grass-roots challenge to its rule since pro-democracy protests in 1988.

By linking their cause to Suu Kyi's activism, which has seen her detained for about 12 of the last 18 years, the monks increased the pressure on the junta to decide whether to crack down or to compromise with the demonstrators.

"This was a very important gesture," said David Steinberg, a Myanmar expert at Georgetown University in Washington who is monitoring events from Singapore. "It's significant because the military allowed them to pass (Suu Kyi's house). That and other images indicate the military is not prepared unless things get worse to directly confront the monks in their uniforms."

Steinberg said this was in contrast to 1990 when the military put down a protest by hundreds of monks in Mandalay, arresting and defrocking some and closing monasteries linked with the demonstration.

So far, the government has been handling the monks' disciplined but defiant protests gingerly, aware that forcibly breaking them up in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar would likely cause public outrage.

But Steinberg said the military's lack of force should not be seen as a sign of weakness, given it remains the largest and most powerful institution in the country.

"Any change (in the government) will have to be approved by elements of the military if there is to be change," he said. "They are far too powerful to be resisted if the military acts in unison."

A U.N. official agreed, saying that while dissident groups he had met in Bangkok this week were optimistic about the outcome, they failed to take into account the military's history of brutally suppressing uprisings in 1988, 1990 and 1996.

"They were very optimistic and expectant and seemed to believe that there was one outcome possible which was popular uprising that brings Suu Kyi to the forefront," said the official, who requested anonymity citing protocol. "I'm not as confident that is the only outcome possible. I would think massive repression and violence on a significant scale is not to be discounted."

The monks on Saturday stopped briefly in front of Suu Kyi's house and said prayers before leaving at the other end of the street, said witnesses, who asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the authorities.

"Today is extraordinary. We walked past lay disciple Daw Aung San Suu Kyi's house today. We are pleased and glad to see her looking fit and well," a 45-year old monk told about 200 people at Sule Pagoda in downtown Yangon, Myanmar's biggest city. "Daw" is an honorific used in referring to older women.

Photos posted on the Web site of Mizzima News, run by Myanmar exile journalists in India, shows a crowd gathered outside the gate of Suu Kyi's home, with uniformed security men standing immediately in front of it.

Suu Kyi, 62, is the leader of the National League for Democracy party, which won a 1990 general election but was not allowed to take power by the military. She has been under detention continuously since May 2003.

The latest 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.

In the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, a crowd of 10,000 people, including at least 4,000 Buddhist monks, marched Saturday in one of the largest demonstrations since the 1988 democracy uprising, witnesses said.

At the same time, about 1,000 monks— led by one holding his begging bowl upturned as a sign of protest — marched in Yangon starting from the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most revered shrine and a historic center for protest movements.

A monks' organization, the All Burma Monks Alliance, also urged the public to join in protesting "evil military despotism" in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Little is known of the group or its membership, but its communiques have spread widely by word of mouth and through opposition media in exile.

Myanmar's junta faces rebuke at UN General Assembly

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 10:07am (Mla time) 09/23/2007

UNITED NATIONS--As protests intensify against the military generals in Myanmar, world leaders at the United Nations General Assembly are expected to push the ruling junta to adopt democratic reforms.

The United States and European nations are to spearhead a diplomatic blitz at the annual gathering this week in an apparent bid to lend support to the biggest democratic campaign in two decades in the tightly ruled Southeast Asian state, diplomats said.

The move comes as Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, under house arrest, appeared in public Saturday for the first time in four years, greeting and paying respect to thousands of monks and their supporters protesting in the commercial capital Yangon against the military junta.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said he will raise the Myanmar issue at the UN General Assembly in New York, following a briefing on the situation at the UN Security Council last week.

His counterparts from Europe, which has put off plans for a free trade pact with ASEAN due to Myanmar's human rights record, will also be highlighting the topic at the UN meeting, diplomats said.

Both the European Union (EU) and the United States have been at the forefront of political and economic sanctions against Myanmar's junta for years but to no avail.

US President George W. Bush, who delivers his address at the UN General Assembly and holds a roundtable meeting on democracy with a group of about 20 leaders on Tuesday, is expected to add to the international pressure on Myanmar's junta.

"You've got Burma, which I think, as you know, the First Lady and the President both have spent time on, and I think it would be fair to think that that might be mentioned," said Michael Kozak, a senior official with the National Security Council, using Myanmar's former name.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will also highlight the Myanmar crisis at a meeting with her counterparts of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Thursday at the sidelines of the UN talks.

She would ask them to use their influence to prod Myanmar to release Aung San Suu Kyi and carry out other democratic reforms, officials said.

Myanmar is a member of ASEAN, which also comprises Brunei, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

"Among other things, Secretary Rice will press for ASEAN leverage to end the crackdown in Burma and to initiate genuine democratic reforms in Burma," Assistant Secretary of State Kristen Silverberg told reporters.

Myanmar has been a key topic at every US-ASEAN meeting and Rice, at one meeting at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in 2005, directly lashed out at her Myanmar counterpart for political repression.

Rice may also raise the issue with her Chinese counterpart in scheduled talks Monday.

China, among Myanmar's closest allies and biggest military suppliers, has previously insisted it would not pressure the junta, saying it did not wish to interfere in the internal affairs of another country.

But in a rare move this month, Beijing's top diplomatic advisor Tang Jiaxuan gently nudged the junta to adopt democratic changes.

"China sincerely hopes that Myanmar can bring stability back to its domestic situation ... and unswervingly strive for democratic advances that conform with Myanmar's situation," Tang was quoted saying at a meeting with Myanmar's visiting Foreign Minister, U Nyan Win.

His statement came as protests, which began a month ago amid anger at a huge fuel price hike, snowballed into the most prolonged show of dissent in Myanmar since a pro-democracy uprising in 1988 was crushed by the military.

President Bush "needs to engage in strenuous diplomacy -- above all with China -- to make clear that this is a US priority," the Washington Post newspaper said in an editorial Saturday.

"And China, which has more influence in Burma than any other country has, needs to decide whether it wants to host the 2008 Olympics as the enabler of one of the world's nastiest regimes or as a peacemaker," it said.


Copyright 2007 Agence France-Presse. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Myanmar monks stage more protests

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Anti-government protests are continuing to get bigger in Myanmar , the Southeast Asian nation that used to be known as Burma.

Thousands are marching today: an estimated 10,000 Buddhist monks, joined by a crowd of about 10,000 people forming a human chain to protect them.

It's the sixth day that Myanmar's revered monks have staged marches. They've turned protests that began last month into the largest outcry since 1988 when Myanmar's military put down a democracy uprising.

There has been some trouble today. Unlike yesterday, police turned back monks who tried to reach the home of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi . Witnesses say the government deployed about 20 pro-regime thugs and 20 riot police on the road leading to the compound where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is being detained.

The marchers have also been trailed by plainclothes police. Some have taken up positions with shotguns, but they have not moved against the marchers.

Georgetown University Myanmar expert David Steinberg says the military seems to be handling the protests gingerly, aware that a crackdown could spark public outrage.

US watching closely rising protests in Myanmar--Rice

Agence France-Presse
Last updated 09:48pm (Mla time) 09/23/2007

NEW YORK--The United States is "watching very carefully" the rising protests for democracy in Myanmar, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday, calling the Southeast Asian state's ruling military junta "brutal."

"Certainly, we are watching very carefully and the President [George W. Bush] has been very outspoken about what is happening in Burma [Myanmar]," Rice told reporters with her Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi beside her, ahead of their talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

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

Burmese healthcare professions urged to stand by Sanghas and people

Mungpi
Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

September 23, 2007 - A group of Burmese medical professionals today urged Burma's healthcare professions to stand by the protesting monks and the people. They were urged to take appropriate action to protect and care for the protesters.

The group, which could not be identified nor contacted, said there is information and evidence that the ruling junta is preparing for a violent crackdown on the ongoing protests and that hospitals are being alerted to prepare for casualties.

With indications of a heavy crackdown, the group urged all Burmese healthcare professionals to carry out their professional duties in the interest of the people without any discrimination or bias.

The group, which calls itself the 'Concerned Myanmar Physicians and Professionals Group', in a statement released today, said as the Sanghas (monks) and the people of Burma have always viewed healthcare professionals with respect and trust, healthcare professionals should refrain from taking part in any act of violent suppression against the protesting Sanghas and the people.

The group's warning follows monks and civilians the unabated protests for the sixth day on Sunday in Rangoon and parts of Burma. It is the biggest unrest in two decades in the military-ruled impoverished Southeast Asian nation.

The group's caution comes even as critics and observers see a possible crackdown on protesting monks and civilians in what might be a repetition of the 1988 uprising, where the army fired into protesting crowds killing thousands of students, monks and civilians.

While there are rumours that the ruling junta has forced doctors and nurses to evacuate patients from hospitals in Rangoon, an eyewitness in the city, however, told Mizzima that at least 50 percent of the Rangoon general hospital's ground ward is still occupied with patients and there appears no sign of any abnormality or sudden evacuation.

However, the eyewitness said, there has been a lot of security personnel positioned outside the new Rangoon general hospital but the scenario in other wards is not known.

The group, while calling on all Burmese medical professionals to join hands with the protesters, also warned of the possibility of the junta manipulating medical professionals as it did to the highly esteemed Myanmar Red Cross Society.

Despite the nobility of the organization, "It is a sad fact that in Myanmar, those who are in power have transformed some members of Red Cross into enemies of the people such as Swan Arrshin," said the group.

The group urged all members of the Red Cross to refrain from taking part in any act of suppression or violence against the protesting Sanghas and the people or to create misunderstanding among the protesters.

"If you cannot assist, at least do no harm," the group said.

The group further called on all Burmese medical professionals to "assiduously preserve evidentiary materials and wounds in accordance with medico-legal principles and procedures in case of casualties and death with a view to future legal actions and procedures."