Myanmar junta pressing campaign to discourage protests by monks

AP

Posted: 2007-09-14 14:23:46

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – A state-controlled Myanmar newspaper urged Buddhist monks Friday not to join anti-government protests sweeping the country that have been the biggest challenge to military rule in a decade.

In neighboring Thailand, meanwhile, a U.S. diplomat confronted the foreign minister of India about his country’s friendly links with Myanmar’s junta, the latest move by Washington to isolate Myanmar’s military regime.

A column in Myanmar’s Kyemon daily, purportedly by a monk writing under a pseudonym, said monks – some of whom have taken part in militant protests against economic conditions – should refrain because the ruling junta firmly supports their religion.

It was the latest salvo in a government campaign to crush Myanmar’s most sustained protests in a decade.

The protests began Aug. 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices, putting the squeeze on already impoverished citizens. The protests have continued despite the detention of more than 100 demonstrators and rough treatment of others.

In northern Myanmar last week, young monks – angry at being beaten up for protesting economic conditions – briefly took officials hostage, torched their vehicles and later smashed a shop and a house belonging to junta supporters.

The newspaper column said unspecified anti-government elements have encouraged monks to demonstrate. It emphasized the government strongly supports and helps Buddhism with activities like building monasteries and donating robes to monks.

This week, top officials have been making high-profile donations to Buddhist monasteries, according to the state-controlled media.

Monks have been at the forefront of political protests in Myanmar since British colonial times. Because they are so revered by the public, repressing them carries political risk. The junta is wary that demonstrations could gain momentum if monks keep joining.

Unconfirmed reports by Myanmar’s exiled opposition say monks have threatened to refuse alms from the military and ignore junta officials and supporters at official functions if the government fails to apologize by next week for their alleged recent mistreatment in the northern town of Pakokku.

The monks – said to have united in a new National Front of Monks – are also demanding that authorities cut fuel prices, release all political prisoners and begin negotiations with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other democratic leaders.

In Thailand, U.S. Ambassador Ralph Boyce asked Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee how India reconciled its own democratic traditions with offering assistance to Myanmar that could be used for military purposes. A British diplomat asked a similar question.

Mukherjee, on an official visit to Thailand, had delivered a speech at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University on “India’s Look-East Policy: Implications for Thailand and South East Asia.”

Mukherjee said India did not provide any weapons to Myanmar – it is accused of selling aircraft that could be used for military purposes – but acknowledged that the two countries have defense agreements to help fight rebels on their common border.

“It is for the people of Myanmar to decide what type of arrangement they would like to have and to pursue its own human rights path with its own beliefs, faith, and conviction,” Mukherjee said.

The U.S. and Britain are two of the junta’s biggest critics for its poor human rights record and failure to hand over power to a democratically elected government, and are seeking to have the United Nations debate the junta’s actions.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.

09/14/07 14:21 EDT