Buddhist monks press peaceful protests in Myanmar amid tight security

AP

Posted: 2007-09-19 13:49:20

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – Stepping up their challenge to the military government, Buddhist monks defiantly staged a second straight day of protests Wednesday, briefly occupying a prominent pagoda in Myanmar’s largest city during one of several spirited but well-disciplined marches around the country.

In the western city of Sittwe, some 5,000 monks reportedly turned out for an anti-government demonstration despite having their protest the day before cut short by authorities shooting tear gas and warning shots.

With their protests, the saffron-robed monks have become the spearhead of a movement launched on Aug. 19, when a few hundred regular citizens marched to protest the government’s hiking fuel prices and the economic hardship it caused.

The protests also reflect long pent-up opposition to the repressive military regime, and now have become the most sustained challenge to the junta in at least a decade. The laymen’s protests slackened after pro-democracy leaders were arrested, demonstrators arrested, and other manhandled by pro-government thugs.

Some monks have started a religious boycott of the junta, symbolized by their holding their black begging bowls upside down as they march. In the Myanmar language, the word for boycott comes from the words for holding the bowl upside down.

Overturning the bowl symbolically demonstrates that they will refuse alms from authorities and their supporters. Such action amounts to ostracizing the junta and carries strong significance for the country’s mostly Buddhist population, which tends to be very devout.

The authorities know that restraining monks poses a dilemma. Monks are highly respected, and abusing them in any manner could cause public outrage. In an effort to limit bad publicity, some journalists covering the monks’ march had their cameras confiscated by the authorities.

In Wednesday’s most dramatic action, about 500 monks in Yangon pushed past closed gates to briefly occupy Sule pagoda, a central downtown landmark, witnesses said.

They took over the pagoda for about 30 minutes before leaving peacefully and returning to their own monasteries.

Crowds outside cheered and clapped in public expressions of support that had been lacking at smaller demonstrations carried out by laymen over the past month.

They monks arrived at Sule pagoda after being turned away from their first gathering point, the golden hilltop Shwedagon pagoda, whose gates had also been locked to keep them out.

Followed by hundreds of onlookers and scores of plainclothes security personnel, they wended their way on a march of about three hours that took them to Sule pagoda. Three monks who walked in front held religious flags and another monk was holding a black begging bowl upside down.

At least four separate monks’ marches took place in Yangon. Supporters and opponents – plainclothes police and pro-junta thugs – followed on foot, car, trishaws and bicycles.

Supporters offered water, milk and soft drinks to the monks.

In Sittwe, in the western state of Rakhine, more than 5,000 Buddhist monks marched in protest against Tuesday’s arrests of at least three monks and some 20 protesters, according to Radio Free Asia, a U.S. government shortwave station promoting democracy,

The report, based on interviews with residents and a monk, said the monks went to the junta’s local office Wednesday to demand their release.

The monks withdrew after the authorities promised to release the detainees in three days. The monks said they will not stage any protests for three days to see if the authorities keep their word.

In the central city of Mandalay, more than 1,000 monks from various monasteries marched to Maha Myat Muni, the most revered Buddhist pagoda in the country’s second-largest city, said witnesses contacted by phone.

The state-run newspaper, the New Light of Myanmar, claimed Wednesday that bogus monks, “instigators” and foreign radio station reports helped swell protest crowds Tuesday, when demonstrations were also held in Yangon and Bago. It said senior Buddhist leaders urged the monks in Sittwe to disperse, but the crowd responded by throwing stones and sticks.

Monks in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma, have historically been at the forefront of protests – first against British colonialism and later military dictatorship. They also played a prominent part in a failed 1988 pro-democracy uprising that sought an end to military rule, imposed since 1962.

Tuesday marked the 19th anniversary of the 1988 crackdown in which the current junta took over after violently crushing vast pro-democracy demonstrations. The junta held a general election in 1990, but refused to honor the results when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won. Suu Kyi has been detained under house arrest for more than 11 of the past 18 years.

Peaceful protests by monks began on Aug. 30 in Sittwe. A second one on Sep. 5 in the northern town of Pakokku was cut short when troops fired warning shots. Junta supporters also manhandled some marchers.

In response, young monks angry at their mistreatment briefly took officials hostage, torched their vehicles and later smashed a shop and a house belonging to junta supporters.

Incensed monks had given authorities until Monday to apologize for their mistreatment in Pakokku, a center of Buddhist learning, but it went unanswered.