1,500 Myanmar Monks March in Yangon

AP

Posted: 2007-09-21 13:36:06

YANGON, Myanmar (AP) – About 1,500 Buddhist monks marched through pouring rain on downtown Yangon on Friday to protest against Myanmar’s military government, beginning their fourth day of demonstrations at a pagoda that has long served as a national symbol for dissent.

The government said it would not declare a state of emergency in response to the most sustained challenge to its rule since a wave of student demonstrations that were forcibly suppressed in December 1996.

The latest protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but gained new life when the monks joined, reflecting long pent-up opposition to the repressive military regime.

The monks on Friday gathered first at the golden hilltop Shwedagon Pagoda – a religious center that has also served as 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.

But to many, the pagoda 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.

The 1,500 monks – up from about 1,000 monks for a similar march on Thursday – were joined by a roughly equal number of onlookers as they walked 10 miles in a downpour, although the total crowd was smaller than for Thursday’s demonstration.

Trudging through some streets knee-deep in water, the monks drew more than 1,000 sympathizers to march with them, and evoked an outpouring of emotional support from onlookers.

“I feel so sorry to see the monks walking in heavy rain and taking such trouble on behalf of the people. I feel so grateful as well,” a 50-year-old woman said, tears rolling down her face. Like most onlookers, she asked not to be named for fear of drawing the unwelcome attention of the authorities.

At one point, a young man in white T-shirt and shorts flung himself to the ground, touching his forehead to the feet of a monk in a traditional Buddhist gesture of reverence.

As many as 5,000 supporters joined the monks on Thursday, many of them linking arms in a human chain, in the biggest overall turnout since the protests began. On both Thursday and Friday, security forces and government supporters kept their distance and the marches proceeded without interference.

“The Myanmar government will not declare a state of emergency. You can see the government handles the situation peacefully,” the Information Ministry’s Ye Htut said, in an e-mail response to a query sent Thursday.

He said that any rumors to the contrary were used by the junta’s opponents “to destabilize the situation.”

The international community, he said, “should see their hidden agenda and stop hailing them as democracy activists.”

The government was handling the situation gingerly, aware that restraining the monks poses a dilemma, because they are highly respected in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, and abusing them in any manner could cause public outrage.

The international community, he said, “should see their hidden agenda and stop hailing them as democracy activists.”

The government was handling the situation gingerly, aware that restraining the monks poses a dilemma, because they are highly respected in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, and abusing them in any manner could cause public outrage.

Monks launched the latest series of protests Tuesday, after the junta failed to apologize by a Monday deadline for allegedly roughing up monks during a protest in the northern Myanmar town of Pakokku on Sept. 5.

Authorities have so far detained about a dozen top pro-democracy leaders, as well as more than 100 other protesters.