Global protests for Myanmar as junta admits hundreds of monks were detained

AP

Posted: 2007-10-06 00:38:06

YANGON, Myanmar  (AP) – People around the world planned to march Saturday to protest Myanmar’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists, as the military regime admitted hundreds of Buddhist monks were detained after troops turned their guns on last week’s peaceful uprising.

Hoping to send a message to the junta that “the world is still watching,” rights group Amnesty International called for a global demonstration in cities across Asia, Europe and North America.

Protests were planned in at least a dozen countries, including Australia, Thailand, Malaysia, Austria, Belgium, France, England, the United States and Canada.

The junta’s treatment of the Buddhist monks – who are revered in this deeply religious nation and led the street protests – is a key issue that could further inflame the people of Myanmar and anger soldiers loyal to the military rulers.

The government insisted most of the monks it detained had already been freed, with only 109 still in custody, according to an official statement broadcast Friday night on state TV. The report noted the junta was still hunting for four more monks it believed were ringleaders of the rallies.

Demonstrations that began in mid-August over a fuel price increase swelled into Myanmar’s largest anti-government protests in 19 years, inspired largely by the thousands of monks who poured into the streets.

Television images last week showed soldiers shooting  into crowds of unarmed protesters – but the government described the troops’ reaction as “systematically controlling” the protesters.

The government says 10 people were killed in the Sept. 26-27 crackdown and 2,100 were detained. But dissident groups put the death toll at more than 200 and the number of detainees at nearly 6,000.

At the United Nations in New York, the U.N.’s special envoy to Myanmar Ibrahim Gambari urged the country’s military rulers to strive toward democracy and quickly start talks with detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Gambari said he was “cautiously encouraged” after the junta chief, Senior Gen. Than Shwe, said he would meet with Suu Kyi, with certain conditions. Those include giving up her calls for confronting the government and for imposing sanctions against it, Myanmar state media said.

“This is an hour of historic opportunity for Myanmar,” Gambari said.

The U.N. envoy stressed, however, that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has called for talks without any preconditions to overcome “the high level of mistrust” between Than Shwe and Suu Kyi.

The United States, meanwhile, threatened to introduce a resolution seeking sanctions, including an arms embargo, against Myanmar if it does not move quickly toward national reconciliation and release its detainees.

The United States and the EU have issued some sanctions against Myanmar’s junta, but China and Russia have ruled out any Security Council action.

Diplomats and opposition figures were skeptical that Than Shwe’s offer was genuine, but expressed hope a meeting with Suu Kyi would materialize. The two have not met since 2002.

Shari Villarosa, the acting U.S. ambassador to Myanmar, flew up to the remote capital of Naypyitaw on Friday for a rare meeting with the country’s deputy foreign minister, but U.S. officials said it was not productive.

Friday’s state media report said Myanmar troops searched 18 monasteries where alleged rogue monks were living. Initially, authorities detained 513 monks, one novice, 167 men and 30 women lay disciples from the monasteries, but most were released after “careful scrutiny,” it said.

Now only 109 monks and nine other men were still being questioned, it said.

A government official met senior Buddhist monks Friday in Yangon, the country’s main city, and asked them to “expose four monks who are at large,” the report said.

The visit aimed to show ordinary people the ruling generals still had high regard for the Buddhist clergy, despite a crackdown that targeted monks.

The military has ruled Myanmar since 1962. The current junta came to power after routing a 1988 pro-democracy uprising, killing at least 3,000 people. Suu Kyi’s party won elections in 1990, but the generals refused to accept the results.

Suu Kyi, who has spent nearly 12 of the last 18 years under house arrest, won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for her democracy campaign.

Sixty Nobel laureates added their voices to the global outcry over the Myanmar crisis, saying they were “outraged” by the “ongoing violent repression” of monks and other citizens.

In a statement issued by The Elie Weisel Foundation, the Nobel laureates called on the international community, particularly China, Russia and India – who have been competing for Myanmar’s bountiful oil and gas resources – to use their influence to secure democracy in Myanmar and the release of Suu Kyi.