Monks March Again In Myanmar

More Than 100 Buddhists Hit Streets In First Demonstration Since Crackdown

(AP)  More than 100 Buddhist monks marched and chanted in northern Myanmar for nearly an hour Wednesday, in the first public demonstration since the government's deadly crackdown last month on pro-democracy protesters, several monks said.

The monks in Pakokku shouted no slogans, but one monk told the Democratic Voice of Burma, a Norway-based short-wave radio station and Web site run by dissident journalists, that it was a continuation of the protests last month.

The march clearly was in defiance of the government.

"We walked around the town and chanted. ... We are continuing our protest from last month as we have not yet achieved any of the demands we asked for," the monk told the radio station.

"Our demands are for lower commodity prices, national reconciliation and immediate release of (pro-democracy leader) Aung San Suu Kyi and all the political prisoners," said the monk, who was not identified by name.

He said they had little time to organize the march so it was small, but "there will be more organized and bigger protests soon."

Up to 100,000 people took part in demonstrations in Yangon last month that were crushed when troops fired on protesters Sept. 26-27 in a crackdown that left at least 10 people dead by the government's count, drawing international condemnation. Opposition groups say as many as 200 people may have been killed.

Pakokku, a center for Buddhist learning with more than 80 monasteries about 630 kilometers (390 miles) northwest of Yangon, was the site of the first march last month by monks as they joined - and then spearheaded - the biggest anti-government protests in nearly two decades.

The first protests started Aug. 19, when ordinary citizens took to the streets to vent anger after the government hiked fuel prices as much as 500 percent. The rallies gained momentum when the Buddhist monks in Pakokku joined the protests in early September.

Reports that troops had beaten protesting monks in Pakokku on Sept. 6 rallied monks around the country to join the burgeoning marches.

On Wednesday, the monks started out at Pakokku's Shwegu Pagoda, marching for nearly an hour and chanting Buddhist prayers without incident, and then returned to their respective monasteries, two monks said in telephone interviews.

The march followed a pro-junta rally in town. Opposition groups in exile say such rallies are stage-managed by the government.

Historically, monks in Myanmar have been at the forefront of protests, first against British colonialism and later military dictatorship, and played a prominent part in a failed 1988 pro-democracy rebellion that sought an end to military rule, imposed since 1962.

The junta held general elections in 1990, but refused to honor the results when Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party won. Suu Kyi has been detained under house arrest for more than 12 of the past 18 years.

Also Wednesday, the NLD said the military government had freed seven of its members who had been held for more than a month following the junta's crackdown on the anti-government protests.

The releases Tuesday night came ahead of a visit by U.N. special envoy Ibrahim Gambari to seek reconciliation between the junta and democratic forces.

The seven had been detained at infamous Insein Prison in Yangon, said Nyan Win, an NLD spokesman.

They included party spokesman Myint Thein and six others, Han Zaw, Lei Lei, Ko Bala, Cin Shin Htan, Htaung Ko Htan and Win Naing, the spokesman said.

"All these people had been arrested unnecessarily and we demand the immediate and unconditional release of all those detained arbitrarily," another NLD spokesman, Han Tha, told The Associated Press. He said at least 150 party members out of nearly 300 who had been arrested since September remain in detention.

Han Tha said many have been denied proper medical treatment and are living in harsh conditions.

The government earlier said it had detained about 3,000 people in connection with the protests but had released most of them. Many reports have emerged of brutal treatment in custody.

[libsluvsuvs]

Your analysis is pretty faulty and lacks any integrity. Surely you will understand if I ignore your advice.

If my post is receiving such a strong reaction from you, then I am encouraged that I am on the right track.



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Posted by FeelFree1 at 06:29 PM : Oct 31, 2007
+ report abuse

******

please let me hear your recomendations..so far i cannot even invest in any analysis on yours because you have given none..

pointing out that chevron is committing crimes in burma is not a solution..its an obvious cause but not a solution..its pretty Al Gore''ish

[feelfree1]

libsluvsuvs,

Re: "We cannot take even on step to a better alternative BECAUSE most if not all liberals and conservatives ARE UNAWARE THAT THEY ARE THIER FIENDISH NEED FOR OIL IS THE CAUSE.."

Your analysis is pretty faulty and lacks any integrity. Surely you will understand if I ignore your advice.

If my post is receiving such a strong reaction from you, then I am encouraged that I am on the right track.

[libsluvsuvs]

Your screen_name seems to imply that "liberals" are the only ones who love SUVs. Why is that?



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Posted by FeelFree1 at 05:39 PM : Oct 31, 2007
+ report abuse


btw..my screen name does not imply that liberals are the only ones with suvs...if you want me to skip the abbreviations and such..here is what i say..LIBERALS LOVES SUVS...not unless you can ''dan rather'' a meaning out it.

[libsluvsuvs]

Posted by FeelFree1 at 05:39 PM : Oct 31, 2007
+ report abuse

************

why would I??? you are the one with a hardon for chevron..if you dont like it..boycott it.

I live in Los Angeles, do you know how many liberals with "war is not the answer" or "No war for Oil" on thier suvs in this place??
If I can post a picture I will take one VW Bus covered with a peace signs filling up at chevron.

I understand the need for oil and gasoline. It would best serve our interest if you can focus your attention towards a more productive crusade. grandstanding about the ''evils'' of chevron is going to do NADA with all of this problem. We cannot take even on step to a better alternative BECAUSE most if not all liberals and conservatives ARE UNAWARE THAT THEY ARE THIER FIENDISH NEED FOR OIL IS THE CAUSE..

hey at least the conservatives are not trying to kill the butcher for serving them steak.

[feelfree1]

libsluvsuvs,

Re: "Just boycott chevron..you would be suprised how ''''hitting them where it hurts'''' does a lot more than that liberal grandstanding."

Go for it. More power to you.

Your screen_name seems to imply that "liberals" are the only ones who love SUVs. Why is that?

[libsluvsuvs]

Posted by FeelFree1 at 06:53 AM : Oct 31, 2007
+ report abuse


*************

what are you going to do with the information you just handed us????

tell your friends to tell thier friends to instead of going to a protest en masse..just boycott chevron..you would be suprised how ''hitting them where it hurts'' does a lot more than that liberal grandstanding.

[godseyesore-2009]

What brave folk. My best wishes for success against totalitarian repression.

[glaswolf]

The initial riots over price increases were fueled from the outside because of embargoes which punish the population for the sins of their governors. I am not sure where the word monstrosity applies, to the generals or to our own political machinery so deeply embedded in blackmailing other nations it fails to see its own dysfunction. We should look into the criminal past of immigrant lineages of governmental and political activists in the US, as they threaten the functionality of our foreign affairs. The judeo christian right et al have crippled our external projections, sufficiently damaging that we should hold treason trials for them.

[feelfree1]

Related:

"Chevron is one of the largest foreign investors in Burma and is the only remaining major U.S. corporation with a significant presence there. In 2005, Chevron bought the company Unocal weeks after the latter settled a lawsuit accusing it of assisting the Burmese military junta in the torture, murder and rape of villagers during construction of a pipeline."

www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/12/1454252