Stanley Burrell
09-22-2007, 01:45 PM
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar police let about 500 protesting Buddhist monks through a roadblock to march past the home where opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest, and the Nobel laureate came to her gate to greet them looking "fit and well," witnesses said.
The unexpected visit briefly joined Myanmar's best-known advocate of democratic reform with the highly respected monks whose five straight days of protests this month have jolted the country's military junta.
It was not immediately clear if there was any broader significance to the visit, but coordination between the two movements, which have been operating separately, could pose a new threat to the regime.
Thousands of monks held anti-government protest marches around Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is under house arrest. Thousands more monks and other citizens marched in other cities in the tightly controlled country.
The monks stopped briefly in front of Suu Kyi's house and said some prayers before they leaving at the other end of the road, said a resident, who asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the authorities.
The road was closed again after the monks passed. Suu Kyi has been in detention for more than 11 of the past 18 years.
A monks' organization for the first time urged the public to join in protesting "evil military despotism" in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"In order to banish the common enemy evil regime from Burmese soil forever, united masses of people need to join hands with the united clergy forces," the All Burma Monks Alliance said in a statement received Saturday by The Associated Press.
"We pronounce the evil military despotism, which is impoverishing and pauperizing our people of all walks including the clergy, as the common enemy of all our citizens," the statement said.
Little is known of the group or its membership, but its communiques have spread widely by word of mouth and through opposition media in exile.
In the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, a crowd of 10,000 people, including at least 4,000 monks, marched in one of the largest demonstrations against the strict military regime since a 1988 democracy uprising, witnesses said.
At the same time, about 1,000 monks -- led by one holding his begging bowl upturned as a sign of protest -- marched toward downtown Yangon from the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most revered shrine and a historic center for protest movements.
Emboldened by the monks, about 800 other people walked along with them in the drizzling rain through the heart of Yangon's commercial district.
The monks' activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices, triggering demonstrations against policies that are causing economic hardship.
The number of protesters Saturday indicated that the anti-government protests were growing.
Some monks have started a religious boycott of the junta, symbolized by 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 inverted.
About 1,500 barefoot Buddhist monks marched Friday more than 10 miles through Yangon's flooded streets, sometimes in knee-deep water, in a raging tropical downpour.
More than 1,000 sympathizers marched with them.
"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," said a 50-year-old woman with tears rolling down her face. Like most onlookers, she asked not to be named for fear of drawing unwelcome attention from authorities.
At one point, a young man in white T-shirt and shorts flung himself to the ground, showing his devotion and gratitude by touching his forehead to one monk's feet in a Buddhist gesture of reverence.
There were several other protests Friday, including one by 500 monks and residents in Mogok, 420 miles north of Yangon. Mogok is famous for its rubies, and most of the protesters were gem mine workers.
The protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact -- but they gained new life when the monks joined.
The government has been handling the situation gingerly, aware that forcibly breaking up the monks' protest in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar would likely cause public outrage.
The monks also struck an emotive chord among the public by gathering at Shwedagon, a religious center and 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 people, 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 military crushed the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations, and Suu Kyi was put into detention.
Monks launched the latest series of protests Tuesday after the junta failed to apologize by a Monday deadline for allegedly roughing them up during a protest in the northern town of Pakokku on Sept. 5.
.
God I suck.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/22/myanmar.monks.ap/index.html
The unexpected visit briefly joined Myanmar's best-known advocate of democratic reform with the highly respected monks whose five straight days of protests this month have jolted the country's military junta.
It was not immediately clear if there was any broader significance to the visit, but coordination between the two movements, which have been operating separately, could pose a new threat to the regime.
Thousands of monks held anti-government protest marches around Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, where the Nobel Peace Prize winner is under house arrest. Thousands more monks and other citizens marched in other cities in the tightly controlled country.
The monks stopped briefly in front of Suu Kyi's house and said some prayers before they leaving at the other end of the road, said a resident, who asked not to be named for fear of being harassed by the authorities.
The road was closed again after the monks passed. Suu Kyi has been in detention for more than 11 of the past 18 years.
A monks' organization for the first time urged the public to join in protesting "evil military despotism" in Myanmar, also known as Burma.
"In order to banish the common enemy evil regime from Burmese soil forever, united masses of people need to join hands with the united clergy forces," the All Burma Monks Alliance said in a statement received Saturday by The Associated Press.
"We pronounce the evil military despotism, which is impoverishing and pauperizing our people of all walks including the clergy, as the common enemy of all our citizens," the statement said.
Little is known of the group or its membership, but its communiques have spread widely by word of mouth and through opposition media in exile.
In the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, a crowd of 10,000 people, including at least 4,000 monks, marched in one of the largest demonstrations against the strict military regime since a 1988 democracy uprising, witnesses said.
At the same time, about 1,000 monks -- led by one holding his begging bowl upturned as a sign of protest -- marched toward downtown Yangon from the Shwedagon Pagoda, Myanmar's most revered shrine and a historic center for protest movements.
Emboldened by the monks, about 800 other people walked along with them in the drizzling rain through the heart of Yangon's commercial district.
The monks' activities have given new life to a protest movement that began a month ago after the government raised fuel prices, triggering demonstrations against policies that are causing economic hardship.
The number of protesters Saturday indicated that the anti-government protests were growing.
Some monks have started a religious boycott of the junta, symbolized by 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 inverted.
About 1,500 barefoot Buddhist monks marched Friday more than 10 miles through Yangon's flooded streets, sometimes in knee-deep water, in a raging tropical downpour.
More than 1,000 sympathizers marched with them.
"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," said a 50-year-old woman with tears rolling down her face. Like most onlookers, she asked not to be named for fear of drawing unwelcome attention from authorities.
At one point, a young man in white T-shirt and shorts flung himself to the ground, showing his devotion and gratitude by touching his forehead to one monk's feet in a Buddhist gesture of reverence.
There were several other protests Friday, including one by 500 monks and residents in Mogok, 420 miles north of Yangon. Mogok is famous for its rubies, and most of the protesters were gem mine workers.
The protest movement began Aug. 19 after the government raised fuel prices, but has its basis in long pent-up dissatisfaction with the repressive military regime. Using arrests and intimidation, the government had managed to keep demonstrations limited in size and impact -- but they gained new life when the monks joined.
The government has been handling the situation gingerly, aware that forcibly breaking up the monks' protest in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar would likely cause public outrage.
The monks also struck an emotive chord among the public by gathering at Shwedagon, a religious center and 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 people, 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 military crushed the 1988 pro-democracy demonstrations, and Suu Kyi was put into detention.
Monks launched the latest series of protests Tuesday after the junta failed to apologize by a Monday deadline for allegedly roughing them up during a protest in the northern town of Pakokku on Sept. 5.
.
God I suck.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/22/myanmar.monks.ap/index.html