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YANGON: Buddhist monks staged a new protest Friday
against Myanmar’s ruling junta, which is under mounting
international pressure as it faces the most sustained challenge to
its rule in nearly 20 years.
More than 200 monks in
rust-colored robes braved the driving rain to pray at a pagoda on
the north side of Yangon, in the latest show of defiance against the
military that has ruled this impoverished nation since 1962.
This week’s protests by the
monks marks a sharp escalation in a month-long series of nationwide
rallies sparked by a massive hike in fuel prices, which left many
urban workers unable to afford even bus fare to get to their jobs.
Thursday’s march in Yangon was
the largest protest yet, drawing 1,300 monks into the streets of
Myanmar’s biggest city as thousands of supporters cheered them on.
Some of the monks have refused to
accept donations from members of the military, a gesture seen as a
severe rebuke tantamount to excommunication for Buddhists, who
believe that giving alms daily is an important religious duty.
More than 150 people, including
some of the nation’s most prominent prodemocracy leaders, have
been arrested since the protests began last month.
Myanmar’s prodemocracy movement
has long demanded reforms from the regime and freedom for Nobel
Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the last 17
years under house arrest.
But the latest protests have
centered on bread-and-butter issues such as the skyrocketing costs
of food and transportation concerns that cross the often deep social
divisions in a country wracked by decades of ethnic conflicts.
“We’ve been waiting for this
kind of day for 45 years,” said an elderly Muslim man watching the
protest.
“I was thrilled to be a
Buddhist,” said one woman who tears up as she recalled applauding
the monks during Thursday’s protest.
The mounting turmoil has drawn
growing international pressure, with Britain and the United States
saying they were “appalled” at the junta’s handling of the
peaceful protests that have spread across the country.
The US and British ambassadors to
the United Nations on Thursday urged Myanmar to allow a visit by UN
special envoy Ibrahim Gambari “as soon as possible.”
“We certainly are appalled by
the steps the [Myanmar] regime has taken to silence peaceful protest
and to clamp down on dissent,” British Ambassador John Sawyers
said.
US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad
said the regime “poses a threat to regional peace and
stability.”
Sawyers said Gambari should be
allowed to meet all the nation’s political leaders, including Aung
San Suu Kyi.
Analysts say the protests have
become the most prolonged show of dissent against the military
regime since a 1988 uprising that ended with soldiers firing into
crowds on the streets, killing hundreds if not thousands of people.
After that uprising, the military
held elections in 1990. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy won in a landslide, but the junta never recognized the
result.
The Buddhist clergy, who are
deeply respected here, are the only group other than the military
that has a functioning, nationwide organization. They were credited
with drawing popular support to the 1988 uprising.
Any action against the monks
would likely spark a public backlash, leaving the military with few
good options for curbing the protests in this nation, formerly known
as Burma.
“Authorities were taking a
wait-and-see approach at this moment because monks are highly
respected in society,” said an Asian diplomat in Yangon.
“But if they take harsh action
against monks, it could trigger public outrage against the
government,” said the diplomat, who declined to be named.
While the protests in Yangon have
so far ended peacefully, the junta used tear gas and fired warning
shots in the air to break up about 1,000 Buddhist monks rallying
against the regime on Tuesday in the oil town of Sittwe.
--AFP
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