Junta Warns Protesting Monks
By The Associated Press September 25, 2007
Burma's military government issued the country's Buddhist clergy a veiled threat of reprisals after barefoot monks led some 100,000 people on the biggest pro-democracy march the country has seen in nearly two decades.
The warning Monday shows the increasing pressure the junta is under to either crack down on or compromise with a reinvigorated democracy movement. The monks have taken their traditional role as the conscience of society, backing the military into a corner from which it may lash out again.
The authorities did not stop the protests Monday, even as they built to a scale and fervor that rivaled the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 when the military fired on peaceful crowds and killed thousands, terrorizing the country. The government has been handling the monks gingerly, wary of raising the ire of ordinary citizens in this devout, predominantly Buddhist nation.
However, on Monday night the country's religious affairs minister appeared on state television to accuse the monks of being manipulated by the regime's domestic and foreign enemies.
Meeting with senior monks at Rangoon's Kabar Aye Pagoda, Brig-Gen Thura Myint Maung said the protesting monks represented just 2 percent of the country's population. He suggested that if senior monks did not restrain them, the government would act according to its own regulations, which he did not detail.
Also on Monday, the US government weighed in with the threat of additional sanctions against the Burmese regime and those who provide it with financial aid.
President George W Bush was expected to announce the sanctions Tuesday at the UN General Assembly. The United States restricts imports and exports and financial transactions with Burma.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged authorities in Burma to exercise restraint in the face of the protests and expressed hope the military-led government would "seize this opportunity" to include all opposition groups in the political process.
The current protests began on August 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices in what is one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military government that has ruled the country in one form or another since 1962.
"I don't like the government," a 20-year-old monk participating in the protest in the central city of Mandalay told The Associated Press. "The government is very cruel and our country is full of troubles."
Ordinary people have similar views, even if they may not act on them.
"I don't like the government because it only thinks about itself. But there is nothing I can do. If I join the protest, I will lose everything," said a hotel worker, also in Mandalay. Both she and the monk asked not to be named for fear of the authorities.
The protests over economic conditions were faltering when the monks last week took over leadership and assumed a role they played in previous battles against British colonialism and military dictators. At first the robed monks simply chanted and prayed. But as the public joined the march, the demonstrators demanded national reconciliation—meaning dialogue between the government and opposition parties—and freedom for political prisoners, as well as adequate food, shelter and clothing.
The fleeting appearance of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of the Rangoon residence where she is under house arrest squarely identified the protests with the longtime peaceful struggle of her party, the opposition National League Democracy. She has been under detention for 12 of the past 18 years.
In what appeared to be a miscalculation by the junta, a crowd of about 500 monks and sympathizers was let through police barricades Saturday to her home, where she briefly greeted them in her first public appearance in four years.
Burma's military government issued the country's Buddhist clergy a veiled threat of reprisals after barefoot monks led some 100,000 people on the biggest pro-democracy march the country has seen in nearly two decades.
The warning Monday shows the increasing pressure the junta is under to either crack down on or compromise with a reinvigorated democracy movement. The monks have taken their traditional role as the conscience of society, backing the military into a corner from which it may lash out again.
The authorities did not stop the protests Monday, even as they built to a scale and fervor that rivaled the pro-democracy uprising of 1988 when the military fired on peaceful crowds and killed thousands, terrorizing the country. The government has been handling the monks gingerly, wary of raising the ire of ordinary citizens in this devout, predominantly Buddhist nation.
However, on Monday night the country's religious affairs minister appeared on state television to accuse the monks of being manipulated by the regime's domestic and foreign enemies.
Meeting with senior monks at Rangoon's Kabar Aye Pagoda, Brig-Gen Thura Myint Maung said the protesting monks represented just 2 percent of the country's population. He suggested that if senior monks did not restrain them, the government would act according to its own regulations, which he did not detail.
Also on Monday, the US government weighed in with the threat of additional sanctions against the Burmese regime and those who provide it with financial aid.
President George W Bush was expected to announce the sanctions Tuesday at the UN General Assembly. The United States restricts imports and exports and financial transactions with Burma.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged authorities in Burma to exercise restraint in the face of the protests and expressed hope the military-led government would "seize this opportunity" to include all opposition groups in the political process.
The current protests began on August 19 after the government sharply raised fuel prices in what is one of Asia's poorest countries. But they are based in deep-rooted dissatisfaction with the repressive military government that has ruled the country in one form or another since 1962.
"I don't like the government," a 20-year-old monk participating in the protest in the central city of Mandalay told The Associated Press. "The government is very cruel and our country is full of troubles."
Ordinary people have similar views, even if they may not act on them.
"I don't like the government because it only thinks about itself. But there is nothing I can do. If I join the protest, I will lose everything," said a hotel worker, also in Mandalay. Both she and the monk asked not to be named for fear of the authorities.
The protests over economic conditions were faltering when the monks last week took over leadership and assumed a role they played in previous battles against British colonialism and military dictators. At first the robed monks simply chanted and prayed. But as the public joined the march, the demonstrators demanded national reconciliation—meaning dialogue between the government and opposition parties—and freedom for political prisoners, as well as adequate food, shelter and clothing.
The fleeting appearance of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of the Rangoon residence where she is under house arrest squarely identified the protests with the longtime peaceful struggle of her party, the opposition National League Democracy. She has been under detention for 12 of the past 18 years.
In what appeared to be a miscalculation by the junta, a crowd of about 500 monks and sympathizers was let through police barricades Saturday to her home, where she briefly greeted them in her first public appearance in four years.
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