Kyodo World Service, September 18th, 2007
(EDS: UPDATING WITH FRESH INFO)
Some 400 Buddhist monks staged a march Tuesday in Yangon,
apparently to protest against hardships faced by Myanmar's people and
the junta's crackdown on a similar protest earlier this month.
Meanwhile, in the town of Bago, about 80 kilometers north of
Yangon, a similar march took place involving about 1,000 monks,
residents of the area said.
Both marches involved the monks marching peacefully toward
pagodas and neither was broken up by authorities.
They were the latest in a series of peaceful demonstrations by
discontented monks, opposition party members and activists, sparked
by the junta's abrupt decision on Aug. 15 to hike the price of
natural gas by up to five times, double the price of diesel fuel and
raise the price of gasoline by 67 percent.
The monks in Yangon, chanting Buddhist prayers, marched from an
eastern suburb to the famed Shwedagon Pagoda, located on a hill in
central Yangon from which it dominates the city's skyline.
But they were prevented by security forces from entering the
temple.
After a 20-minute standoff, the monks decided to march on to the
Botahtaung Pagoda, located about 8-9 km away in downtown Yangon. But
they were barred from entering that pagoda too, and dispersed after
about 10 minutes of sitting.
During their march, the monks were shadowed by pro-junta thugs
and by plainclothes police, who took video and photographs of
participants and confiscated cameras from members of the media.
The number of people flowing through the streets swelled to
about 1,000 at one point as onlookers followed the monks.
Sources said security forces were under orders not to crack down
unless the march threatened to turn into a mass protest participated
in by ordinary people.
On Monday, nearly 400 monks demonstrated peacefully in the
central town of Kyauk Padaung, about 600 km north of Yangon, in part
to protest the junta's violent suppression of a similar protest by
the monks in Pakokku, another central town, on Sept. 5.
Many among the country's approximately 300,000 monks have since
demanded the junta apologize for the mistreatment and have urged a
boycott from Tuesday in which donations from junta members and
supporters would be refused.
