BrazenMuse
09-23-2007, 05:22 PM
I know many people don't give much thought to Buddhism as a politically active religion, but you might change your mind...I'm hoping it will end in such a way that people might take heart and speak up in other places...
Winding for a sixth day through rainy streets, the protest swelled to 10,000 monks in the main city of Yangon, according to news reports. It came one day after a group of several hundred monks paid respects to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of her home, the first time she has been seen in public in more than four years.
The stakes for the government have been raised by the link between the clergy and the leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, the beginnings of large-scale public participation in the marches and a call by some monks for a wider protest.
So far, it has mostly allowed the monks free rein in the streets, apparently fearing a public backlash if they crack down on them in this devout Buddhist nation.
Monks were reported to be parading through the streets of a number of cities, notably the country’s second city, Mandalay, where news agencies reported that 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, had marched on Saturday.
Since the military crushed a peaceful nationwide uprising in 1988, killing an estimated 3,000 people, this nation once known as Burma has sunk further into poverty and repression and become a symbol for the outside world of the harsh military subjugation of a people.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been locked inside her home for 12 of the last 18 years and the government has arrested thousands of political prisoners.
The United States and Europe have led a tightening economic boycott that has been undermined by trade and assistance from Myanmar’s neighbors, mainly China but also India and some Southeast Asian nations.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/world/asia/23cnd-myanmar.html?hp
Winding for a sixth day through rainy streets, the protest swelled to 10,000 monks in the main city of Yangon, according to news reports. It came one day after a group of several hundred monks paid respects to Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi at the gate of her home, the first time she has been seen in public in more than four years.
The stakes for the government have been raised by the link between the clergy and the leader of the country’s pro-democracy movement, the beginnings of large-scale public participation in the marches and a call by some monks for a wider protest.
So far, it has mostly allowed the monks free rein in the streets, apparently fearing a public backlash if they crack down on them in this devout Buddhist nation.
Monks were reported to be parading through the streets of a number of cities, notably the country’s second city, Mandalay, where news agencies reported that 10,000 people, including 4,000 monks, had marched on Saturday.
Since the military crushed a peaceful nationwide uprising in 1988, killing an estimated 3,000 people, this nation once known as Burma has sunk further into poverty and repression and become a symbol for the outside world of the harsh military subjugation of a people.
Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991, has been locked inside her home for 12 of the last 18 years and the government has arrested thousands of political prisoners.
The United States and Europe have led a tightening economic boycott that has been undermined by trade and assistance from Myanmar’s neighbors, mainly China but also India and some Southeast Asian nations.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/23/world/asia/23cnd-myanmar.html?hp