Buddhist monks protest peacefully amid tight security

Hundreds of Buddhist monks protested today outside the locked gates of Burma’s most revered temple, challenging the country’s military rulers in the most sustained wave of demonstrations in a decade.

About 500 monks found the gates locked at the Shwedagon pagoda, a golden temple atop a hill dominating Rangoon, the country’s biggest city. They then marched through the streets, followed by a few hundred onlookers and scores of plainclothes security officials.

The Rangoon march and rallies in other cities today were to protest hardship brought on by the government’s economic policies, especially a sudden, major hike in fuel prices last month that first sparked the persistent demonstrations - first by pro-democracy activists and now primarily by monks.

In the central city of Mandalay, more than 1,000 monks marched, while and about 100 others in dark saffron robes staged a peaceful march in the western Rangoon suburb of Ahlone.

More than 100 Buddhist monks from some monasteries in South Okkalapa township in Rangoon’s northern suburbs also marched today, later returning to their monasteries without incident.

“The monks are telling the public not to take part in the protests. They told onlookers that this is the monks’ affair and that they would handle it themselves,” a witness said.

Witnesses said more than 1,000 monks from various monasteries had marched to Maha Myat Muni, the most revered Buddhist pagoda in the country’s second-largest city.

There were no reports of intervention by the junta, which acknowledged in state media reports today that authorities used tear gas and fired warning shots in the air to break up protests yesterday in Sittwe, the capital of Rakhine state in western Burma.

State-run media said two officials and nine policemen were injured during the protest in Sittwe.

They said no monks or other protesters were hurt, though one demonstrator was arrested.

The state-run newspaper, the New Light of Burma, claimed bogus monks, “instigators” and foreign radio station reports helped the crowds swell yesterday.

It said senior Buddhist leaders urged the monks to disperse, but the crowd retaliated by throwing stones and sticks.

Other monks’ protests were held yesterday in Rangoon and Bago, 50 miles to the north.

The monks in Rangoon found themselves locked out of three pagodas, including the Shwedagon, before they finished a 10 mile march, which attracted as many as 3,000 onlookers.

Some journalists covering the march had their cameras confiscated by the authorities.

The marches yesterday marked the 19th anniversary of the 1988 crackdown in Burma in which the current junta took over after crushing a failed pro-democracy rebellion that sought an end to military rule, imposed since 1962.

The junta held a general election in 1990, but refused to honour the results when pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy party won. Suu Kyi has been detained under house arrest for more than 11 years.

Monks in Burma, which is also known as Myanmar, have historically been at the forefront of protests – first against British colonialism and later military dictatorship.

They also played a prominent part in the failed 1988 pro-democracy rebellion.

The authorities know that restraining monks poses a dilemma. Monks are highly respected in predominant Buddhist Burma, and abusing them in any manner could cause public outrage.

Peaceful protests by monks began on August 30 in Sittwe.

A second one on September 5 in the northern town of Pakokku was cut short when troops fired warning shots. Junta supporters also manhandled some marchers.

In response, young monks angry at their mistreatment briefly took officials hostage, torched their vehicles and later smashed a shop and a house belonging to junta supporters.

Monks had given authorities until Monday to apologise for their mistreatment in Pakokku, a centre of Buddhist learning, but it went unanswered.