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Protest escalates in Myanmar

SINGAPORE: In a show of escalating defiance against the military junta in Myanmar, disaffected Buddhist monks marched through the streets of Yangon and Mandalay on Saturday.

Reports from Yangon spoke of protest marches by several thousands of monks in pouring rain. They prayed and marched to the main Buddhist pagoda in the city. While some bystanders joined them, others just watched.

Diplomatic sources belonging to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) told The Hindu that the protest had so far stayed “peaceful.” And, at least until nightfall on Saturday, Myanmar’s military rulers remained wary of arresting any of the agitating monks, sources said, emphasising that these protesters, too, had “not so far resorted to any political mud-slinging” against the junta.

Myanmar is an ASEAN member. And, the agitating monks, while launching “an almost obedient protest,” were in fact making “a quiet political statement” against the junta, sources said.

The sustained protest by monks, for several days now, has added a new dimension to what began, over a month ago, as a spontaneous outcry by some pro-democracy activists against the junta’s decision to raise fuel prices steeply.

During that earlier phase of the rare agitation, the junta arrested over a dozen pro-democracy activists including Min Ko Naing, reckoned to be emerging as a new Opposition leader. Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar’s icon of democracy, is still under house arrest as the world’s most celebrated political prisoner.

Diplomats said the protest might take a new turn as a result of the reported move by an “underground organisation of Buddhist monks” to intensify the struggle from Sunday.

A programme of street-side prayer vigil is said to have been announced by the “underground” group.

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