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Protest in Myanmar gathers strength

— Photos: AP/AFP

STRONG SHOW OF DISSENT: Leading the protest against the military junta in Myanmar, Buddhist monks took to the streets again in Yangon on Monday. As many as 100,000 anti-government protesters, the largest crowd so far since the 1988 pro-democracy uprising, followed suit.

SINGAPORE: Myanmar on Monday witnessed an expanding groundswell of peaceful protest against the military junta. With thousands of Buddhist monks continuing to take the lead in organising prayerful protest for yet another day, growing numbers of disaffected civilians from different walks joined the activists from monasteries, giving the movement a broader reach. Until nightfall, there was no sign of any crackdown by the junta, State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), to contain or roll back the spreading wave of dissent.

Estimates of the number of protesters, who marched along the streets of Yangon, Mandalay, and other centres, varied widely, with some unconfirmed reports placing the figure as high as 1,00,000. Like on previous days, the marchers — now, expanding groups of monks, nuns, and other civilians — stayed a peaceful course. No fresh attempt was made to march past the place where Myanmar’s celebrated democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi remains under house arrest. On Saturday, when security agents briefly allowed access, hundreds of monks filed past her residence, and she greeted them just near the main gate.

On the diplomatic front, the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), of which Myanmar is a member, began monitoring the fast developing situation closely. ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong told The Hindu over telephone from Poland that the organisation would “hope that the situation remains peaceful.” The ASEAN, he said, was keen that the peaceful protest should “not lead to a violent confrontation” between the authorities and those participating in the shows of dissent.

Mr. Ong was on his way to the United Nations, where the ASEAN Foreign Ministers will hold their annual meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly session. That would give Myanmar’s fellow-members of the ASEAN a chance to get a better idea of the situation, should the SPDC send its Foreign Minister for this annual conclave.

Other diplomatic sources said the SPDC was now actively trying to lobby China and Russia, both veto-empowered permanent members of the U.N. Security Council. Both had vetoed, several months ago, a move by the U.S. to censure Myanmar’s military junta. Russia and China said on that occasion that Myanmar’s internal situation posed no threat to peace and stability in East Asia or elsewhere. Singapore, a key ASEAN member, on Monday expressed “concern over the latest developments in Myanmar” and hoped that “the ongoing protests will be resolved in a peaceful manner.”

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