Kyodo: Myanmar Tense Ahead of Planned Monk March Resumption

Text of report in English by Japanese news agency Kyodo

Yangon, Sept. 26 Kyodo – The situation in Myanmar’s largest city Yangon was calm but tense on Wednesday morning ahead of a planned gathering of Buddhist monks at the famed Shwedagon Pagoda for a ninth day of anti-junta protest marches from midday.

Army trucks and soldiers armed with rifles have taken up position around Shwedagon, located on a hill from which it dominates skyline of the former capital, and the well-known Sule Pagoda in the city centre, both of which remain open to the people.

At the east gate to Shwedagon, where the protesting monks have been gathering, barbed-wire barricades have been prepared at the foot of the hill and the stairway has been gated shut at the halfway point, while cars going in that direction are being turned away by riot police.

But monks in groups of a dozen or less could still be seen walking towards Shwedagon and halfway up the east gate stairway, apparently to gather for another protest march.

A fewer than usual number of ordinary citizens were seen in the area despite Wednesday being a full-moon occasion in which many people ordinarily come to the pagoda for religious activity.

Monks who had gathered in the tens of thousands on Tuesday had said they would gather around noon Wednesday at Shwedagon despite warnings from the ruling generals that the junta would take action if the senior Buddhist clergy failed to restrain the monks.

State-run newspapers and radio reports carried no news about a curfew that witnesses said was announced overnight in Yangon and Mandalay, the second-largest city, through loudspeakers on vehicles cruising through the streets of the two cities.

The curfew would run in most of the townships of the two cities from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. local time for 60 days.

An ordinance already prohibits unauthorized outdoor assemblies of more than five people that authorities deem to be held with the intent of creating unrest.

On Tuesday, as many as 80,000 Buddhist monks and ordinary citizens marched through the city, making their way from Shwedagon to Sule Pagoda and then on into the streets.

By midafternoon, the monks were outnumbered by citizens, many of whom described themselves as excited and determined to join the protest against the repressive junta.

The protest continued despite a statement in state-run media in which Religious Affairs Minister Brig. Gen. Thura Myint Maung called on the monks to desist from political activities and junta warnings blared through handheld megaphones that protest are illegal and would be dealt with “in accordance with law.”

The protest, which ended around 5 p.m., went ahead without intervention from the authorities.

Some 100,000 people, about half of them Buddhist monks, marched through Yangon on Monday in the biggest demonstration against the military government in nearly 20 years.

The protests are the latest in a series of demonstrations that started when about 500 activists and opposition members led by well- known student leaders marched peacefully on Aug. 19 against soaring fuel prices.

Last month, the junta abruptly increased the price of natural gas by up to five times, doubled the price of diesel fuel and raised the price of gasoline by 67 per cent.

The junta initially cracked down the protests by arresting hundreds of activists and opposition members across the country.

But the protests continued in a constant manner and were later joined by monks when about 200 of them marched in the western coastal town of Sittwe, chanting Buddhist prayers.

The participation of monks escalated after the junta violently cracked down a protest by some 500 monks in the central town of Pakokku, firing warning shots and severely beating the monks.

The junta has said the protests are merely being held on the pretext of anger over fuel prices but are actually designed to create public outrage in order to incite a mass protest like the one in 1988 when the military crushed a pro-democracy uprising.

Western governments have called on the junta to exercise restraint in the face of the protests.

Originally published by Kyodo News Service, Tokyo, in English 0426 26 Sep 07.

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