http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/09/24/myanmar.protest.ap/index.html
100,000 protest Myanmar
junta
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Some 100,000 anti-government protesters led
by a phalanx of Buddhist monks marched Monday through Yangon, the
largest crowd to demonstrate in Myanmar's biggest city since a 1988
pro-democracy uprising that was brutally crushed by the
military.
art.nuns.afp.jpg
Buddhists nuns pray as they join monks and their supporters in a
protest in Yangon Sunday.
As the march headed toward the Defense Ministry's offices along a
straight stretch of road, the back of the crowd could not be seen
from the front. Monks and activists estimated the turnout was about
100,000, though an exact count was difficult.
The march, launched from the Shwedagon pagoda, the country's most
sacred shrine, gathered participants as it winded its way through
Yangon's streets. Some 20,000 monks took the lead, with onlookers
joining in on what had been billed as a day of general
protest.
The march covered at least 5 miles in its first few hours, passing
by the old campus of Rangoon University, a hotbed of protest in
past times. Students were seen joining Monday's march.
On Sunday, when a small crowd of about 400 people split off and
headed for the house of pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi,
security forces deployed in force to block them.
The march raised both expectations of possible political change and
fear that the military might try to crush the demonstrations with
violence, as it did in 1988 when thousands of pro-democracy
protesters were killed nationwide.
On Saturday, more than 500 monks and sympathizers were allowed past
barricades to walk to the house where Suu Kyi is detained. The
Nobel Peace laureate greeted them from her gate in her first public
appearance in more than four years -- a meeting that symbolically
linked the current protests to her struggle for democracy.
But any optimism on the protesters' part was tempered when security
forces thwarted the second march to Suu Kyi's house. The crowd
peacefully abandoned their attempt after being turned back at two
different approaches blocked by barbed wire barricades.
"In our country the monks are the highest moral authority. When the
monks take the leading role, the people will follow," said Soe
Aung, a spokesman for the National Council of the Union of Burma, a
coalition of opposition groups based in neighboring Thailand.
Yet people have not forgotten the army's ferocity in crushing the
1988 pro-democracy uprising. Terror keeps many from considering
rebelling again.
"The protests will continue to grow as more people gain the courage
to join, but they have not yet reached the point where I will allow
my family to march," said a 50-year-old taxi driver who would not
give his name. "There is still too much uncertainty to do
that."
The latest protests began on August 19 as a movement against
economic hardship, after the government sharply raised fuel prices,
increasing the overall cost of living. Arrests and intimidation saw
the movement begin to falter until last week, when monks -- who
have long served as the country's conscience -- became the
protests' vanguard.
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The march of 20,000 people downtown was led by 10,000 monks who
gathered at the famous golden hilltop Shwedagon Pagoda before
marching downtown to Sule Pagoda and past the U.S. Embassy among
other places, witnesses said. For the first time, at least 100
white-robed nuns joined the demonstration.
Some monks shouted support for Suu Kyi, while people in the crowd
formed a human chain to protect the maroon-robed clerics.
While authorities did not intervene in Sunday's march, plainclothes
police trailed the marchers. Some, armed with shotguns, were posted
at street corners along the route.
A monk gave a speech Sunday calling for Suu Kyi's release and
national reconciliation, the witnesses said, again positioning
their cause with her long-running struggle for democracy.
The synergy could increase pressure on the junta to decide whether
to crack down or compromise.
Suu Kyi, 62, is the leader of the National League for Democracy
party, which won a 1990 general election but was not allowed to
take power by the military. She has been under detention
continuously since May 2003.
Other monks' demonstrations took place Sunday in the cities of
Mandalay, Monywa, Kalay and the Kachin state capital of Myitkyina,
said reports in Myanmar exile media.
"The monks are the majority and they are leading the movement right
now," Soe Aung told The Associated Press in Bangkok.
But he expressed concern the military will not stand aside
forever.
"Hopefully the international community will not keep quiet, and
they will do something before terrible things take place in our
country," he said.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Bush administration
was watching the situation "very carefully."
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Speaking ahead of a meeting in New York with the foreign minister
of China -- the junta's top diplomatic ally -- she said the people
of Myanmar "deserve a life to be able to live in freedom, just as
everyone does."
She said President Bush would discuss the military regime's
"brutality" when he meets other leaders at the upcoming U.N.
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